Plans for possible direct trains from London to Berlin will be drawn up by a joint UK-German taskforce, reigniting hopes for better rail connections across Europe.

The partnership, announced as part of the bilateral treaty to be signed by the British prime minister, Keir Starmer, and his German counterpart, Friedrich Merz, could eventually lead to direct rail services between the two countries after previous plans for London-Frankfurt trains hit the buffers.

The Department for Transport described the agreement as a “significant step forward”, with direct trains the most eye-catching part of a commitment to collaborate in enhancing sustainable transport links and mobility.

Germany has also agreed to allow some arriving UK airline passengers to use passport e-gates at its airports by the end of August, the Cabinet Office said.

Since Brexit, UK travellers have needed to queue to have their passports manually stamped, rather than use automated gates, at EU airports.

A joint taskforce will bring together transport experts from Germany and the UK to tackle the issues that have blocked such services in the past, including commercial, safety and technical requirements, and, not least, border arrangements.

The transport secretary, Heidi Alexander, raised the possibility of visiting Checkpoint Charlie “direct from the comfort of a train”, adding that the government was “determined to put Britain at the heart of a better-connected continent”.

She said: “The Brandenburg Gate, the Berlin Wall and Checkpoint Charlie – in just a matter of years, rail passengers in the UK could be able to visit these iconic sights direct from the comfort of a train, thanks to a direct connection linking London and Berlin.

“This landmark agreement – part of a new treaty the prime minister will sign with Chancellor Merz today – has the potential to fundamentally change how millions of people travel between our two countries, offering a faster, more convenient and significantly greener alternative to flying.

“The economic potential is enormous. A direct rail link would support the creation of jobs and strengthen the vital trade links that underpin our economic relationship with Germany. British businesses will have better access to European markets, whilst German companies will find it easier to invest and operate in the UK.”

The deal follows a similar memorandum of understanding signed with Switzerland in May to explore direct services.

While direct trains to new European countries may be at least a decade away, the international train operator Eurostar has spoken of its ambition to open new routes to Frankfurt and Geneva. Other potential rival operators, including Virgin, are hoping to start cross-Channel services.

Opening new routes has been difficult due to commercial viability, different track and train systems, and border requirements and station capacity. Eurostar’s longest direct route to date, London to Amsterdam, has had to overcome numerous difficulties, largely linked to border security and passport control, since its delayed inception in 2018.

The demand for direct London-Berlin trains is unclear. Passengers can travel between the UK and German capitals in about 10 hours, changing in Brussels and Cologne.

The rail regulator has been asked why it has failed to do more in an annual report to stress disabled people’s right to “turn up and go” when accessing the railway network.

The Office of Rail and Road (ORR) released new figures this week which showed that satisfaction with booked passenger assistance on the rail network had plateaued, with one in 10 disabled passengers still not even being met at the station after booking help.

The proportion of passengers who received all the assistance they booked also remained stable in 2024-25 at just 78 per cent.

This was even lower for passengers with a “learning, concentrating or remembering disability” (73 per cent); with mental health conditions (72 per cent); those who are neurodivergent (72 per cent); and passengers with a communication impairment (73 per cent).

There were also figures showing what proportion of passengers were satisfied with the assistance they received, with the booking process, and with the helpfulness and attitude of staff.

But there were no similar figures to show the levels of satisfaction for disabled passengers who turn up at a rail station and request assistance with their journey without booking it in advance, which is their legal right.

The report on disabled people’s experiences of Passenger Assist was released alongside ORR’s Annual Rail Consumer Report.

Accessible transport campaigners have been highlighting for years the failure of the rail industry and successive governments to ensure disabled people’s right to spontaneous travel by denying their right to turn up and go (TUAG) across the rail network.

The ORR annual report appears to underline that failure by focusing on pre-booked passenger assistance.

It says only that it is “working with industry to strengthen the quality of data on turn up and go assistance requests”, and that it expects the “quality and completeness to improve over time”.

The only TUAG figures released by ORR this week show the number of TUAG requests made in 2023-24 and 2023-24 (about 312,000 in 2023-24 and about 491,000 in 2024-25), although notes published alongside these figures show they are likely to be unreliable*.

It is the first time such TUAG figures have been published.

Doug Paulley, one of the disabled activists who has highlighted the right to TUAG in his campaigning, said he had a “significant concern” about ORR’s “concentration on assistance booking rather than TUAG” in its “uninspiring” report.

He said ORR did not have reliable or useful statistics on how well rail companies were doing on TUAG.

He said: “Everything they measure or do is about booked assistance: satisfaction with booked assistance, recompense for failed booked assistance…

“It feels like they try to avoid mentioning or acknowledging our right to turn up and go.”

