After six months, Armand Duthil is coming to the end of his traineeship at ALLRAIL. During this period, he witnessed the elections in both parliaments of the European Union and of his home country, France.

Therefore, at the end of his time with us, we asked: “How do you see the Future of Passenger Rail?" 

In her Political Guidelines for the Next European Commission, the re-elected President of the EU Commission Dr Ursula von der Leyen correctly identifies the fragmentation of ticketing as the biggest problem in EU passenger rail. The next 5 years of the new EU Commission will be crucial to legislate and introduce solutions – it is Now or Never.

In the light of the EU Commission's proposal for a Regulation on the Use of Railway Infrastructure in the Single European Railway Area (SERA), a new academic report has been published by Professor Thomas Ehrmann of the University of Münster in Germany. This report critically examines the concept of clockface timetables, using data and empirical evidence from Sweden, Spain and Switzerland as well as assessing its implications for Germany under the proposed "Deutschlandtakt".  

Standing at the EU Parliament in Brussels today, ALLRAIL’s team expresses its commitment to work alongside the new EU Parliament and the new EU Commission over the next 5 years to ensure the successful implementation of a more competitive and sustainable rail market before 2029.

Last week, the independent operator Snälltåget started a new long-distance daytime service between Copenhagen and Stockholm. There could be many more services like this – growing cross-border rail – if only the conditions to encourage more commercial-driven services were in place.