Need for High-Speed
Thanks to all speakers and participants who joined us for this timely policy debate looking at the state of high-speed rail in Europe. You can read our press release here.
Photos
You can view the picture gallery here.
About the event
Organised by CER together with Czech rail operator České dráhy and infrastructure manager Správa železnic, in cooperation with the Czech presidency of the Council of the EU as part of our presidency event series.
For the past decades, the international rail passenger offering has been stagnating in comparison to the constant increase of air travel. High-speed rail represents an attractive prospect, however the current network is mainly made up of “national high-speed islands.” While a lot has been achieved so far with national success stories connecting among others Paris-Lyon, Milan-Rome, Barcelona-Madrid, and Berlin-Munich, there is a growing need to develop an EU High-Speed Network connecting all EU capitals and major cities. One of the key infrastructure projects that will be part of this European High-Speed Network and TEN-T is Czechia’s plans to connect Berlin – Prague – Brno – Vienna/Budapest and Vienna/Budapest/Bratislava – Brno – Ostrava – Katowice – Warsaw. Particularly as Poland is also planning connections with neighbouring countries.
The current proposal for a revision of the TEN-T Regulation will help to enable the transition to sustainable modes of transport such as rail and to achieve the objectives of the European Green Deal and Smart and Sustainable Mobility Strategy, which sets ambitious targets in terms of high-speed: doubling high-speed rail traffic by 2030 and tripling it by 2050. With the existing high-speed lines, it is not feasible to achieve such targets, so there is a real need for a new focus on high-speed.
This event took stock of what has been achieved so far in high-speed rail, explored its wider benefits also in terms of investment, and discussed the regulatory framework such as TEN-T that can help with the completion of the European High-Speed Network.
Programe
The 16th edition of the award ceremony will take place on 31 January 2023, featuring our 2023 Rail Champion and Women in Rail Trailblazer (more info here), as well as prominent speakers from across the rail sector and the European Union institutions.
We are delighted to announce the return to a physical event format and hope you will all be able to join us in Brussels at the Royal Museums of Fine Arts for a long overdue gathering of our rail community.