He said this was a “disturbing and counter-productive trend”.

Responding to these concerns, ORR said it was exploring with rail operators “how we might get a better picture of the experience of passengers who request assistance on demand”, including the potential for TUAG passengers to be asked to take part in its existing passenger survey of experiences of assistance.

ORR released figures in the Passenger Assist report that ranked each rail operator on their performance on booked passenger assistance.

It showed that Northern Trains was the worst performer, with only 70 per cent of disabled passengers who were met at the station then receiving all the assistance they had booked, with Transport for Wales (74 per cent) and West Midlands Trains (74 per cent) also performing poorly.

The best performer was London North Eastern Railway (85 per cent).

The annual report notes how ORR has raised concerns through the year about passenger assistance; the reliability of help points at stations; communications between staff at boarding and destination stations when arranging passenger assistance; the reliability of passenger lifts at stations; the provision of accessible rail replacement vehicles; and the complaints process for disabled passengers.

The report points to annual data that shows a 42 per cent increase in the number of faults across the rail network that put lifts out of service for over a week, in 2024-25 compared with the previous year.

Commenting on the report, Stephanie Tobyn, ORR’s director of strategy, policy and reform, said: “Ensuring that disabled passengers consistently receive the support they need to travel by train requires clear focus, collaboration and a commitment to continuous improvement.

“Our latest survey shows that overall passenger satisfaction has plateaued, and we know that, in some instances, assistance failures can leave passengers feeling powerless and frustrated.”

She said that a new rating system on passenger assistance would “help us target our efforts and use resources effectively, focusing on working with those operators where improvement is most needed to deliver better outcomes for passengers”.

*ORR says in its notes that the only TUAG requests recorded are those noted by staff via the Passenger Assist system, while not all rail operators are yet using this system to record TUAG requests, and any requests booked less than two hours before departure are treated as TUAG

Picture by ORR

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The Indian Railways‘ over-dependence on bulk commodities like coal, iron ore and cement is hurting its growth potential and exposing it to the competitive pressure from other modes of freight transportation, a PwC-FICCI report said.

Strategic Opportunities

The unreliable services coupled with inflexible routes and poor timeliness are affecting the railways’ potential to grab a bigger market share in the “high-value” non-bulk commodities space, it said.

Even though the rail transport, particularly over long distances, offers inherent cost efficiencies compared with road transport, its infrastructure, terminal operations, and rolling stocks are not designed to handle the fast-growing segments like e-commerce, pharmaceuticals, FMCG, consumer durables and automobiles.

“These commodities demand more flexible, time-sensitive, door-to-door logistics, which road transport is better equipped to provide, rendering rail less competitive for such segments,” the report noted.

In the past five years, a large part of the railways’ freight volume growth – 5.6% CAGR – is contributing by a narrow set of traditional bulk commodities. Currently, coal dominates the railways’ freight basket accounting for arounf 50% of the freight volumes, followed by cement and iron ore, contributing around 10% each. But the growth in these bulk commodities are slowing down due to the structural limitations within rail logistics. On the other hand, the growth in emerging non-bulk commodities stood at 10% over the same period.

“A network that is optimised for bulk train operations may struggle to accommodate growing demand for parcel/lightweight goods or automobile transport, leading to capacity mismatches and service shortfalls,” it adds.

However, the report said that targeted interventions can boost the movement of lightweight commodities and enable greater diversification of the rail freight portfolio. “In India, more than 90% of the non-bulk freight market is transported by road. By contrast, in developed countries such as the US, 66% of non-bulk freight is moved by road, with rail or rail-intermodal systems accounting for a substantial 30%. This modal imbalance presents a strategic opportunity for IR to expand its footprint in the non-bulk segment,” the report noted.

Challenges

Though the railways has made efforts in the recent years to promote non-bulk segment. For instance, Joint Parcel Product–Railways Cargo Service (JPPRCS) scheme was introduced in 2023 to provide end-to-end logistics solutions for parcel. Similarly, Parcel Cargo Express Train (PCET) was launched this year to boost the transport of commodities like rubber and pineapples. But the modal share of rail for parcel-based cargo and lightweight commodities still remains low. The report further said that railways needs to adopt a commodity-specific approach to terminal planning, asset deployment and service design to diversify its commodity portfolio.

“Another opportunity lies in the automobile sector, specifically two-wheelers and passenger vehicles, which fall under the low rail share category but exhibit strong growth forecasts. The railways has focused on this segment by modifying the AFTO scheme, introducing modern rolling stock (NMG and BCACBM coaches) and assisting the development of new automobile loading terminals. These efforts have increased the modal share of rail in automobile transport from 1.2% in FY14 to approximately 20% in FY24,” the report said.