Three decades after it faded from Europe’s timetables, Germany is calling on EU rail operators to bring back the Trans Europe Express which linked major cities of Western Europe starting from the 1950s.
The network of trans-national trains lost traction starting in the 1980s, even as national rail operators began to develop high-speed domestic networks, starting with France’s TGV system.
Although it’s possible, of course, to travel from country-to-country by rail, there is no wide coordination of timetables to create an efficient network, and most transnational trains do not make for easy trips over really long distances. Germany’s proposal is to create a new network, with at least some major routes in operation soon, without requiring significant infrastructure work.
Germany currently holds the EU presidency and this is one of its initiatives; a spokesman suggested that if Europe could coordinate its timetables “train travel would become interesting, even over long distances offering a credible and environmentally friendly alternative to air travel.”
The first four routes proposed are one from Paris to Warsaw via Brussels and Berlin, another connecting Berlin to Barcelona via Frankfurt and Lyon, one linking Amsterdam to Barcelona through Brussels and Lyon, and an Amsterdam to Rome route, via passing through Basel and Milan.
Photo: Kecko / CC BY 2.0
It sounds interesting but expensive compared to flying. I much prefer trains but wonder how they’ll deal with the cost factor, important if they hope to convert enough travelers to have a real impact.
I’m not smart enough to know if there’s an answer there, so how about this, yes or no: Are there plans to make rail fares competitive with low-cost airlines?
Sorry, it should have been “yes, no or maybe.”
That’s part of a much larger and ongoing discussion: the entire environmental question of flying, especially over short-haul distances.
While a shift of many one- to one-and-a-half hour flights to rail journeys definitely involves significant subsidy, so does air travel. Aside from ‘green’ issues, there is the large investment in airport and air control infrastructure, and in moving masses of people from center cities to airports.
Just as we have recently seen, in many cities, a shift of investment from more highways to more transit, this proposal involves a shift of priorities, and money, from air to rail. In the initial stage, it doesn’t even call for a large investment, as the existing infrastructure would handle the initial routes.
There’s no one answer there. France and Italy both have systems of lower-cost lines (Ouigo in France, deep advance discounts in Italy) that have that effect, and Germany has been tinkering with its fare system as well. That’s in one direction.
On the other hand, there was (at least before Covid) significant effort in some countries to discourage short-haul flying by various mechanisms (higher airport fees, reduced frequencies, tax schemes, etc.) Additional rail service is part of this: the final opening of no-change Eurostar service between London and Amsterdam, Europe’s busiest air route, is expected to cut passengers on that route over time (with the added benefit of opening slots at Schiphol.
So the answer is: in some cases the cost of rail tickets may come down. And in others, the cost of short-haul flight tickets may go up.
In that case, my answer has to be “Yes, all three of those.”