Tracking the ups and downs of cross-border train travel in the EU

EU Untangled

Let’s be honest, how often do you take the train when crossing borders in the EU? We know flying is anything but sustainable. Yet, the prospect of jetting to our family, friends, or holiday destination fast and (ahem) cheap is all too tempting. Trains have a hard time competing against planes: booking is complicated, trips often take longer, and prices can be irrationally high.

We join forces with Philipp Cerny to untangle the complexity of EU cross-border train travel. After all, Europe has one of the densest railway networks in the world, but markets, policy and incentives seem to move like a slow train coming…

About our guest

Philipp Cerny is a transport policy consultant and the Chief Executive Editor of the European Mobility Atlas 2021. He has worked as an advisor on transport policy at the European Parliament and was a member of the supervisory board of a German railway company.

Hosted & produced by: Victor Aguilar & Alexander Roth

Useful links

• European Mobility Atlas 2021 (Heinrich Böll Stiftung Brussels)
• EU rail transport policy (European Commission)
• The Single European Railway Area (Council of the European Union)
• Legislative proposal on multimodal digital mobility services (European Parliament)
• Fragmented rail system hampers shift to trains, says EU agency boss (Euractiv)
• Derailed — The desolate state of European railways (Investigate Europe)
• Community: How to cross Europe by train — or not (Investigate Europe)

Listen

… to a few of our previous episodes

• “How to land a job in the EU?”
• “Let’s get digital” (the EU’s digital strategy)
• “Brussels jargon: breaking down the lingua franca of the EU Bubble”

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Kapitel

1. Welcome (00:00:00)

2. European Mobility Atlas (00:04:46)

3. Problems with cross-border train travel (00:06:47)

4. Cooperation is needed (00:21:53)

5. Competition and incumbents (00:25:29)

6. EU policies (00:30:01)

7. Costs and flexibility of trains (00:39:31)

8. Countryside (00:43:37)

9. Next Mobility Atlas (00:44:45)

10. Outro (00:45:43)