@jon@gruene.social
@jon@gruene.social avatar

jon

@jon@gruene.social

A mix of German politics, European politics and railways #CrossBorderRail. In English and German.

Eine Mischung aus deutscher Politik, europäischer Politik und Eisenbahnen. Auf englisch und auf deutsch.

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jon, to threads
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This was important enough to merit a sort of Brexit diagram. Simple though.

jon, to random German
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ROFL 🤣

Threads isn’t GDPR compliant

No launch Thursday in the EU it seems… (according to the Irish Independent anyway)

https://m.independent.ie/business/technology/no-instagram-threads-app-in-the-eu-irish-dpc-says-metas-new-twitter-rival-wont-be-launched-here/a1927220337.html

jon, to random
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Flipping hell. It should have happened ages ago. Better late than never.

No more European Commission ads on X.

https://www.politico.eu/article/no-more-ads-elon-musk-x-twitter-european-commission-tell-staff/

jon, to random
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The scale of the Musk bullshit is quite something

From FT: "Elon Musk, Tesla’s chief executive, has dismissed the strikes as “insane”. “I disagree with the idea of unions. I just don’t like anything which creates a lords and peasants kind of thing,” he said at a New York Times event last week.”

Errr, an insanely rich billionaire (i.e. a lord) exploiting the workers (i.e. the peasants) IS WHAT UNIONS ARE DESIGNED TO PREVENT

https://www.ft.com/content/4143c3ca-e2fd-48bb-b9b7-715454f1d28f?sharetype=blocked

jon, to random
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My timeline, this week and any week…

Climate people: “we're facing a climate emergency, why aren't politicians listening to us about this?”

COVID people: “the virus hasn't gone away, why aren't we doing the basics to stop people getting re-infected?”

Transport people: “we know how to get more people and goods onto the trains, but why can't we make it happen?”

Tech people: “why do we have to endure lots of people talking about AI who don't know about AI?”

jon, to random
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SCREAMING

PUT UP A WIRE

A hydrogen TRAM is about the most stupid thing imaginable. If you’ve got enough traffic to justify a tram, you have got enough traffic to justify an overhead wire

WHY DO WE KEEP DOING THIS SORT OF CRAP? REALLY 🤬

https://www.elektroauto-news.net/news/goerlitz-erste-wasserstoff-strassenbahn

jon, to random
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With the €150m Wissing is contemplating giving to a flying taxi startup, the German state could purchase 60-70 night train carriages - enough for 2 night train routes. Put these in a state owned leasing pool, and lease them to operators

Better for people, better for the environment, than a sodding flying taxi

jon, to random
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Politico has done a huge animated kind of report - travel guide about the new European Sleeper service, and all the places it stops

It's a massive piece of work!

I am quoted in there about the prospects of the revival of night trains in Europe

https://www.politico.eu/article/europe-make-break-sleeper-night-train-awakens-berlin-amsterdam-brussels-transport-european-union/

jon, to random
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Did my bit at the anti-AfD demo in Berlin today

After having lost my EU citizenship rights through Brexit, then regained them by becoming German, I don’t want my adopted country going the right wing populist route the one of my birth did!

jon, to random
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And really the sheer absurdity of European Sleeper

Here are two determined guys. They lease a freight locomotive, 2 ancient sleeping cars (at least with air con), 6 couchettes without air con (also old) and 2 seating carriages

And they manage to run a Berlin-Brussels night train, something that others - like DB, NS or SNCB - could much more easily do with their financial means BUT REFUSE TO EVEN TRY

And basic though it is it’s booked up all summer

Couchette compartment
from a couchette
Label on the locomotive. vMax 140 km/h

jon, to random
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Aaaaaarrrrrrgggggghhh

Apparently CDU and SPD want to invest €80m in a maglev test in Berlin

WHAT
THE
HELL
FOR?

We know how Maglev works. We also know the system’s limitations. There’s no application of this in Berlin that makes sense.

Build cycle lanes or tram lines.

https://www.tagesschau.de/inland/berlin-magnetschwebebahn-100.html?at_medium=mastodon&at_campaign=tagesschau.de

jon, to random
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Why the hell are people I know who make ethical choices about everything - from the food they eat to how they travel to the clothes they buy - so INCAPABLE of doing that for the tech choices they make?

