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Spain's state-owned rail operator Renfe has surrendered its capacity reservations on the Paris corridor, formally ending years of failed attempts to bring its Talgo-built Avril trains onto one of Europe's busiest high-speed routes. The withdrawal, confirmed to AFP and announced on 1 April, draws a line under an ambition that has defined Renfe's international strategy for the better part of a decade. The operator told the French news agency it could not establish a stable hori

Germany's state-owned railway has reported a net loss of €2.3 billion for 2025, widening from €1.8 billion the previous year, in results that lay bare the structural rot at the heart of Europe's largest rail network and raise fresh questions about Germany's ability to deliver on its green transport ambitions. A write-down of approximately €1.4 billion at DB Fernverkehr, the long-distance passenger division, drove the headline loss, with the company citing lower revenue expect

Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania have launched a joint tender for up to 20 high-speed regional trains to run on the Rail Baltica corridor, pressing ahead with rolling stock procurement even as the infrastructure those trains are meant to serve remains years from completion. The tender, published in mid-March, covers electric multiple units capable of 200 kilometres per hour on the European standard gauge. Estonia is leading the initial order with five trains and an option for tw

A Dutch startup is betting that cheap tickets and guaranteed seats can do to trains what budget airlines did to flying. GoVolta, a privately held rail operator founded in Breda, launched its first international services from Amsterdam to Berlin and Hamburg on 19 and 20 March respectively, entering a market long dominated by state-backed incumbents and pitching itself as the first genuinely low-cost alternative to both the plane and the car on the North Sea-to-Germany corridor

European Sleeper launches its Paris-Berlin sleeper as public operators retreat The overnight train that left Paris Gare du Nord on Thursday evening carried with it more than the usual assortment of travellers seeking a cheaper path to the German capital. It carried a question about the future architecture of European rail: as state operators retreat from unprofitable routes, who fills the void? European Sleeper's first departure on the Paris-Berlin route ran on 26 March 2026,

A Dutch startup wants to do to the train what easyJet did to the plane. Investors and incumbents are watching. A new operator quietly pulled out of Amsterdam Centraal last week and, in doing so, accelerated a debate that has been building across European transport policy for years: why does a flight from Amsterdam to Berlin still cost less than the train? GoVolta launched its inaugural Amsterdam–Berlin service on 19 March, followed a day later by an Amsterdam–Hamburg route, w

Brussels, 19 March 2026 — In one week's time, a small Belgian-Dutch cooperative will attempt something that Europe's state railways decided was no longer worth the trouble. On 26 March, European Sleeper launches its Paris–Berlin night train, reviving a route abandoned by Austrian national operator ÖBB after the French government withdrew its funding subsidy at the end of last year. The optics are striking. Where a state-backed giant retreated, a startup is advancing — and th

China's CRRC has cracked Western Europe's long-distance rail network. The question now is whether Siemens and Alstom can respond — or whether Brussels will simply close the door. When Austria's private open-access operator Westbahn quietly rolled four Chinese-built double-deckers onto the Vienna–Salzburg corridor last November, many in the European rail industry hoped the story would fade. It has not. As Westbahn simultaneously announces a high-speed expansion southward throu

A Czech open-access operator has drawn the sharpest battle lines yet in Poland's long-running rail liberalisation fight, launching commercial services on the country's most strategically important domestic corridor. Leo Express began regular services on the Warsaw–Kraków route on 1 March 2026, becoming the first private challenger to take on state incumbent PKP Intercity on a corridor that functions as the spine of Poland's intercity network. Until now, PKP Intercity has effe

The Budapest–Belgrade flagship project finally moves freight — but a clash of signalling standards is casting a long shadow over its passenger future After four years of construction delays, cost overruns and post-Novi Sad political turbulence, freight trains began running on Hungary's section of the Budapest–Belgrade railway on 27 February. The milestone was swiftly cast in triumphant language by Budapest. The operational reality, however, tells a rather different story. The

Europe's rail industry is converging on Utrecht this week for the 16th edition of RailTech Europe, but behind the exhibition stands and panel discussions, a more urgent conversation is taking shape: whether Brussels will commit the funding needed to prevent the continent's rail technology leadership from slipping to China. At the heart of the debate is an 18 billion euro public-private investment proposal put forward by the EU-Rail Joint Undertaking, covering the period from

Trainline, Europe's largest independent rail ticketing platform, saw its shares tumble after chief executive Jody Ford announced his intention to step down, raising questions about leadership continuity at a critical juncture for the FTSE 250-listed group. Shares fell as much as 6.5 per cent to 190p on Wednesday — a four-year low — after the London-based company confirmed Ford would leave following more than six years at the helm. The board has begun a formal search for his s