EU Plans Major Project to Help High-Speed Rail Network Compete With Air Travel

The European Commission will present a plan this autumn to significantly boost high-speed rail travel in Europe, the bloc's transport commissioner has said, promising a "long-term vision for a more connected, efficient and competitive network across Europe".

- Jon Henley

Apostolos Tzitzikostas said the project would involve the "coordinated planning, financing and implementation" of high-speed rail infrastructure, and of rolling stock that could operate across national borders.

The EU is determined to build genuine "passenger-centred, attractive and affordable rail services", he said, with faster lines and smoother cross-border rail travel considered crucial to the bloc's competitiveness and climate goals.

"Ultimately, people will choose the train not just because it is more sustainable but because it is the more comfortable, faster and more affordable option for long-distance travel in Europe," Tzitzikostas said. "That is our direction of travel."

Long-distance rail travel in Europe has long suffered from poor coordination and connectivity, with different line gauges, rolling stock specifications, operating technologies and signalling systems hampering cross-border links.

A survey published last month suggested three in four EU citizens would prefer to take a high-speed train instead of a plane if connections between capitals and major urban areas were fast and reliable. But according to a 2021 report by the commission, rail accounted for less than 10% of cross-border EU travel.

With a 90% fall in transport emissions part of the blueprint for the bloc's pledge of climate neutrality by 2050, it is vital to get more people on to trains: Amsterdam to London by rail, for example, saves 93% of carbon dioxide compared with the same journey by plane.