High-speed rail in Europe

Developing a Trans-European high-speed rail network is a stated goal of the European Union, and most cross-border railway lines receive EU funding.

Several countries — among them France, Spain, Italy, Germany, Austria, Belgium, the Netherlands, and the United Kingdom — are connected to a cross-border high-speed railway network.

High-speed service was introduced on the Rome-Milan line in 1988–89 with the ETR 450 Pendolino train, with a top speed of 250 km/h (160 mph) and cutting travel times from about 5 hours to 4.

[39] In the 1990s, work started on the Treno Alta Velocità (TAV) project, which involved building a new high-speed network on the routes Milan – (Bologna–Florence–Rome–Naples) – Salerno, Turin – (Milan–Verona–Venice) – Trieste and Milan–Genoa.

[46] France was the second country to introduce high-speed rail in Europe when the LGV Sud-Est from Paris to Lyon opened in 1981 and TGV started passenger service.

The ICE network is more tightly integrated with pre-existing lines and trains as a result of the different settlement structure in Germany, with more than twice the population density of France.

The 1970s oil crisis prompted a rethink in the choice of motive power (as with the prototype TGV in France), and British Rail later opted for traditional electric overhead lines when the pre-production and production APTs were brought into service in 1980–86.

[62] The Spanish and Portuguese high-speed lines are being built to European standard track gauge (UIC) of 1,435 mm (4 ft 8+1⁄2 in) and electrified with 25 kV at 50 Hz from overhead wire.

The first AVE trains to link up with the French standard gauge network began running in December 2013, when direct high-speed rail services between Spain and France were launched for the first time.

At the E19/A12 motorway junction, trains leave the regular line to run on new dedicated high-speed tracks to the Dutch border (40 km (25 mi)) at 300 km/h (186 mph).

After the inauguration of the LGV Rhin-Rhône in 2011 a daily high-speed TGV service has been introduced between Frankfurt Hbf and Marseille St. Charles via Strasbourg, Mulhouse, Lyon and Valence with a total travel time under 8h.

[97] There is on the other hand currently no funding for the missing segment of high-speed line between Montpellier and Perpignan, which would cut journey times between the two countries by an additional hour.

There is a political climate for building more high-speed railway services in Norway, including long-distance lines from Oslo to Trondheim, Bergen, Stavanger and Gothenburg.

[134][135] Many of the newly built railway lines in Sweden are adapted for speeds up to 250 km/h (155 mph), such as Botniabanan, Grödingebanan, Mälarbanan, Svealandsbanan, Västkustbanan, and Vänernbanan.

It can be upgraded, but it will not be done since it shall be replaced by the European signaling system ERTMS level 2 on major lines in the near future, allowing high speeds up to 250 km/h (155 mph).

November 2007, Romania and Hungary agreed to build a high-speed line between their capital cities Budapest and Bucharest[citation needed] which would be a part of a larger transportation corridor Paris-Vienna-Budapest-Bucharest-Constanța.

Two variants of the line to Hungary are studied, including one through the Olt river Valley, passing Sibiu, Cluj and Oradea with a length of 590 kilometres and an estimated cost of 17 billion euros.

[153] The most challenging part of high-speed rail will be linking Prague and Dresden in Saxony via Ústí nad Labem which will require a new 25 km long tunnel through the Ore Mountains.

[154] The tunnel is of a strategic importance for Czechia as in 2023 the only electrified line linking Germany and the Czech Republic goes through the narrow Elbe valley, which is limiting capacity.

The connection between Prague, Dresden and Berlin lies on the European Orient/East-Med Corridor, an important freight link to the North Sea ports.

[157] In January 2022, the Hungarian Government has announced it will conduct its first high-speed feasibility study on a new line capable of reaching speeds up to 250–300 km/h between Budapest and Cluj-Napoca in Transylvania, Romania.

A new airport in central Poland will serve as the main transport hub for the entire country, with travel time by rail of under 2.5 hours to nearly all major Polish cities.

Due to geographic challenges, these projects are likely to remain national in scope for the foreseeable future, without international links to existing high-speed networks.

[184] In 2020 the Irish Government confirmed it will be launching a study into an approximately 500 km (311 mi) high-speed railway from Belfast via Dublin to Cork and Limerick,[185] which could cost around €15 billion.

[186] Since the 1990s, the Italian tilting train, the Pendolino, runs the Alfa Pendular service, connecting Portugal's mainland from the north border to the Algarve, its southern counterpart, at a speed of up to 220 km/h (137 mph).

The line was expected to open by the end of 2013 and would reduce the journey time between Lisbon and Madrid to 2 hours 45 minutes,[189] the project however, was cancelled in March 2012.

[190] Also, the Atlantic Axis of the Northwestern Peninsula–Eixo Atlântico do Noroeste Peninsular high-speed railway connection between Portugal and Galicia (covering all the main cities between Setúbal-Vigo) was favoured as of 2020.

[195] In April 2010 it was confirmed that a new Moscow–Saint Petersburg high-speed line with length of 660 km (410 mi) and running speed of up to 400 km/h (249 mph) was envisioned, cutting the journey time from 3h 45m to 2h 30m.

[196][197] On 28 January 2011, Russia announced that the high speed rail link between Moscow and Saint Petersburg will be finished on time for the 2018 FIFA World Cup.

The cost is expected to be "somewhere around" 10 to 15 billion euros, not including land purchases, said Denis Muratov, general director of High-Speed Rail Lines.