1,356: that's the number of rail routes analysed in a report by the European Commission, which wants to boost the share of rail transport within the European Union. This report (entitled " How fast are rail trips between EU cities and is rail faster than air? " shows that the plane is still the fastest way to travel in most cases to get from one point to another in Europe. Especially if you're travelling eastwards in the EU.
However, the report is based on figures for 2019. In the meantime, new rolling stock has been introduced on several railways. And new lines have been opened...
The 1,356 routes between cities in the EU within 500km of each other have at least 200,000 inhabitants or are national capitals. The report points out that high-speed trains represent 31 % of the total number of passenger-kilometres in the EU. In Spain and France, this percentage even approaches 60 %. However, more than half of the Member States have no high-speed rail lines.
Speeding up trains
On only 3 of the % routes analysed did the speed exceed 150 km/h. On 30 % of the routes, the speed is less than 60 km/h.
On the 3% fast links, France predominates in this ranking, with 18 routes meeting the criteria.of which 12 including Paris. Spain has 10 lines and Italy 8. With 7.6%, Southern Europe does better than the rest of the EU. The result is influenced by the extensive high-speed network in Italy and Spain.
Rail speeds tend to be lower and more connections are missing in the countries of Central and Eastern Europeand on cross-border routes. On 60% routes to the east, rail speeds of less than 60 km/h.
The study also found that 20% of the routes defined in the report have no rail line in the eastern part of Europe. Examples include Sofia-Thessaloniki and Gdansk-Copenhagen. Out of 45 lines missing in Europe between a large city (over 500,000 inhabitants) and a major town (between 200,000 and 500,000 inhabitants), there are only 3 in Western and Southern Europe. Oporto and Spain (including Seville) and Bordeaux-Girona. Bulgaria and Romania suffer the most from the lack of rail lines. The report lists 18 in Bulgaria alone!
The study also notes that in the north-western states of the EU, trains travel faster at 90 km/h. With the high population density and the proliferation of large cities, however, trains run on shorter routes.
Only 68 faster rail links out of 297 where there are flights
Out of 297 routes served by both train and direct flight, the train journey is faster on only 68 of them.. Improving the operating speed to 160 kph on the EU's Trans-European Transport Network (TEN-T) rail project would increase this figure to 103 kph.. However, operating speeds of around 175 km/h would appear to be sufficient for train journeys to be systematically faster than flights over distances of up to 500 km.
The report points out that transferring air passengers to rail on routes where rail is faster would result in a 17 % reduction in total CO2 emissions from air travel on the 297 routes analysed. As well asa 4.2 % reduction in journey times on these routes.
If speeds on the TEN-T network improve, as the European Commission is proposing, rail's share would rise by reduce CO2 emissions by 25 % and journey times of 6 %.
