#CrossChannelRail 2025

It should be just as easy to take a train across a border in Europe as it is within a country. That's the simple idea behind the #CrossBorderRail project, which Jon Worth and MitOst have been running since 2022.

Anyone who has ever tried to travel by train in Europe knows that the reality is quite different: infrastructure, service, timetables and ticket sales are worse internationally than nationally.

In 2022, Jon crossed all the internal borders of the European Union that can be crossed by train to diagnose the problems at each border. In 2023 and 2024, Jon was back with further projects to document the railways at Germany's borders at the start of the Deutschlandticket and to explore South Eastern Europe. He has so far documented and evaluated 288 cross-border rail routes.

In spring 2025, the focus is slightly different. Instead of many international rail routes, the focus is on one piece of infrastructure: the Channel Tunnel. Since the opening of the tunnel 30 years ago, many have hoped for high-speed trains running to London from places other than Paris and Brussels, but so far this has not happened. Flights from continental Europe to London are on the rise again. In this new project, titled #CrossChannelRail, Jon will investigate where trains to London could leave from, how they could be organised and who could run them.

The #CrossBorderRail method is simple: Jon travels to cities, surveys the state of infrastructure and photographs (including with a drone) what is there. Events are organised in as many places as possible with local sustainable transport activists to understand local needs. At the end of the trip, everything is evaluated and suggestions are made to improve rail transport.

This project is smaller than some of the previous projects in this series, but as before, crowdfunding on Betterplace will cover the costs of implementing the project. €603 is needed to cover train tickets and accommodation. €420 will cover the costs of food on the road and €1695 will cover Jon's minimum wage during the project. The total costs of the project are €2784.

A detailed description can be found here: https://crossborderrail.trainsforeurope.eu/projects/crosschannelrail/