Jon Worth

Last updated

Jon Worth
Jon Worth.jpg
Born (1980-05-23) 23 May 1980 (age 45)
Newport, Wales
OccupationEU Railway Campaigner
Blogger
Editor
Journalist
NationalityWelsh
Alma mater Merton College
GenreNon-Fiction
Subject Rail transport in Europe
Brexit
European Union
Germany
Website
jonworth.eu

Jon Worth (born 23 May 1980) is an independent railway commentator [1] and campaigner [2] , political blogger, journalist, and editor who regularly writes about transport policy and EU railway policy [1] , EU policy, Brexit and German domestic and foreign policy. [3] He has been a visiting professor at the College of Europe since 2015 and is a university lecturer in political communications.

Contents

Worth studied Philosophy, Politics and Economics at Merton College, University of Oxford, where he obtained a BA. He also holds an MA in European Politics from the College of Europe, Bruges. Jon Worth's "Euroblog" started in 2005. It was ranked the third most influential left-of-center blog in 2010 by Social Europe. [4]

Transport Advocacy

From 2021 [1] /2022, the focus of his work shifted increasingly towards transport policy and specifically policy on rail transport in Europe. [5]

In 2021 he founded the public advocacy group Trains for Europe [6] [7] to advocate for more night trains across Europe. [8]

In the summer of 2022, he started the #CrossBorderRail campaign drawing attention to issues within the European rail network, and specifically the border connections between countries. [9] [10] [11] [12] He has crossed every EU border to determine the ease-of-use of international rail systems, documenting findings, and detailing findings to the E.U. railways commissioner. [9] He later moderated panel discussions with representatives from rail operators and governments covering cross border rail ticketing. [13]

Worth claimed in 2023 that railway operators have focused on maximizing profit rather than increasing market share. He suggested running railways as a public service or increasing competition could improve market share. [7]

Worth has frequently raised the environmental impact of aviation and pushed for more investment in rail. [14] [15] [7]

Blogging

According to a 2010 survey by Waggener Edstrom, a Brussels-based consultancy, Worth's Euroblog was similar in influence to the BBC's Gavin Hewitt and the Financial Times' Brussels Blog in a survey attempting to identify key influential voices in online Brussels policy debates. [16] His site has been described as one of the best known blogs about EU politics. [17] [18]

After the Acquisition of Twitter by Elon Musk, Worth has moved to using Mastodon and Bluesky. [19] [20] He has criticized EU institutions still using commercial social media platforms [19] [21] and has described in an academic context how social media impacts EU politics. [22]

Professional Career

Worth started his career as a Civil Servant in the UK in 2004 on the European Fast Stream scheme. [23] In 2007 he left the civil service to become a web designer. [24]

In his political work, he has mostly worked on the left in British politics. [25] He was president of the NGO Young European Federalists Europe between 2003 and 2005. In British politics, he was responsible for the online campaign supporting Harriet Harman's 2007 bid for Labour Party Deputy Leader. [26] Worth also ran online campaigning for Diane Abbott's Labour Leadership bid in 2010. [27] He was one of the founders of the Atheist Bus Campaign in 2008, the campaign having first been visualized in his blog entry "In your face atheism?". [28] In 2013, at the time of his move to Berlin, he left the Labour Party and joined the German Greens, [29] where he ran in the 2016 local elections. [30]

He is a visiting professor at the College of Europe in Bruges, [19] where he has been teaching since the 2015–16 academic year. [31] [32] He is a university lecturer in political communications. [9] He teaches students in the politics department about online communications and the EU and (together with Pierpaolo Settembri and Costanza Hermanin) runs a negotiation simulation.[ citation needed ]

He became significantly involved in advocacy and analysis of Brexit. [25] [33] As a UK citizen in Germany, he has regularly appeared in the German media to talk about Brexit. [34] [35] [36] [37] [38] He documented Brexit in detail, creating more than 50 diagrams and 200 blog posts on the topic. [39] From January to March 2019 he wrote 27 flowcharts documenting possible future eventualities. Officials in the British government liked his diagrams so much they printed them out and hanged them on their walls. [25] He cast a vote for Remain. [40]

He is a member of the Europe Policy Group of the World Economic Forum [41] and the Transparency International EU Advisory Group. [42]

