Recently, I took my first long haul bus connection in Western Europe and was positively surprised. As I am sitting now in a ÖBB Railjet, heading from Austria towards Switzerland, I am reflecting on that experience, the pros and cons and what it could mean for the rail bound mass transportation. Due to timing and, … Continue reading The Fernbus is not a competition for the train, it is enriching the market
Category: Railways
Why the focus on customer experience is shortsighted
Many transport undertakers, agencies who are responsible for transport, consultants and suppliers are focusing nowadays on the customer experience in transportation transport. Articles such as the recent McKinsey article on travel distribution show exemplary what the philosophies and proposed strategies behind this narrative are. 1. Harness advanced analytics to understand the customer better. 2. Adjust … Continue reading Why the focus on customer experience is shortsighted
Share of responsibility in railway operations
Today, the Swiss newspaper Sonntagszeitung published an Article on profitability of railway routes within Switzerland. The article was published in the environment of growing discussions if the Swiss intercity railway transport should be opened up to additional players (BLS and SOB). The main questions in the article was which railway lines are profitable and which … Continue reading Share of responsibility in railway operations
Snapshot on Railways in Malaysia
Last week it was announced that China is going to build and finance the new East Coast Railway line in Malaysia according to this article. This means that the region is moving another step towards an integrated railway network. As the project homepage points out, the ECRL creates a high capacity access to the ports … Continue reading Snapshot on Railways in Malaysia
Snapshot on Railways in Nigeria
After I had a look at what is happening in Nigeria regarding railways over the summer, I saw that Nigeria is on the brink of a new railway era. Now I thought why not go a step further and build a little map showing the situation and next development. To digest the infos, that I … Continue reading Snapshot on Railways in Nigeria
Mapping out the future of railways in Southeast Asia
Last week, James Clark published a really cool map condensing all the current and proposed railway projects in Southeast Asia. You can find the map under this link. He used multiple sources and published masterplans to come up with a condensed view on where what might be built. The map clearly shows that China … Continue reading Mapping out the future of railways in Southeast Asia
Major train accident in Cameroon
In Cameroon, last week a major train accident happened as reported by the BBC respectively here. With a death toll of over 70 people, it is most likely the most serious train accident in the country and directly affects the major artery of the railway system between Yaounde and Douala. Due to strong rain falls, … Continue reading Major train accident in Cameroon
Railways 4.0 – Divide and Conquer
I recently watched the webinar organized by IBM regarding think beyond the rails. And there are a few things that became very clear to me which i would like to address: Railways need to improve their skills in soft- and hardware to reduce costs but also increase quality (and with this reliability, availability and safety) … Continue reading Railways 4.0 – Divide and Conquer
Distributed Superblocks as an approach to make slow moving traffic and community building more attractive
I recently came accross the EU Civitas project about superblocks in Spain. The project's synopsis is briefly summarized in this video, while the evaluation report can be accessed under this link. The project intends to bundle through traffic flows and create zones for slow traffic and pedestrians not only in the city center but also distributed … Continue reading Distributed Superblocks as an approach to make slow moving traffic and community building more attractive
CRRC is coming closer to Western Europe
In yesterday's announcement, the open access operator Leo Express confirmed that they seek to expand their operations beyond the Czech Republic towards Poland and even Germany. As explained in the IRJ article the rolling stock could come from CRRC as they signed an agreement with Leo Express for 3 EMUs and 27 options. After the … Continue reading CRRC is coming closer to Western Europe
mobilistics 