Fantasy Ferroviaire

In response to the news that BA is restricting short-haul and domestic flights from Heathrow in the summer of 2022, a Fantasy Ferroviaire using existing infrastructure and capacity to provide some rail connections. Even without HS2, the relief lines of the Great Western and freight connections around London open up some possibilities. City-to-city journeys are […]

221 direct train journeys (train number in brackets): PARIS TO 21: Berlin (1), Warszawa (1), Minsk (1), Moskva (1), Hamburg (1), København (1), Milano (2), Venezia (2), Ljubljana (2), Zagreb (2), Beograd (2), Sofia (2), Istanbul (2), Roma (2), Skopje (2), Thessaloniki (2), Barcelona (5), Madrid (5), London (6), Birmingham (6), Manchester (6) WARSZAWA TO […]

A final push: new EuroCity services and sleeping car portions bring in the remaining links to cover all combinations of the 6 major capitals & 11 of the most popular air shuttle routes in Europe. Maximising the benefits, Amsterdam, western Belarus, northern England and Vilnius are brought into the family. Attaching sleeping cars from existing […]

The sleeper from Madrid (EN3 and 4) divides in Perpignan, with a portion to Paris, and another curving around the coast, via the Marseille avoiding line, to Nice. There it is attached to a EuroCity to Roma via Monte Carlo (30km extension of the existing day train from Ventimiglia).

A new night train London-Roma with portions for Venezia, Barcelona and Madrid. They are all long runs but there should be a decent dining car for socialising. The Milano-Venezia section is attached to a local train, and the Spanish sections are attached to the Frankfurt sleeper (train 3) south of Lyon.

A new night train (Frankfurt-Madrid) combines with the existing Warszawa-Berlin EuroCity extended via Frankfurt to Strasbourg to give direct sleeping cars from Warszawa via Berlin to Barcelona and Madrid. Key shunts are at Frankfurt Hbf (attach sleeping cars), Strasbourg (detach EuroCity) and Perpignan (detach Barcelona portion, attach sleepers ex-Paris). The Madrid portion uses the dual-gauge […]

Two core night trains (reinstated Paris-Venezia and new Beograd-Sofia) are connected by new daytime EC services Venezia-Beograd and Sofia-Istanbul to give daily direct sleeping cars from Paris to Istanbul and Thessaloniki via 5 European capitals. Portion working provides overnight services from Paris to Milano, Firenze, Roma and Skopje. Key shunts are at Milano C (terminating […]

Two core night trains (new London-Berlin and existing Warszawa-Moskva) are connected by the existing EC Berlin-Warszawa to give a daily direct sleeping car from both London and Paris to Moskva, replacing the weekly through train from Paris. Portion working provides overnight services London-Hamburg/ Malmö/ Berlin/ Warszawa, as well as Paris/ Bruxelles to all these destinations, […]

Fixed it. Reality: Super new thrice-daily non-stop Berlin-Cologne service in December 2021 spectacularly fails to connect with Brussels trains in both directions, leading to a 2-hour wait. Fantasy ferroviaire: the two routes are combined into one longer one, with a daily direct Berlin-Paris and London, plus a Eurokraut Gravy Train Express direct to Bruxelles-Luxembourg station […]