References

  1. 1 2 3 "About - Jon Worth". Jon Worth. Retrieved 18 January 2026.
  2. ↑ "Jon Worth is a Bourgogne-based independent campaigner and writer about European railways"
    "Jon Worth". The Guardian. Retrieved 18 January 2026.
  3. ↑ Bildung, Bundeszentrale für politische. "Jon Worth about his Euroblog - bpb". www.bpb.de.
  4. ↑ "The most Influential left-of-centre European Blogs: And the winner is..." 12 November 2010. Archived from the original on 23 August 2017. Retrieved 23 August 2017.
  5. ↑ "About - Jon Worth Euroblog". Jon Worth Euroblog. Retrieved 18 January 2026.
  6. ↑ Frances Marcellin (16 November 2021). "The Trans-European night network: dream or reality?". Railway Technology.
  7. 1 2 3 Miquel Ros (27 May 2023). "Europe is trying to ditch planes for trains. Here's how that's going". CNN.
  8. ↑ Martin Whybrow (19 July 2021). "All aboard for European night trains?". Smarter Communities. Archived from the original on 19 February 2023.
  9. 1 2 3 Erika Solomon (22 October 2022). "'Always Annoying': Hassles of Cross-Border Trains Hamper E.U.'s Green Ambitions". The New York Times.
  10. ↑ "Homepage". #CrossBorderRail. Retrieved 10 October 2022.
  11. ↑ Smith, Ian (22 July 2022). "'The EU has to be more radical': How can we fix cross-border rail?". euronews. Retrieved 10 October 2022.
  12. ↑ Kotkamp, Lukas (9 October 2022). "Spoorweg-activist Jon Worth: 'In Brussel lobbyt niemand voor de Europese treinreiziger'". Follow the Money - Platform voor onderzoeksjournalistiek (in Dutch). Retrieved 10 October 2022.
  13. ↑ "Do we really need a EU-wide solution for train ticketing issues?". Railtech.com. 11 January 2023. Archived from the original on 8 January 2026.
  14. ↑ Samir Kadri (15 September 2023). "After Banning Short Haul Flights, France Wants to Ban Low-Cost Fares". Business Traveller.
  15. ↑ Gael Camba (31 August 2023). "'€10 tickets aren't possible anymore': France seeks support from EU on scrapping low-cost flights". Euronews.
  16. ↑ "Independent voices gain ground in EU blogosphere". Euractiv. 15 July 2010.
  17. ↑ "Jon Worth Archives". John Harper Publishing.
  18. ↑ "Most Popular Europe Blogs and Websites". Association of Accredited Public Policy Advocates to the European Union. 31 March 2022.
  19. 1 2 3 "Jon WORTH - College of Europe". www.coleurope.eu.
  20. ↑ Jon Worth (7 August 2024). "So you really want to quit Twitter/X now? Your super quick guide to get started on Mastodon or Bluesky". Jon Worth's Euroblog.
  21. ↑ Jon Worth (8 December 2025). "Musk wants to abolish the EU, while European Commissioners keep posting on X". Jon Worth's Euroblog.
  22. ↑ Christopher Huggins; Jon Worth (13 December 2019). "Social Media and European Democracy: A Conversation with Jon Worth". Special Section of JCER: Journal of Contemporary European Research. doi:10.30950/jcer.v15i4.1142. ISSN   1815-347X.
  23. ↑ Jon Worth. "EU Politics Teaching & Analysis". Jon Worth's Euroblog.
  24. ↑ Rikard Jozwiak (9 December 2009). "Switched on to the power of the internet". Politico.
  25. 1 2 3 Allison McCann (29 March 2019). "The Man Trying to Make Sense of Brexit Is Tired and Would Like to Stop Now". The New York Times.
  26. ↑ see Iain Dale's Guide to Political Blogging in the UK 2007
  27. ↑ "Jon Worth". 15 May 2013. Archived from the original on 22 September 2018. Retrieved 23 August 2017.
  28. ↑ "In your face atheism? - Jon Worth Euroblog". 20 June 2008.
  29. ↑ "Why I'm leaving the Labour Party, and joining the Grüne in Germany - Jon Worth Euroblog". 14 November 2013.
  30. ↑ "Monika Herrmann soll Bürgermeisterin bleiben – starke Liste gewählt - Grüne Xhain". gruene-xhain.de. 9 April 2016.
  31. ↑ "Jon Worth". College of Europe. Archived from the original on 6 December 2015.
  32. ↑ Jon Worth (20 January 2016). "Teaching EU online communication through simulation – the twitcol case". Jon Worth's Euroblog.
  33. ↑ Jon Worth. "Brexit". Jon Worth's Euroblog.
  34. ↑ "France and UK Vote: Hope for Europe? - All media content - DW - 15.06.2017". DW.COM.
  35. ↑ Nachrichtenfernsehen, n-tv. ""Großbritannien war immer das problematische EU-Mitglied"".
  36. ↑ "Nach dem Referendum in Großbritannien - Wie weiter in der EU?".
  37. ↑ Jacobs, Luisa (3 April 2016). "Brexit: Berlins Briten wollen bleiben" – via Die Zeit.
  38. ↑ ""Wir könnten zu Inselaffen werden"". 22 June 2016 – via Sueddeutsche.de.
  39. ↑ Jon Worth (15 February 2021). "The personal psychological cost of the consumption of Brexit bullshit". Jon Worth's Euroblog.
  40. ↑ Jon Worth (4 May 2016). "Ultimately I cannot bring myself to vote for Brexit". Jon Worth's Euroblog.
  41. ↑ "Europe Policy Group New Concept for Europe Initiative" (PDF). www3.weforum.org. Retrieved 18 June 2020.
  42. ↑ EU, Transparency International (1 December 2015). "Transparency International EU". Transparency International EU. Archived from the original on 12 January 2023. Retrieved 23 August 2017.
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