Quietly, this week – NS, the Dutch national railway operator, confirmed it’s introducing line numbers across its entire network from the 2027 timetable. Every Intercity (IC) and Sprinter (S) service will get a fixed number – the IC6 between Leeuwarden and The Hague, the S75 between Rotterdam and Uitgeest – on top of the sub-brands […]
Back in March 2025, I wrote a post about my mission to visit every railway station in Great Britain – including what it entails and how I track it. If you haven’t read that yet, it’s worth a look first, as it covers the rules/rationale, and some of my favourite moments along the way. Consider
FIP is, in the main, a railway benefit (and one of my favourites at that). Show your coupon or discount card, board a train and enjoy Europe at a frankly ridiculous value. But spend enough time with fipguide.org, which is an excellent new find documenting in great detail FIP operators, their restrictions, and specifically what
It’s hard to know what to call “this place”. It’s not a city-region, or a corridor, and definitely not a country. It’s almost a slice of Europe wrapped around the eastern edge of Lake Constance (Bodensee), where trains glide between four countries in what is a continuous urban system. Stand anywhere between St. Gallen, St.
As part of a much wider rail adventure across Europe (full write-up and map coming soon), I found myself carving out a day to visit one of the continent’s more unusual countries, including for its railways: Liechtenstein. And in true fashion, there was only really one way to approach it – I got off at
Trying the new-generation Nightjet – operated by the Austrian state railway operator OBB – had been on my rail bucket list for a while, particularly the much-debated mini cabins. During my February 2026 journey, I travelled from Innsbruck Hbf to Amsterdam Centraal (NJ 420), with the train splitting in Germany along the way. For some
Ask ten people what makes a great city and you will get ten different answers. Nightlife, museums, food scenes, affordability, prestige. There is an almost universal assumption that the best cities are the ones that appear most often on Instagram feeds or airline magazines. But over time, and after visiting a fair number of places,
I’d technically been to Switzerland before – very briefly, as part of my Europe trip in November 2025. But this time was different. This time, I spent four full days there, and when you’re not just passing through, you really start to see how Switzerland does transport. It’s extraordinary. One country with one integrated transport
Branding – particularly unified, system-wide branding – has long been an interest of mine alongside my day job. I am not a branding professional by any means, but I enjoy thinking about how design and identity interact, especially in public services where clarity really matters. That is partly why I did not rush to comment
I’ve always found it funny that we expect people to form a connection with and continually use public transport, yet we give buses the most forgettable identities imaginable. Standing at a stop, hoping the 7 or the 33 or the 205 will appear, and every single one feels basically the same. Numbers do the job