Last month the Czech Republic's first open-access long-distance passenger operator extended its services into neighbouring Slovakia, and has ambitions to expand even further. Aleš Ondruj, director, onboard services, for RegioJet tells Keith Barrow how liberalisation of the sector is bringing innovation and greater choice for passengers.

This year Hamburg-Köln-Express will break new ground for open-access operators in Germany when it goes head-to-head with DB on one of the national operator's most lucrative long-distance routes. Keith Barrow talks to the team behind HKX.

GERMAN Rail (DB)and private German passenger operators are establishing framework contracts with chosen suppliers ahead of future regional passenger rolling stock tenders.

Still reeling from the worst economic crisis in more than half a century, Europe's railfreight operators enter a new decade contemplating a long line of financial, political, and technical hurdles. Keith Barrow reports from Marketforce's Future of Railfreight in Europe conference in Berlin, where delegates debated the industry's most pressing issues, and how they might be tackled.

Hartmut Mehdorn has transformed German Rail (DB) over the last decade from a struggling national railway to a successful international company ready for a stock exchange flotation. But allegations that senior DB managers spied on thousands of workers has led to his resignation, as Keith Barrow explains