That Was The Week That Was 13-17 September 2021
Murder on the Connecting Europe Express
If you want to read the Agatha Christie novel Murder on the Orient Express or indeed to watch any of the films that have been made of it, two in English (you can chose between Albert Finney’s Poirot or Kenneth Branagh’s reworking) or British, American, German and Japanese TV versions, please do not read on. This week, the week that was, is not for you. There is a big risk of spoilers.
For those of you that have read it, or seen it, or both, or frankly have no intention of doing either of those things, then I ask you to focus your intention on a new, multi-national, multi-member state, multi-gauge version that the Commission is playing in this, the year of the train (part 2 – after Covid ruined most plans for last year). Yes, it is the Connecting Europe Express, chugging its way to most all of the member states (Cyprus, Ireland and Malta will miss out). It left Lisbon on 2 September and will arrive in Paris (from one Council presidency to another) on 7 October. You can live stream the goings on, and of course, follow every step of its journey from the website.
Across Europe it steams, spreading DG MOVEness wherever it goes: a rolling oasis of DG MOVEness. It is redefining working from home, even as that phrase is already being redefined…
The live stream is fascinating, as local issues are being addressed in mobile meeting rooms. But all those keen conference and meeting goers should be looking out the window. The big issue is that time after time, the train needs to change gauge as it crosses borders. The carriages have new technology wheels that can expand and contract to adjust to the various gauges, so that is a clever work around, but it is just that, a clever work around. Engines are always being changed, partially for gauge reasons, mostly for industrial reasons.
Because, for all the brave talk of connecting Europe and the year of the train (plus 1), imagine if we needed to do this in aviation; change gauge at borders and change controllers, sorry, drivers. Oh, wait, we do have to do that bit. But, aviation remains significantly better connected and seamless than trains, even in this, their year (and a bit). The reality is, for all that trains are being pushed as The Solution, there are a lot of things that need to be fixed and changed before we can realistically call trains The Answer. Oh yes, there are solutions out there, but it will take determination and iron will, or perhaps in that most European way, decades, to solve them. Gauges, track upgrades, quality rolling stock, interlinabilty. All those things need to be sorted. Aviation could help, in fact.
In the Christie novel, the killers are all the people on board, all of whom have an historic grudge. That is the sort of analogy that you cannot hope to make up. Historic grudges and the only time the passengers worked together they commit a murder. Is it any wonder that the DG of DG MOVE was so keen to be seen on the platform, waving the train farewell? Henrik Hololei is no fool – he has probably read the novel. No, for him it was much safer not to be on the train. He waved it goodbye and promptly caught an aeroplane back to Brussels.