Finally a brave reporter sheds some light into the inner workings of the ESN Train team.
http://www.euranet.eu/ger/Europawahl/Euranet-unterwegs/Was-wird-aus-dem-Geld-der-ESNtrain-Teilnehmer
(please go to translate.google.com if you want to read in full)
I would like to add that Jäggle complained in that radio interview "that he has been ripped apart in this blog." Part of the reason is that you haven't guaranteed us to pay us back. Secondly you must have seen in February that is ESNTrain would be going nowhere. Because of your last minute cancellation you ruined these weeks for hundreds of participants. It is simply not excusable, because this mess was so preventable.
It doesn't help anyone(and doesn't excuse this last-minute cancellation) if you tell them hundreds of people have fought until the last minute for this train.
It doesn't help anyone (and doesn't excuse this last-minute cancellation) if you tell them that you had such a hard time acquiring sponsors.
It doesn't help anyone (and doesn't excuse this last-minute cancellation) if you tell them that the 2-year work of hundreds of people is worth nothing.1) Jäggle goes on the record and told the reporter that he was not sure if all money is going to be refunded.
OK, now we know. Our money is not safe. I have been predicting this since last Saturday. People critized me for making false speculations. People critized me for not waiting for official confirmation.
OK, here we go. It is now official. Jäggle said it himself.
(btw: we all have a contract with Platform GmbH, so Jäggle cannot just say, we would only get (lets say) 60% back of the money.)
2) The blame game is starting. According to Jäggle there would not be any future ESNTrain, because this blog angered the railway companies. I predict that Jäggle may tell us next week, that it would have been the fault of this blog that ESNTrain lost money in negotiations with ÖBB. That's why people should sue me.
Well, I am not afraid. I consider myself to be a brave person now.
But I assume that you will hear this phrase from me a lot in the upcoming weeks "I told you so."
3) Here comes my "Mega-Argument". Jäggle said that he attempted to get discounts from various railway infrastructure for these expensive track fees. He failed doing that. He received no written documents which guaranteed these discounts.
Now, my arguments makes total sense. Ask yourself why NO railway infrastructure authority agreed to issue a written discount guarantee! In my eyes it has something to to with EU Law, which prohibits EU railway infrastructure authorities to issue discounts.
I would like to make one minor correction. Because Switzerland and Norway are not members of the EU, I guess SBB (Swiss Rail) and NSB (Norwegian Rail) might be able to issue discounts, but not the other ones.
The reporter asked Bernhard Jäggle, why he didn't cancel ESNTrain much earlier. He answered that he had guarantees for track discounts, but he didn't have any written document.
This is ridiculous.
A deal is done when a deal is done. And when you talk about these amounts of money, you always have to have some written and signed document.
This was so naive on the part of Bernhard Jäggle. And because of this gross naivity hundreds of participants were stranded and our money is at risk.
4) ÖBB estimates that the total deficit of ESNTrain was running close to EUR 400,000.So even if Jäggle received these track fees discounts, he would not have been able to balance this EUR 400,000 deficit anyway. Jäggle disputes this number in the radio interview. Well, I actually trust the numbers by ÖBB more than the numbers by Jäggle.
No one can tell me that the ESN Train was not aware of this insurmountable problem in February.
No Jäggle, you were not running short of EUR 150,000. You were running short of EUR 400,000 (EUR 150,000 + EUR 300,000). (there is a minor EUR 50,000 discrepancy, but hey, it is just our money, don't worry!)
5) Jäggle goes on the record and states that sponsors were withdrawing their commitments at the last minute.
I simply do not believe this. Jäggle should tell us more details so we can verify if this claim is really correct.Jäggle wants to make us believe that one mysterious Mega-Sponsor cancelled his commitment just hours before ESNTrain was supposed to leave Bratislava.
No, no, no - Jäggle and his team have not been successful in acquiring sponsors for the entire last year. Even if you blame the financial crisis - the financial crisis was known to everyone in February.
And it is safe to assume that Jäggle already knew in February, that he would face a serious cash deficit because of the lack of sponsors.
Even with that he had the guts to write on esntrain.org that two thirds of the costs would be covered by sponsors, railway goodwills.
This is unbelievable mismanagement on the part of Bernhard Jäggle.
6) Oh, this is nice, folks.
ÖBB offered to restart ESNTrain on April 2nd in Ljubiljana. Jäggle just told the ÖBB, that he did not want this. Jäggle: "It's either all or nothing." Jesus! This is the right person we needed, a defiant guy handling our money.
This all makes me really sick.
btw: Today I screwed up the comment function on this blog. As of now, all comments are welcome and will be posted immediately without me reviewing them.
