EU pushes to cut time of cross-border train trips by up to 8 hours
Brussels launches €345bn high-speed rail plan to compete with planes
Brussels has set out a €345bn plan to cut train times between EU cities by as much as eight hours in a bid to make the bloc’s railways competitive with planes over the next 10 years.
“If we present to the people . . . a way to go somewhere fast and safely, rest assured that citizens will definitely choose the train over any other means of transport,” EU transport commissioner Apostolos Tzitzikostas said on Wednesday.
The plan’s aim is to have major EU cities connected by a high-speed rail network with trains travelling at least at 200km/h by 2040.
Despite setting a target in 2020 to double high speed rail traffic by 2030 compared to 2015 levels, the European Commission said that progress had lagged. In 2023, high-speed rail traffic had only increased 17 per cent compared to 2015, with the majority of high-speed lines running through the EU’s biggest member states.
“Central and eastern Europe remain poorly connected. With persisting fragmentation and barriers, a truly connected European high-speed rail network is therefore still far from completion,” the commission said.
Rail groups have also hampered Brussels’ efforts to try to allow passengers to buy tickets across different services from one operator.
In response, the commission said that it would propose a law in 2026 that would force operators to share data, making it easier for passengers to buy one ticket for a journey across the bloc using multiple different trains.
CER, the rail industry body, welcomed the plan, saying it could “revolutionise the way travel distances are perceived in Europe”.
To achieve the goal for high-speed rail, the commission estimated the required investment at €345bn. It said this would come from “more strategic” use of EU funds, national financing including money from the bloc’s emissions trading system, and “credible action to attract sufficient financial investment from the private sector”.
Brussels has proposed that funding for European transport infrastructure should be doubled in the bloc’s next seven-year budget, which starts in 2028. That would bring the amount dedicated to cross-border travel to €51.5bn if it is signed off by EU member states and the European parliament.
A high-speed network reaching speeds of 250km/h or more would require investment of €546bn, the commission said.
China’s high-speed network is designed to reach speeds that are more than 100km/h faster.
EU executive vice-president for cohesion Raffaele Fitto said that the rail industry was a strategic sector for the EU in which it still had global leadership.
“Global competitors are improving fast and we cannot afford to lose another strategic industry to Asia,” he said.
However, Jon Worth, an independent European rail analyst, said that the commission’s plan “doesn’t justify the name”.
“It’s more like a wish list,” he said. “It sets aspirations for 2035 and 2040, far enough in the future to mean no one can demand anything concrete now. It talks of financing infrastructure, but doesn’t explain how that will work. It mentions more rolling stock, but lacks detail about how to get it.
“The whole thing reads like a comfort blanket for the railway industry,” he added.