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Level X / Volume 13

Positions on Transport, Technology, Innovation

2024: The year of setting the course

 

By the time you read this issue of Level-X, the Christmas hustle and bustle will be behind us, the New Year will still be young and you will hopefully have had a few relaxing days at the turn of the year. Speaking of the turn of the year, it is traditionally a time for looking back and looking forward. We at EBE Solutions also want to do this because, as is so often the case, the old year came to an end far too quickly. 2023 was filled with exciting projects and developments, which we reported on regularly in the TECHTALKS series. The R&D project TARO–Towards Automated Railway Operation, led by ÖBB, was in the final stages, EBE Solutions reached the highest number of employees since the company was founded and the railway systems division also enjoyed record-breaking growth. Unfortunately, we hardly found the time to celebrate all this appropriately, as we were fully focussed on projects such as the new technical safety system for non-public level crossings.


2024 also promises to be exciting: We are starting the new year with the completion of an interlocking project and in autumn I look forward to seeing you again at the 14th Innotrans from 24 to 27 September. In this issue of Level-X, we want to counteract all the professional hustle and bustle with a contemplative topic. And where better to relax as a “railway person” than in a dining car? Especially in the dining carriages of our eastern neighbours, who are currently receiving international attention.

I hope you enjoy reading this issue,
Managing Director Laurenz Trunner
and the EBE Solutions team

 

© David Ecker / Flickr

#trending:
the rolling restaurants in in CEE

While Deutsche Bahn decommissioned the last 20 bistro carriages in its Intercity fleet in December 2023, travel catering is receiving increasing media attention elsewhere: the time-honoured on-board restaurants on the routes of our eastern neighbours are being celebrated on social media channels and praised in international media.

“Dining in Style, at 90 Miles an Hour” was the headline in The New York Times in April 2023, raving about the “sound of schnitzel klopfen” in the Eastern European dining cars. Starting from Vienna, Author Evan Rail travelled around 2,400 kilometres in 12 different trains, spending a good part of the time in the dining car. The reporter was visibly impressed by the seemingly outdated restaurants on wheels with their tablecloths, draught beer and freshly prepared regional specialities. Full of melancholy, he regretted the discontinuation of the dining car service on most American Amtrak routes in 2019. However, Evan Rail was not the only one to go into raptures about the cosy atmosphere and personal service in the Czech, Hungarian or Slovenian on-board restaurants.

It was only on 18 December that a declaration of love to the dining car appeared on welt.de, written by Jaroslav Rudiš, an abridged text from his book Zug um Zug durch Europa, published in 2023. In it, Rudiš tells stories of rolling family businesses such as the dining car of the Eurocity “Emona” from Vienna to Ljubljana. Mr Popović Senior and Mr Popović Junior work here. Together they run the “Wirtshaus mit Hausmannskost”– the only Slovenian dining car on a regular service. Or from Mr Peterka, who serves his guests highlights of Bohemian cuisine on the route between Hamburg and Prague – freshly prepared by the chef who is also travelling with him.

Jaroslav Rudiš, who himself comes from a family of railwaymen, is an ardent advocate of rail travel and sees Austria, the Czech Republic and Switzerland as pioneers in terms of comfort on rails. “The railway holds us together in Europe,” he said in a radio interview with Deutschlandfunk in 2022. “You can only understand and enjoy Europe from the train and looking out of the window.”

But back to Evan Rail and his trip to Europe for the NYT. During a stopover in Vienna, he interviewed David Ecker, who has been running his @_DiningCar project on “X” (formerly Twitter) since 2018. His account, on which he regularly reports on his experiences in European dining cars, has an impressive 14,500 followers. Over time, the “X” account was joined by a website (diningcar.at) and other accounts on Instagram, Flickr and Mastodon. His Flickr profile contains hundreds of photo albums organised by route and operator with a total of over 6,000 images – all of them of dining cars. On his “X” profile, fans from all over the world now share their thoughts on "their" dining carriages. Other accounts are now also dedicated to the topic: @speisewagen declares “riding a dining car a way of life” and even @seatsixtyone (The Man in Seat 61, aka Mark Smith) has made photos from the on-board restaurant part of everyday digital life.

Hashtags such as #diningcar, #Speisewagen or #Bahnzeit are regularly trending with posts that are reminiscent of the glamour of bygone (travel) times and inspire a constantly growing online community.

Ungarischer Speisewagen, 2014, © Ralf Roletschek / Wikimedia Commons

Hungarian dining car, 2014, © Ralf Roletschek / Wikimedia Commons

Slowenischer Speisewagen im EC „Emona“, 2019, © David Ecker / Flickr

Slovenian dining car in the EC “Emona”, 2019, © David Ecker / Flickr

Speisewagen im IC 510 von Košice nach Wien, 2018, © David Ecker / Flickr

Dining car in IC 510 from Košice to Vienna, 2018, © David Ecker / Flickr

Speisewagen der tschechischen Staatsbahn auf der Strecke Hamburg-Prag, 2017, © Torsten Maue / Flickr

Dining car of the Czech railway on the Hamburg-Prague line, 2017, © Torsten Maue / Flickr

Slovenian dining car in the EC “Emona”, 2019, © David Ecker / Flickr


Reading material to accompany this article

Online Resources

Article in the New York Times
Article online (paywall)

Liebeserklärung an den Speisewagen
Article on welt.de (German)

Interview with Jaroslav Rudiš on Deutschlandfunk Kultur
(German)
online-interview

Diningcar project
Website (English) diningcar.at
Twitter (X): @_DiningCar
Fotosstream David Ecker on Flickr 

@speisewagen on Twitter (X)
@seatsixtyone on Twitter (X)


71bA9z3 R9L SL1500

Zug um Zug durch Europa.

Von Nachtzügen, Speisewagen und den schönsten Bahnhöfen

Jaroslav Rudiš, 2023
German Language
Publishers: Malik
ISBN 978-3-89029-585-5

Available at Thalia.at
(and of course in bookshops)  

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