rail

How can you slip into the shoes of a VIP, even when travelling in economy class? This is the solution offered by Austrian Airlines to its passengers. Austrian now allows passengers to book a private check-in counter at Vienna airport. This counter can be personalised with a message or logo. At first glance, you might think of a...

The Austrian Federal Railways are having to cope with one of the worst natural disasters in Austria's history, storm Boris. The storm swept across Central and Eastern Europe, causing extensive damage not only in Austria but also in Hungary, Poland, the Czech Republic, Romania and Slovakia. In Austria, rail traffic is...

By the end of 2024, Swiss Federal Railways (SBB) will be making it possible to plan journeys abroad even more flexibly. In addition to purchases at the ticket office and on SBB's online website, new functions on the app will bring together journey planning, ticket purchase and digital assistance in a single location. These services,...

Work on the complete reopening of the Gotthard rail tunnel in Switzerland is nearing completion. The tunnel - the longest in the world at 57 km - was damaged by fire at the end of August 2023. Since 19 August 2024, trains have been running through the restored west tube...

50%. This is one of the best results for an airport in Europe. This is the percentage of passengers and employees travelling to Geneva-Cointrin airport who use public transport. Geneva Airport is firmly committed to reducing its environmental impact and achieving zero CO2 emissions. The airport strongly encourages travellers...

A single train ticket for a rail journey across the whole of Europe. This will be possible from the end of the year with the official launch of OSDM, the Open Sales and Distribution Model, a unified online ticket sales system for 22 railway companies. By the end of 2024, six railway companies - SNCF, CFF, Deutsche Bahn, ÖBB,...

Football fever is certainly one of the main driving forces behind a new rail link that one might have thought totally utopian. A rail link that would connect the continents of Africa and Europe. The fact that the FIFA World Cup will be held simultaneously in Spain, Portugal and Morocco in 2030 is acting as a catalyst...

Austrian rail operator ÖBB is continuing to work on making its rail services easier for passengers. The railway company has just introduced greater flexibility for long-distance passengers, with an option to cancel their seat reservations. Passengers can now manage their seat reservations with complete confidence. The...

It was intended to be a French response to the €49 monthly Deutschland Ticket launched by the German government to stimulate demand for trains and public transport. French President Emmanuel Macron and his then Transport Minister, Clément Beaune, had promised a discounted France Rail Pass in 2023. It...

Taking on SNCF and opening up new rail lines in France, whether conventional or high-speed, is a long and difficult journey, fraught with pitfalls. Railcoop has just paid the price, with the directors of this original project announcing on 27 March that they were winding up their SCIC (société coopérative d'intérêt collectif - cooperative society of collective interest).

Five months of bitter negotiations and a string of strikes. All this has finally resulted in an agreement between Deutsche Bahn (DB) and the German locomotive drivers' union (GDL). "The conflict was tough, but we were able to agree on an intelligent compromise", said the head of personnel at the DB.

Venice may seem frozen in time, but that's not quite the case for its railway lines. Two parallel projects will offer new connections for the former City of the Doges with its neighbours and its airport. The first is a project for a high-speed train between Venice, Trieste and Ljubljana...

The Ministry of Transport, headed by Clément Beaune, confirmed on 26 October at a steering committee meeting organised by the Préfecture du Grand Est: the Metz-Nancy-Dijon-Lyon line will reopen by early 2025, probably when the SNCF winter service is introduced in December 2024. It's a real breath of fresh air...

Since the launch of their strategic partnership in October 2019, Swiss and Swiss Federal Railways (SBB) have been constantly expanding their joint services and products. The two carriers are extending the Air Rail offer via Geneva airport. This extension will offer Swiss passengers travelling to or from...

On 20 October, Andreas Matthä, CEO of Austrian Federal Railways (ÖBB), presented the group's 2024 rail link programme. The programme officially begins on 10 December. "The ÖBB is one of Europe's forerunners in night-time services, and we are going to continue to develop this leading position. In terms of...

The SNCF manages around 3,000 stations in France, Deutsche Bahn around 6,500 and the Swiss CFF just over 800, but what is surprising is the extremely small number of luggage lockers offered by the French operator inside stations. And while almost all stations...

There's good news aplenty for Swiss Federal Railways (SBB). Demand is soaring and SBB is making money again. In the first half of 2023, the number of daily passengers stood at 1.33 million, an increase of 21.4% compared to the same period in 2022. This...

79 out of 112 routes where the plane is cheaper than the train. This is the surprising finding of a Greenpeace study that compared air and rail in Europe. And this at a time when the European Union and national authorities are constantly hammering home the need to favour rail over air. But in...

Regulation 2021/782 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 29 April 2021 on rail passengers' rights and obligations has just been amended. The changes to compensation in the event of problems on the part of the rail carrier have been valid since 7 June. The regulation applies to main lines - domestic or intra-European...

They are more than thirty years old, yet they are at the cutting edge of modern comfort. Swedish rail operator SJ's X2000 high-speed trains have been enjoying a facelift since 2021. The renovation of the X2000 trains, which travel the country at 200 kph, began with the upgrading of the...