Today’s Railways Europe 299 – January 2021

Welcome in the New Year with the January 2021 issue of Today’s Railways Europe! As usual, this issue contains all the very latest news and features from mainland Europe and all our regular monthly features. Articles this month cover topics in present day Germany and Slovenia, plus we look back to a very different East Germany in the summer immediately before the fall of the Berlin Wall. Our comprehensive news coverage encompasses main line railways, light rail and heritage topics, and a pull-out index to all 2020-dated issues is included free with this issue.

Feature articles include:

• East Germany in 1989: For the young railway enthusiast seeking adventure and exotic traction in the late 1980s, East Germany was an enticing but challenging destination. Keith Fender recounts an extraordinary journey behind the Iron Curtain during the summer of 1989 as the East German regime teetered on the brink of collapse.
• Rail Centres: Potsdam: Just half an hour’s train ride from the centre of Berlin, the picturesque city of Potsdam is rich in history, culture and green spaces. A busy centre for passenger and freight traffic, it also has a great deal to offer the railway enthusiast, as Keith Barrow discovers.
• Branch lines of Slovenia: Slovenia can still boast an extensive network of secondary lines, many carrying both freight and passenger traffic through spectacular and diverse landscapes. With regional passenger services set to be transformed by the introduction of new FLIRT DMUs, Toma Bacic surveys the surviving lines.
• Index to Today’s Railways Europe Volume 25: A detailed index for issue numbers 289–298, January to December 2020.

News stories include:

• Eurostar calls for financial assistance
• Spain to ramp up rail investment in 2021
• Four more Nightjet routes announced
• Siemens, Alstom and Talgo move forward with hydrogen trains
• Frankfurt–Mannheim high-speed line approved
• TRAXX MS3 locomotives for CFL Cargo
• Ex-Netherlands DM90 DMUs move to Poland
• Berlin U-Bahn Line U5 opens
• 64 new Alstom trams for Köln
• First test run on Szeged tram-train line in Hungary
• CD orders more RegioPanters
• More classic French classes bow out of service
• Danish ex-DSB Class ME diesels in Norway
• Second S-Bahn tunnel for Hamburg.
• OSEF Kriegslok returns to the main line
• Polish `Sand Railway’ under threat