#connectingeuropedays

I feared this would be annoying. And so far it’s living up to my fears. #ConnectingEuropeDays

FFS these people are so incoherent. #ConnectingEuropeDays

It is YOUR JOB as a speaker to tell attendees something they might not know, and might need to know. It’s not your job to blather on about what you did. #ConnectingEuropeDays

The dude from Lithuanian railways says that it would cost, by their estimate, €27bn to re-gauge Lithuanian railways. So that's not happening. Good. #ConnectingEuropeDays

The 1520mm standards and rules are essentially Russian rules says the Lithuanian railways guy here. Very true. But *please* if you move away from those, make sure you have a unified Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia rule book, not separate ones! #ConnectingEuropeDays

What? Sabina Lindström from the Finnish Ministry of transport just said 1524mm / 1435mm systems dual gauge track are not possible in Finland. Here is *precisely that* in Tornio, Finland - my own photo. Yes, you need 4 rails not 3, but you can do it! #ConnectingEuropeDays

And now Kamburova from the EU Military Staff says gauge change technology is not proven to work, and so will not work for military purposes. But hang on. Re-gauging is going to take you decades to do. #ConnectingEuropeDays

Damn. I miscalculated this! Got to #ConnectingEuropeDays 15 mins ahead of the sessions and the queue is massive

It’s because the person who wrote the gospel is here later. Meaning bags must be scanned https://jonworth.eu/how-the-gospel-the-political-guidelines-left-the-european-commission-with-a-ticketing-proposal-both-radical-and-unworkable/ #ConnectingEuropeDays

It also smells of piss. #ConnectingEuropeDays

There’s a dude ahead of me in the #ConnectingEuropeDays queue with a ŽSR badge. He must have taken the train from Slovakia like me, right? 🙄

Observing which people think they’re important enough to skip the #ConnectingEuropeDays queue is amusing.

This is the #ConnectingEuropeDays programme: https://transport.ec.europa.eu/news-events/main-events/connecting-europe-days-2026_en Delays getting in mean I’m missing a panel on re-gauging railways I’m sceptical of that idea: https://jonworth.eu/why-you-probably-should-not-re-gauge-railways-in-europe/

Ah! There’s a quick line for speakers. And I’m a speaker. But tomorrow. So I’ll stick to the regular line. #ConnectingEuropeDays

Get to the front of the queue. And the two people in front of me *don’t know how to do a bag scan* They don’t prepare their bags, take off their belts etc., so they clog up everything further FFS this is #ConnectingEuropeDays you WORK IN THIS SECTOR 🤬🤬🤬🤬

🤦‍♂️ At the re-gauging railways session and so far there’s no clarity of thought. Are we ADDING standard gauge, laying dual gauge track, or REPLACING existing track? #ConnectingEuropeDays

Also I am on my way to Bruxelles for #ConnectingEuropeDays - a big European Commission event about the future of EU transport policy How many other attendees were subjected to this on their journey? As most attendees from beyond Paris / Amsterdam / Köln will fly, I'd wager pretty much none This is a problem that doesn't personally touch anyone in the Brussels bubble