Travelling slowly… travelling differently!  

Let’s talk about getting away from it all. In these intense and eventful political times, let’s take a small sideward step and breathe.

I was lucky enough to take a holiday and travel to the Balkans, by train… at an average speed of 44 km per hour, crossing a handful of countries, each more beautiful than the last. 44km per hour is roughly the speed of electric bikes today. But on a bike, you can’t travel back in time, find yourself in a 1980s coach with fully functional ashtrays and revel in the comfortable wide seats, in a compartment that encourages conversation even though you don’t speak the same language as your fellow passengers. No bothersome messages in the stations, but small friendly bars, no screens to announce delays, but a stationmaster who comes to tell you personally; no machines to buy your ticket you can’t change or will require proof of identity,, but a controller who sells train tickets on board.

You’d think this was a nostalgic look at a bygone world, which is probably true. But I was still struck by the humanity of all these practices. And of their efficiency too!

A delay? The connecting train will wait for you. I was also very surprised by the border that still exists between the Balkans and Western Europe and I’m not sure that the path of “modernity” we’ve chosen is the best.

Ljubljana station is receiving 214 million Euros from the European Recovery Fund to become…. like all European stations which themselves look like airports, places to consume, and not places to interact with others. These transformations require passengers to travel miles and yet are ultimately less accessible to many people for whom distances are difficult…

At Graz station[i], I wanted to buy tickets from a human being. The cost of that luxury: €10 more than from a machine. It’s a luxury for me, but  many people who, for one reason or another – exclusion from the banking system, disability, language skills, etc. -, have no other choice. “The machines are not unionised and do not ask for a raise”, the salesman tells me with a bitter half-smile…

Is our organisation really more efficient? I’m not sure I have the answer. But it is certainly much less human, whether in terms of the design of stations, trains, services or authoritarian reservation systems governed by incomprehensible price algorithms. All these systems generate stress, discomfort, and speed… and they cut us off from the world and from other people. And so it’s a political issue.

We will not be able to stop the rise of hatred without rethinking our public spaces, our stations, our cities, our services, without restoring their human element. Making the places we inhabit friendly, with opportunities to socialise, making them places of solidarity, proximity and collective construction should be at the heart of European policies. Otherwise, how is it possible to keep the promise made by the European Union “to promote peace, [its values], and the well-being of its peoples?”[ii]

[i] To top it all, this is in an exemplary “green” city, which has managed to put people, especially pedestrians, at the centre of urban transformation, with open, green bus shelters… a pacified city.

[ii] Article 3 of the Treaty of the European Union:  https://eur-lex.europa.eu/resource.html?uri=cellar:2bf140bf-a3f8-4ab2-b506-fd71826e6da6.0002.02/DOC_1&format=PDF