For goodness sake: Threads is owned by Meta. That ALONE is reason enough to not use it. And there ARE alternatives!

jon, to random German
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If you’re reading this toot there’s a pretty high chance you’ve asked yourself ethical questions about your social media use and that’s why you’re here

You’ve likewise probably got concerns about Meta and Threads

But the 90-odd % of your friends you left behind on Facebook, Insta etc. likely don’t have those concerns to the same extent as you

Mastodon has to win on user experience as well as on ethics. We can’t just berate the Meta users

jon, to random
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I am tired of

  • being attacked by middle aged men
  • in newspapers read by middle aged men
  • the media is edited by middle aged men, who...
  • ... mostly drive cars, which is typical of middle aged men
  • who make Besserwisser type of arguments, about how the ticket doesn't pay for itself, an argument typical of middle aged men

When the ticket benefits all sorts of people across the whole of society, most of whom are not middle aged men

jon, to random German
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One of my oldest friends, and someone I trust greatly, told me straight up today I ought to be back on Twitter for my effort to get selected for the EP list for the Grüne

In terms of audience reach he is right

But in terms of ethics he is not - I want nothing to do with the Musk-run place

It is our responsibility to make alternatives work, and to line up our ethics with our actions. So this campaign will not be tweeted, and I will make the very best of Mastodon (and Peertube, Bluesky) I can

jon, to random
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Do I have anyone in my network here who does (quasi-)academic research into how to get passengers to change their behaviour, and choose trains/bikes over planes/cars?

jon, to random
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IF you want a flight ban that's MEANINGFUL, do this

  • 4 hours by train, not 2.5 hours

  • apply to ALL flights, inc. transfers and private jets

  • turn connecting flights into connecting trains with guaranteed passenger rights in case of delay

Anything LESS than that and it's gesture politics

jon, to random
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Blog post summing up my investigations this week into SNCF's decision to stop selling most international train tickets

“SNCF is stopping sales of most international tickets – a decision rooted in incompetence, and communicated with malevolence”
https://jonworth.eu/sncf-is-stopping-sales-of-most-international-tickets-a-decision-rooted-in-incompetence-and-communicated-with-malevolence/

jon, to random
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Missing the point

Yes taxation rates matter. But France-Spain and France-Belgium trains are expensive to take because the capacity is too low

If you reduce ticket prices on those routes you WON’T TRANSPORT MORE PEOPLE. Just different people. As the trains are full anyway

So, Clement Beaune, how are you going to get more TGVs to Barcelona?

https://www.euronews.com/green/2023/08/10/france-is-raising-taxes-on-flights-to-pay-for-trains-should-other-european-countries-do-th

jon, to random
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Spain, you can fuck the hell right off

You’ve built a massive new Congress centre on the edge of Santiago with a MASSIVE car park

Not a single bike stand

And the policeman then won’t let me chain a bike to a post, claiming “security”

Err what’s in the boot of that car over there?

😡

jon, to random
@jon@gruene.social avatar

Channeling The Who's “Won't Get Fooled Again" and The Rolling Stones "You Can’t Always Get What You Want” to explain why I do not trust Bluesky

And it is not - contrary to @pluralistic's view - that I fear what Jack Dorsey might do, and it might go the way of Twitter / Musk

It is that I cannot (yet? ever?) trust how Bluesky and the AT Protocol are built and if it will be the network we need - in terms of design

https://euroblog.jonworth.eu/from-the-who-to-the-rolling-stones-or-why-i-will-not-trust-bluesky-just-yet/

jon, to random
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The Channel Tunnel is 30 this year

Especially for long distance passenger services and freight the tunnel has never reached its potential

In this piece for @boell_eu I explain why, and what comes next

https://eu.boell.org/en/2024/03/06/thirty-years-channel-tunnel

jon, to random German
@jon@gruene.social avatar

I posted last week about how a firm called Copytrack is claiming I illegally used a photo their client took on my blog

I responded stating no, I took the photo, and gave them the original file inc. EXIF to show it - 6 years earlier than claimant said it was taken

Now they're beginning legal procedures against me!

Digging further I’ve found the pic dated 2009 on Flickr
https://flickr.com/photos/jonworth-eu/3319581238/in/album-72157615812931134/

And on a 2010 copy of my blog on Wayback
http://web.archive.org/web/20100317012214/https://jonworth.eu/la-maison-cauchie-charming-on-a-sunday-afternoon-in-brussels/

How much proof do I need? 😡

jon, to random
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I've been wondering what happens when Twitter provoking the EU on disinformation becomes so severe it becomes a reputational risk to the Commissioners still using it... here's how Twitter's pre-eminence in Brussels bubble EU communications will end

New blog post 👇
https://euroblog.jonworth.eu/how-twitters-role-as-pre-eminent-social-media-in-eu-politics-ends/

jon, to random
@jon@gruene.social avatar

It exists! European Sleeper inaugural departure. 3x a week, Berlin - Amsterdam - Brussels night train. It’s pretty retro, but it’s a heroic effort to even get this to run

Sleeping car
European Sleeper logo
A bogie. Built 1971. This train is old

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