This blog entry was published on 2nd November, and remains intact below. However, two things have happened since then. First, the Eckwersheim Derailment has led to the suspension of all TGV tests, and will mean the part of the LGV Est that the Brussels-Strasbourg service will use will not open […]
“The good news: President of the European Parliament Martin Schulz seems to have confirmed his commitment to a single seat for the European Parliament in a Swedish radio interview (very short summary from EUObserver here ). Problem: he wants the seat to be Strasbourg and not Brussels. While such an […]
The good news: President of the European Parliament Martin Schulz seems to have confirmed his commitment to a single seat for the European Parliament in a Swedish radio interview (very short summary from EUObserver here). Problem: he wants the seat to be Strasbourg and not Brussels. While such an arrangement […]
I’ve been having a look at Europarl TV, launched yesterday with a bit of fanfare in Brussels. I was not at the launch so I didn’t profit from a few glasses of wine to temper my views on the project. I instead watched a bit of the news show this […]
MEPs are having a whinge that a French rail strike is going to make it hard for them to get from Strasbourg when this week’s European Parliament plenary session ends. Struan Stevenson, a UK Tory, has complained that France doesn’t exactly make it easy for European Parliamentarians to get to […]
The UK Green MEPs in the European Parliament have commissioned a report showing how much CO2 the monthly travelling circus to Strasbourg produces – 20000 tonnes to be precise, as much as flying 13000 people across the Atlantic and back. See The Independent, and Jonathan Newton’s blog. I’m actually quite […]
It’s every MEP’s nightmare. It’s every MEP’s assistant’s worst nightmare. It makes the European Parliament horribly inefficient, and it costs European taxpayers a load of cash. Oh, and it keeps the hotel and restaurant business in a certain part of France very happy. I am of course talking of Strasbourg, […]
Hey journalists! I’m glad to see you’re writing about trains! ÖBB running its first NightJet to Brussels seems to have got you into a particular frenzy. It’s amazing what a bit of red carpet at Gare du Midi, and Martin Selmayr on board, can do to generate a bit of […]
I’ve discovered a few tricks to book extra cheap rail tickets in the past – I’ve explained the Eurostar Aachen trick, and how to split tickets in Germany, but now – thanks to a discussion on Twitter with @seatsixtyone and others, there is a new trick – involving Czech Republic […]
Back when the Rhine-Rhône high speed TGV line (in French: LGV Rhin-Rhône) was being planned it was described that “In contrast to France’s other high speed lines — apart from the bypass round the east of Paris — LGV Rhin-Rhône was conceived primarily as an inter-regional route and not as […]
In January 2013 I stumbled upon Polish MEPs employing a lot of assistants. One employed 19 people, and two employed 17 each back then. The blog entry about that is here, and it was even covered by Polish newspaper Gazeta Wyborcza. Today the issue has been raised once more, as […]
An association for European Young Entrepreneurs. Sounds like a fine idea, right? Well, not if you mean the Association Européene des Jeunes Entrepreneurs – AEJE (website here). The sole purpose of this organisation seems to be simply to attack all efforts to achieve a single seat for the European Parliament, and to […]