Long-distance and cross-border passenger rail transport
The European Green Deal includes Europe’s commitment to become the first climate-neutral continent by 2050. There “Strategy for sustainable and intelligent mobility” identifies the need for decisive action to shift more business to more sustainable modes of transport, notably increasing the number of passengers traveling by rail. On the basis of these indications, the European Parliament asked the Commission to evaluate how to promote cross-border night rail services.
In December 2021, the Commission, through the Directorate-General for Mobility and Transport, communicated to the European Parliament and the Council the Action Plan for promote long-distance and cross-border passenger rail transport. An action plan set out to upgrade long-distance and cross-border passenger rail services, combined with a plan to change trans-European TEN-T network services to increase high-speed rail capacity and new investment support from the Bank European Union for Investments (EIB) in the railway sector.
The action plan is part of a package of measures aimed at identifying efficient and ecological mobility aimed at achieving the objectives of doubling high-speed rail traffic by 2030 and tripling it by 2050. As stated by the Commissioner for Transport “rail is one of the most sustainable modes of transport, yet, this potential risks being wasted as cross-border travel accounts for only 7% of the kilometers traveled by train. The action plan will help make rail transport a more attractive option for long, cross-border journeys.”
An important objective, that of the Commission’s Action Plan, based on the achievement of specific goals for:
- accelerate digitisation,
- eliminate redundant national technical and operational standards,
- ensure better availability of trains, carriages and locomotives (rolling stock),
- align the training and certification of railway personnel with future needs,
- modernize the passenger railway infrastructure,
- more efficient use of the rail network,
- easier access to the infrastructure for rail operators through appropriate pricing,
- the availability of ticket offices and access to the more user-friendly railway system,
- introduce sustainable cross-border and/or multimodal collective transport through public service obligations,
- make sustainable transport modes an attractive option for young people.
The study commissioned by the European executive supports 10 pilot projects to establish new cross-border rail services or improve existing ones. The (10) selected projects will make it possible to increase rail connections between major EU cities such as Paris, Amsterdam, Barcelona, Munich, Milan, Venice and Rome. In the Italian case, the Firm identifies two pilot projects:
- Midnight Trains: new night train service between Paris, Milan and Venice;
- New services between Rome and Munich and Milan and Munich: a pilot project presented by Ferrovie dello Stato Italiane and Deutsche Bahn.
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