The European Council has adopted the revised TEN-T regulation with the aim to build a reliable, seamless, and high-quality transport network that ensures sustainable connectivity across Europe without physical interruptions, bottlenecks, and missing links.
“The TEN-T network is a key instrument of the EU’s transport policy with a huge contribution to our sustainable mobility objectives, as well as to economic, social, and territorial cohesion. The adoption of the revised regulation is definitely a milestone towards a sustainable and resilient network in Europe, which should address the mobility concerns of our citizens and businesses for the years to come,” Georges Gilkinet, Belgian deputy prime minister and minister of mobility said.
TEN-T Network deadlines
The TEN-T network will be developed or upgraded step by step with the new regulation setting clear deadlines for its completion in three phases.
Until 2030, the core network should be completed, the 2040 deadline includes the completion of the extended core network and 2050 for the comprehensive network.
The new intermediary deadline of 2040 was introduced to advance the completion of large-scale, mainly cross-border projects, such as missing rail connections, ahead of the 2050 deadline that applies to the wider, comprehensive network.
For example, new high-speed rail connections between Porto and Vigo, and Budapest and Bucharest, must be completed in 2040.
As another example, upon the network’s completion, passengers will be able to travel between Copenhagen and Hamburg in 2.5 hours by train, instead of the 4.5 hours required today.
To ensure infrastructure planning meets real operational needs and by integrating rail, road, and waterways, the new regulation merges the core network corridors with the rail freight corridors to the so-called ‘European Transport Corridors’.
These corridors are of the highest strategic importance for the development of sustainable and multimodal freight and passenger transport flows in Europe.
Following the adoption, the legislative act will be signed by the presidents of the Council and of the European Parliament before being published in the EU’s official journal in the coming weeks. The revised regulation will enter into force 20 days after publication.
The proposal for a revised TEN-T regulation was adopted by the Commission in December 2021 as part of the legislative package for efficient and green mobility.
In response to the impact of Russia’s war of aggression against Ukraine, the Commission adopted an amended proposal in July 2022 introducing several changes to the initial text.
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