Moving through Europe by high-speed rail

In a fast-moving, ever-changing world, travelling from place to place in a seamless, time-efficient way will be a key to the future for Europe’s citizens. What better way than by high-speed rail? There is both a strong economic case and a clear environmental argument  in favour of high-speed train travel. 

Firstly, there is no doubt that transport in general, and high-speed rail in particular, are key facilitators for economic development. New transport links or capabilities lead to changes in economic geography, making places or markets more accessible, and making interchanges easier.  And in our modern service-dominated economy, journey times are one of the most important factors in facilitating economic development. 

Transport links help to spread business activity over wider areas, attracting companies to locate in places where accessibility is newly improved. High- speed rail links do this on a regional, national and international scale. Usually this economic growth requires transport improvements that reduce journey times or the cost of transport, or both, allowing people and goods to move more quickly, easily and cheaply.

In an increasingly environmentally-conscious world, ensuring that travellers and businesses use the most carbon efficient transport mode will also be increasingly important in the years ahead. As the most effective alternative to both domestic air and longer distance car travel, high-speed rail makes a clear case. For instance, a Eurostar journey by rail between Brussels and London produces just one tenth of the harmful carbon dioxide emissions produced by an equivalent flight. 

Furthermore, electrically-powered high-speed rail is future-proofed, because it will be able to reduce emissions per passenger journey still further as more sources of renewable electricity become available. In future, electricity  will be generated from a wide range of primary energy sources – renewables, biomass, combined heat and power (CHP), and nuclear, as well as traditional fossil fuels. In a transport sector which is overwhelmingly dependent on oil-based fuels, it makes strong environmental sense to invest in alternatives wherever it is feasible to do so. The European Commission has already put the drive towards renewable energy at the top of its environmental agenda. 

The size of Europe’s high-speed rail network is set to double in size by 2015, with new lines across Belgium, Holland, Spain, Italy, Germany and France. The leading European high-speed rail operators have formed Railteam, an alliance that will ensure greater connectivity and excellence in customer service across the network. Some 67 million passengers per year are expected to travel internationally on the Railteam network by 2020, compared to 44 million in 2007. 

Of course, it isn’t just the Europeans who are turning to high-speed trains. Japan was the starting point for high-speed rail and now has an extensive network, and countries such as Korea, China and the USA all have high-speed rail projects under way.

For economic and environmental reasons, the future looks bright for high-speed rail travel.