Brussels (ANSA) – A high-speed railway network – that is fully European – to be completed by 2040. This is the goal presented by the Commission with a package that includes several legislative measures, some of which are already underway. The EU high-speed train will therefore be built with a mix of new lines and existing routes that will be updated, connecting the capitals and major cities of the continent – from east to west, from north to south, without neglecting the candidate countries to join the club.
However, an important innovation will arrive as early as 2026: the possibility of easily purchasing, online, a train journey across Europe. In short, the euro-ticket. “There are all the prerequisites for having a faster railway network at affordable prices, with a very relevant aspect of cohesion,” said the executive vice president of the blue-stellated executive, Raffaele Fitto, alongside the Transport Commissioner Apostolos Tzitzikostas.
“This plan will bring citizens closer together, making Europe more united and efficient.” Let’s start from the end, because the EU needs to dream. If everything goes according to plan, in just under 15 years it will be possible to travel from Tallinn to Riga in 1 hour and 45 minutes and from Riga to Vilnius in about 2 hours (currently it takes 6 and 4 hours respectively). Staying in the north, travel times between Copenhagen and Berlin will be reduced from 7 to 4 hours. In Central Europe, the journey from Berlin to Vienna via Prague will be cut from over 8 to 4 hours and 30 minutes.
In Southeastern Europe, the journey between Sofia and Athens will take 6 hours instead of the current over 13, while Budapest will be connected to Bucharest in 6 hours and 15 minutes instead of 15, as it is now. In the southwest, travel times between Madrid and Lisbon will be reduced from 9 to about 3 hours, and those between Madrid and Paris from 9 hours and 50 minutes to 6.
Finally, in the south, it will take just 6 hours to travel from Munich to Rome. In fact, the train will be more competitive than the plane on many routes, considering the convenience of city-center to city-center, and this will allow Europe to further reduce its emissions: not only in the passenger sector (there will be a positive effect on soft travel, for example with the return of sleeper cars) but also in freight, with more capacity on the network (November 5).
