High-Speed Rail: The European Union’s Plan to Complete the TEN-T Rail Network

Faster – much faster. That is how the European Commission wants high-speed rail service to be rolled out across the European Union. The executive body of the EU wants more trains travelling at top speeds to more destinations as soon as possible.

Its latest plan announced on November 5, the High-Speed Rail Action Plan, aims for the completion of the High-Speed network in the Old Continent, giving a decisive boost to the integration of the railway system and their operators in the various member countries. This way, travel within the EU will be smoother, like a single continuous journey.

“Imagine travelling between Berlin and Copenhagen in four hours instead of seven,” Apostolos Tzitzikostas, the European Commissioner for Sustainable Transport and Tourism, told a press conference. “This will be a reality by 2030.”
The estimated cost to complete the ambitious European TEN-T network project is €345 billion by 2040, which could rise to €550 billion in the following decade. On the environmental front, however, the development and implementation of High-Speed rail across the European continent will lead to significant savings in oil consumption and CO₂ emissions.

Although it has been overseeing the expansion of high-speed rails for years as part of the establishment of the Trans-European Transport Network (TEN-T), the Commission has become impatient with the rate at which it has been rolled out. The TEN-T is a planned network of roads, railways, airports and ports to facilitate people and freight transport across the EU bloc.

“So far, the EU is not on track,” reads a communication about the plan sent for review by the Commission to the European Parliament. “In 2023, high-speed rail traffic had only increased by 17 percent compared to 2015, while the length of high-speed rail tracks in operation was 12,128 km, located mainly in Spain, France, Italy and Germany.”

It blamed persistent network fragmentation and other barriers for the slow pace of creating an interconnected network.

“This must change,” said Tzitzikostas, who envisions a high-speed train service worthy of its name by 2040. “High-speed rail is not just about cutting travel times. It is about uniting Europeans, strengthening our economy, and leading the global race for sustainable transport.”

The Community of European Railway and Infrastructure Companies (CER), which represents rail transport operators and infrastructure companies before the EU institutions in Brussels, emphasized the importance of such a common rail network for the EU bloc, starting with railway construction.

“Building and operating high-speed rail (HSR) boosts the economy and facilitates the green transition,” it said in a statement that welcomed the plan. “Studies confirm the profound economic and climate benefits: every €1 million invested in European HSR generates 2.8 job-years, even before factoring in the benefits from ongoing operations.”

Its environmental benefits were not to be underestimated, either, it said. “A comprehensive HSR network across Europe is projected to save the continent the equivalent of 11.6 billion barrels of oil and 5 billion tonnes of CO2 by 2070, with net positive benefits estimated at €750 billion.”

To underline the point, a factsheet published by the Commission shows how rail transport was responsible for 0.3 percent of greenhouse gas emissions in EU transport in 2022. The bulk of it, meanwhile, came from road transport at 73.2 percent.

The High-Speed Rail Action Plan, which was welcomed by the rail industry, has four pillars to it.

The first is the acceleration of investments to complete the building and upgrading of the various railways that will make up the network. The Commission will work on mechanisms to facilitate the participation of the private sector such as banks and investors. Although the cost is estimated at approximately €345 billion by 2040, it could reach €550 billion a decade later.

The second is establishing a regulatory framework to improve the conditions for the rail transport industry and operators to invest, innovate and compete. This means enabling cross-border ticketing and booking systems, supporting a second-hand market for rolling stock, and fostering research and development.

The third is reviewing public procurement rules to establish standardised trains that would lower the cost to produce and maintain them.

The fourth is setting up a governance structure that will strengthen coordination among the operators of rail systems in each EU member state.

“Beyond shorter travel times, the plan will ease congestion and free up capacity on conventional lines, facilitating night trains, freight transport, and military mobility, while strengthening Europe’s competitiveness in tourism and industry,” reads a press release by the Commission.

The slow pace at which the actual physical infrastructure of the rail network is being built is not the only problem, according to the Commission. There is also a lack of coordination among EU member states. They operate their railway networks differently; restrict access to stations, depots, and ticketing systems; impose high track access charges; and uphold different training requirements for train drivers.

Then there is the costly investment in locomotives, freight cars and passenger wagons, otherwise known as rolling stock.

“(These barriers) represent a risk that the full potential of major cross-border infrastructure may remain untapped,” reads the Commission’s communication to Parliament. “Transport infrastructure works as a network, so if a small segment does not comply or is not operational, it can hamper the efficiency and competitiveness of the system as a whole.”

In one country at least, Italy, work on the expansion of high-speed rail has been steadily progressing.

On the Apice-Hirpinia section of the Naples-Bari line, Webuild recently completed four kilometres, or 62 percent, of the Rocchetta Tunnel, the section’s longest underground structure.

In September, a consortium led by the Italian group celebrated a significant milestone in the construction of the Brenner Base Tunnel, the longest rail tunnel in the world. The last diaphragm of an exploratory tunnel was broken through to create an unobstructed passage between Italy and Austria under the Alps.

Meanwhile, further south, Webuild is preparing tunnel-boring machines for the excavation of two tunnels on a section of the Salerno-Reggio Calabria rail line.

Once completed, these three rail lines will become part of the corridors comprising the Trans-European Transport Network (TEN-T), linking northern Europe to the Mediterranean.