Increasing use of high speed lines means rail should be competitive over much greater distances. High Speed Rail could undertake some 176 billion more passenger kilometres by 2050, relative to 2005, outpacing the increase in aviation (some 67 billion passenger kilometres) for journeys below 1,000 km.
Poor transport infrastructure is an impediment to the economy. Numerous studies confirm the relationship between geographical accessibility and economic growth. In particular, a recent study, based on an example from Germany, shows that connection to the high speed rail network significantly increases the economic growth rate of cities.
High-speed stimulates the people’s mobility, just like an underground network organises a city, a high-speed railway network organises an entire region. It is a transport system tailored to the needs of the citizens living in the 21st century, a century of excessive speed already reflected in daily life. Perhaps, this isn’t the best example, but the Japanese travel by high speed train six times more than the Europeans. In Western Europe, high-speed railway transport develops rapidly and it is often described as the “transport mode of the future”. However, such a system requires massive investments, most of the times through state budget funds, funds still unavailable in the East and South-East of Europe.
The benefits of railway high-speed railway have been discussed and debated in the past years in Romania as well. “The measure plan on the promotion of the high-speed railway project on the route HU –RO Border Bucharest – Constanţa” was signed at the beginning of July by the Romanian Ministry of Transport and Infrastructure.
The project for high-speed line, accepted by the European Commission and included in the future plans of the European transport network configuration for TEN-T, will start this year by launching the tender for the feasibility study that will determine the exact route line. At the latest reunions on this topic, a route connecting the Hungarian border Seghedin (Szeged) – Arad – Timişoara was accepted. UNECE proposes to link the route Seghedin Szeged – Chichinda (Kikinda, Serbia) – Timişoara, taking into account a future accession of Serbia to the European Union. “The high-speed line that will cross Romania on the route Budapest-Bucharest also has to ensure connection with Serbia via Timişoara, points out Helmut Meelich, Project Manager Transeuropean Railways – UNECE. Next to Bucharest, Timişoara is one of the two main urban nodes of Romania included in the proposal of the European Commission for the new structure of TEN-T (the Union’s Guidelines for the development of the Trans-European Transport Network).
On 10 to 14 September, UNECE organised in Timişoara the workshop called “Master Plan on the future high-speed network in Central and Eastern Europe” with the support of the Romanian Ministry of Transport and Infrastructure. The agenda focused mainly on identifying solutions for financing the construction of railway infrastructure and rolling stock, but also a proposal for the construction of a high-speed line Bucharest-Istanbul. Part of the ideas will be presented to an extended audience – 300 railway decision makers – during the Railway Days – the Railway Investment Summit in the Wider Black Sea Area orga-nised on 9 and 10 of October in Bucharest by Club Feroviar and the Romanian Railway Industry Association under the aegis of the Community of European Railway and Infrastructure Companies (CER) and the European Railway Industry Association (UNIFE).
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