Today’s Railways Europe 300 – February 2021

The February 2021 issue is the 300th issue of Today’s Railways Europe and we’re celebrating with an extra 16 pages of feature articles this month. As always, this issue contains all the very latest news and features from mainland Europe and all our regular monthly features, but this month we bring you no fewer than seven feature articles. These are:

• Nightjet success reawakens interest in overnight trains: At a time when many incumbent train operators were giving up on overnight trains, Austrian Federal Railways (ÖBB) continued to develop its sleeper and couchette services under the Nightjet brand, even taking on routes abandoned by DB. With growing concern over the impact of flying on the climate and the political pendulum swinging in favour of overnight trains once more, ÖBB and its partners are primed to expand the network, as Keith Barrow and Roland Beier explain.
• Deutschland Takt: A clockface timetable for Germany: After years of discussion, Germany is implementing ambitious plans for a national regular interval timetable. Keith Fender examines the measures that will be needed through the 2020s and beyond to make Deutschland Takt a reality.
• TGV moves towards 100% double-deck?: France has by far the biggest fleet of high-speed trains in Europe, most of them capable of operating at 320 km/h. The development over the past decade has been entirely a move from single- to double-deck sets, as David Haydock explains.
• The Railways of Górny Slask: The industrial region around Katowice is served by a complex web of railways carrying a wide variety of traffic. In the first of a two-part feature, Andrew Thompson traces the history of the railway network in Upper Silesia.
• DB Class 112/114: Passenger power for a unified Germany: Following the fall of the Berlin Wall, Deutsche Bundesbahn and Deutsche Reichsbahn had a sudden need for electric locomotives to operate inter-city services across the former border. Three decades on, many remain in use on regional services, although their days are now numbered. Keith Fender charts the history of DB Classes 112 and 114.
• Slow progress for Spanish high-speed programme: The world’s second-largest high-speed rail network continues to expand, but the programme has been buffeted by political headwinds. Mike Bent reviews the current status of Spain’s high-speed projects.
• Endangered Species: Rhätische Bahn Classes Ge 4/4I, Ge 6/6II and Be 4/4: With the influx of new Capricorn EMUs, the days of three distinctive Rhätische Bahn classes are numbered, as Toma Bacic explains.

Issue 300 Also sees the return of our popular Traction Archive feature:

• Traction Archive: Goodbye to SNCF Class CC 14100: The SNCF Class 14100 centre-cab electrics were a fixture of the freight scene in north-east France for four decades. David Haydock recalls a farewell tour with these distinctive machines organised with the support of Today’s Railways.

News stories include:

• Regiojet to launch Praha–Poland services
• München–Zürich electric services begin
• BDZ receives first new loco for 25 years in Bulgaria
• Green Cargo EuroDual locomotives enter service in Norway
• SNCB orders another 198 M7 coaches
• Amsterdam Amstelveenlijn upgrade completed
• More Flexity trams for Berlin
• Paris Metro Line 14 extension opens
• Danish Class EA locomotives end service with DSB
• Budapest “Gorilla” farewell
• New Stadler trains for Centovalli line
• Luxembourg Class 3000 locomotives for sale
• New owners for Dutch preserved TEE vehicles
• Boiler appeal for Nord “Super Pacific”