{"id":205637,"date":"2025-08-20T11:01:45","date_gmt":"2025-08-20T09:01:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.voyages-d-affaires.com\/?p=205637"},"modified":"2025-08-20T11:20:22","modified_gmt":"2025-08-20T09:20:22","slug":"european-union-mega-rail-projects","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.voyages-d-affaires.com\/en\/european-union-mega-rail-projects","title":{"rendered":"The EU criticised for its obsession with mega rail projects by Transport &amp; Environnement"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>A new report by the NGO Transport &amp; Environment (T&amp;E) highlights the imbalances in European rail funding<\/strong>. Between 2021 and 2023, <strong>seven mega-projects took up 31 % of the European Interconnection Mechanism envelope<\/strong> (EIM), the EU's main transport fund, amounting to 6.6 billion euros. At the same time, 84 urgent improvement projects received only 27 % of these funds.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The seven mega-rail infrastructures concerned by a third of the investment budget are located throughout the European Union.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>These are<a href=\"https:\/\/www.voyages-d-affaires.com\/en\/rail-baltica-trains-20190314.html\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\"> Rail Baltica<\/a> (Estonia-Finland-Latvia-Lithuania), the Lyon-Turin tunnel, the new Brenner base tunnel (Austria-Italy), the Porto-Lisbon high-speed line, the railway junction <a href=\"https:\/\/www.voyages-d-affaires.com\/en\/stuttgart-21-projet-du-siecle-20210902.html\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Stuttgart 21<\/a>the Fehmarnbelt tunnel (Germany-Denmark) and Y Vasca, the new high-speed line linking Vitoria, Bilbao and San Sebastian in the Basque Country.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<aside class=\"wp-block-varenne-link-block\"><p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.voyages-d-affaires.com\/en\/transport-environnement-boucher-itw-20250408.html\/\" data-id=\"197141\">J. du Boucher (Transport &amp; Environnement): \"Objectives are what make things happen\".<\/a><\/p><\/aside>\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\">\n<figure class=\"aligncenter\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"855\" height=\"388\" src=\"https:\/\/www.voyages-d-affaires.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/fonds-europeens-pour-le-rail-te.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-205665\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.voyages-d-affaires.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/fonds-europeens-pour-le-rail-te.jpg 855w, https:\/\/www.voyages-d-affaires.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/fonds-europeens-pour-le-rail-te-300x136-derived.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.voyages-d-affaires.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/fonds-europeens-pour-le-rail-te-768x349-derived.jpg 768w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 855px) 100vw, 855px\" \/><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n<p class=\"has-text-align-center\"><em>Where did the European funds for rail between 2021 and 2023 go?\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-text-align-left\">While these projects are essential to building a truly integrated rail network, their cost and duration are a heavy burden on the European budget. And on investment in smaller-scale projects... which, according to T&amp;E, are just as essential.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The gigantic funds committed to the 7 mega rail projects would therefore limit the development of projects that could be implemented more quickly. But <strong>with immediate benefits for passenger connectivity<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>The most striking example is the deployment of the<a href=\"https:\/\/www.voyages-d-affaires.com\/en\/deutsche-bahn-investissements-digital-20221209.html\/\">ERTMS<\/a>the European signalling and traffic management system<\/strong>. Key to improving the capacity and safety of cross-border lines, it has received only 700 million euros over the period studied, barely 3 % of the funds from the Interconnection Mechanism. Although ERTMS should equip most of Europe by 2030, the NGO notes significant delays in its implementation in Germany, France and Poland.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<aside class=\"wp-block-varenne-link-block\"><p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.voyages-d-affaires.com\/en\/transport-environnement-travel-ranking-20250408.html\/\" data-id=\"197013\">Travel policies and CO2 emissions: good and bad performers according to T&amp;E<\/a><\/p><\/aside>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"h-plus-de-moyens-au-systeme-europeen-de-signalisation-et-de-gestion-du-trafic-ertms\">More resources for the European signalling and traffic management system ERTMS<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>For <strong>Carlos Rico, Head of Rail Policy at T&amp;E<\/strong>The mega-projects have certainly given a boost to the railways, but they \".<strong><em> drain resources from other vital parts of the network<\/em><\/strong> \".<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The organisation is calling for a rebalancing, particularly in the context of the EU's multi-annual budget negotiations. <strong>An increase of 25 % in the MIE's rail budget would, in its view, double the appropriations.<\/strong> for essential improvements, without jeopardising the continuation of major projects.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Especially since, according to T&amp;E, <strong>ERTMS is also useful for military mobility<\/strong>. The system strengthens both the resilience of the European network and its ability to respond to external threats.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\" <em><strong>Stimulating the railways is vital for Europe's economy and defence<\/strong>but its financing must correspond to the objectives<\/em> \"Carlos Rico.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The NGO Transport &amp; Environnement is critical of the concentration of European funds on a few emblematic projects such as Lyon-Turin and Rail Baltica, which absorb almost a third of the rail budget. According to the NGO, these mega-projects are delaying funding for other equally crucial modernisation projects, such as the new ERTMS signalling system.<\/p>","protected":false},"author":21,"featured_media":205675,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[61],"tags":[1431,2085,2167],"type-darticle":[52],"n_magazine":[],"class_list":["post-205637","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-ferroviaire","tag-train","tag-union-europeenne","tag-rail","type-darticle-breve","vapo-free"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v25.9 (Yoast SEO v25.9) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Le rail europ\u00e9en: r\u00e9\u00e9quilibrage entre m\u00e9gaprojets et modernisation<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"L&#039;UE doit se soucier d&#039;investir davantage dans des projets de modernisation ferroviaire outre de nouvelles m\u00e9ga-infrastructures\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.voyages-d-affaires.com\/en\/european-union-mega-rail-projects\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_GB\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"L\u2019UE critiqu\u00e9e pour son obsession des m\u00e9ga-projets ferroviaires par Transport &amp; 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