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Ben McPartland on Muck Rack

Ben McPartland

Verified
Paris
As seen in: The Local (Denmark), The Local (Europe), The Local France, The Local Germany, The Local (Sweden), The Local (Switzerland), The Local (Spain), The Local (Italy), The Local (Norway), The Local (Austria)
Editor of The Local Europe news sites (thelocal.com) Based in Paris. Views are rarely my own. Email: ben.mcpartland@ thelocal.com
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Articles

'Stone age' ticket system preventing travellers in Europe from taking trains

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By Ben McPartland Verified
| The Local Germany Verified
Consumers in Europe who want to avoid flying to protect the environment are dissuaded from doing so because booking the equivalent route by train, is hard or impossible, the think tank Transport & Environment (T&E) has found. Their report analysed the rail equivalent journeys to Europe's most popular flying routes to find out how easy it was for passengers who wanted to avoid the plane to book by train.
Open in Who Shared View Duplicates (13) Issue with article?

TELL US: Have you had problems with EES border checks at Italian airports?

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By Ben McPartland Verified
| The Local (Italy) Verified
As the EU continues to roll out its EES biometric border checks there are reports of long queues at airports and machines not being able to take fingerprints or facial scans. We want to hear from readers to find out the situation on the ground in Italy. How bad have queues been for passengers? Is the technology working as it should? Are passengers confused? Please tell us in this quick survey below. If the question does not appear below, click here.
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OPINION: Warning, the new French civics test for citizenship is harder than I imagined

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By Ben McPartland Verified
| The Local France Verified
I think I might have wasted €70. That’s the fee I paid to take France’s new civics test that came into force in January 2026 for people applying for certain residency permits and for everyone applying for French nationality. Back in January I booked a slot at a test centre in the 19th arrondissement in Paris for early February, which gave me enough time to prepare. That preparation shouldn’t have been easier.
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