Objectives on the development of the European high-speed transport network are also included in the TEN-T strategy. The new White Paper on Transport, published in March 2011, also contains relevant elements on the definition of the efficient primary network for long-distance inter-urban transport and travels. Likewise, the Connecting Europe Facility grants EUR 31.7 Billion only for infrastructure investments. TEN-T funds are equally available for the execution of high-speed railway connections between the EU Member States and, why not, for third countries, future EU members.
Railway transport plays a crucial role in the economies of new EU Member States – far more important than in many old EU countries. The development of the high-speed railway transport can be an encouraging starting point, considering the stated transport policy aims of the European Union, but at the same time it is a major challenge to preserve the high market share of railway transport.
Community financing has focused on major high-speed railway projects, inaugurating a new generation of passenger transport which can successfully compete with air transport or individual motorised vehicles. A TEN-T priority project such as the high-speed railway line linking Paris, Brussels, Köln/Frankfurt, Amsterdam and London, has not only interconnected national networks and represented the emergence of a new cross-border railway transport generation, but at the same time, it has allowed citizens and commuters to feel the benefits of free travelling across Europe. High-speed intensifies people’s mobility, just like an underground network organises a city, the high-speed railway network organises an entire region.
It is a transport system which perfectly adapts to the needs of the citizens living in the 21st century, a century of excessive speed already reflected in daily life. Maybe this is not the best example, but if we were to compare, the Japanese travel by high-speed train six times more than the Europeans.
In Western European countries, the high-speed railway transport has developed extremely fast ever since the ‘90s, being often described as the “transport mode of the future”. China’s boom in terms of development of high-speed lines is already widely known. But projects are not limited to these regions. Russia, Turkey and most of Central Asian states (Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Azerbaijan, Armenia) invest large amounts in the development of high-speed lines. An extremely pleasant surprise comes from the Persian Gulf countries which launched projects meant to facilitate links by means of high-speed railways.
However, such a system requires massive investments, most of the times through state budget funds, funds still unavailable in the Eastern and South-Eastern Europe. There are three main and extremely important characteristics which influence the development of high-speed railway transport, namely safety, capacity (due to speed) and sustainability, especially by the minimum impact on the environment). Nevertheless, the high-speed railway concept is not always well understood as a transport system and its already proven performance is not fully taken advantage of, which limits the development of the high-speed railway transport, the development of conventional transport and of all other transport modes.
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