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A week of bad news for cross-border rail

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From Switzerland the news that the Zürich – Strasbourg – Luxembourg – Brussels EuroCity train will be cancelled from December 2015 onwards. This train has been progressively reduced over the years – it once ran as far as Milano Centrale, and has suffered from poor quality rolling stock and no restaurant car for the last few years. Ticket prices have also been high, with no reductions for booking ahead. Source: NZZ in German, final paragraph

The situation between Stockholm and Oslo was due to improve – SJ wanted to run 3 return trains each day, and to cut journey times to just over four and a half hours. Norwegian network operator has forced SJ to shelve these plans as they want to do daytime engineering works between Lillstrøm and Konsvinger for the next two and a half years! Once more international traffic is not a priority for transport planners. Source: DN in Swedish, IRJ summary in English

Latest news from Norway: The fast train Stockholm-Oslo will be in traffic as planned afterall. A new agreement has been reached. Renewal of the power supply will be postponed and carried out in a way that disturbs the traffic less.

The Night Train to Copenhagen was cancelled for good in December 2014. Now the exact future of the daytime EuroCity connection between Hamburg and the Danish capital, as DB is not continuing the lease of its ICE-TD trains to DSB beyond this year. With ongoing problems in Denmark with electification of main lines, and IC4 trains still not running, the future of direct connections are also in danger here. And all of this before the building works on the Fehmarn fixed belt starts… Source: IRJ in English

Trelleborg-ferry
Picture: Couchette cars are pushed on board the ferry at Trelleborg
Malmö to Berlin private night train is fighting for survival
Only seasonal and struggeling the ferry timetable Trelleborg to Sassnitz/Mukran Swedish/French company Transdev in cooperation with the German partner Georg-Verkehrsorganisation is also figting DB. A platform in Pasewalk has been rebuild no longer to service cars from Sweden. Only six old Danish couchette cars can pass. And the old GVG type 109 no. 3 lok is temporary banned at Berlin Hbh. Leaving passengers in the fully booked train (360 people) with an mediocre experience. The train cannot be found on international plans.

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