ALLRAIL welcomes France's drive to expand its high-speed rail infrastructure to accelerate modal shift to rail.

However, like we stressed in the article, the only way to take full advantage of this is to make SNCF face more competition.

Europe’s Rail Joint Undertaking – in collaboration with ALLRAIL, CER and UNIFE – commissioned a study exploring the socio-economic and environmental benefits of the establishing of a European High-Speed Rail (HSR) connecting the main European cities and regions, combining investments in constructing creating/upgrading new HSR lines and upgrading the digitalization and automation of existing ones, i.e. ERTMS.

The study's report confirms that investing in a comprehensive European HSR network will deliver added value to European society and massively reduce the environmental footprint of European passenger transport. The report proposes a master plan for HSR network connecting all EU capitals and major cities and calls for the Commission and Member States for a coordinated implementation with sufficient funding in the next decades. Such comprehensive network equalling at least tripling of the existing HSR network will certainly require high investment costs averaging to €550 billion but in return deliver a net positive benefit in the range of €750 billion to society.

The study contracted by Europe’s Rail Joint Undertaking (EU-RAIL) in collaboration with the Alliance of Passenger Rail New Entrants in Europe (ALLRAIL), the Community of European Railway and Infrastructure Companies (CER) and the European Rail Supply Industry (UNIFE) analyses the impact of the European High-Speed Rail (HSR) Network connecting the Capitals of Europe and the main European cities and regions. The study confirms that investing in a comprehensive European HSR network delivers added value to European society and massively reduces the environmental footprint of European passenger transport, creating a sustainable and equitable mobility.

Europe's Rail Joint Undertaking - in collaboration with ALLRAIL, CER and UNIFE - is kicking-off 2023 with a dedicated online joint press event exploring the main findings coming from the ‘Smart and Affordable High-Speed Services in the European Union’ study. The event will take place on 23 January at 11:00 CET, online.

November 2022: Our President Dr Erich Forster attended a high level discussion about the trans-European transport network (TEN-T) regulation that took place in Innsbruck, Austria, together with the Presidents of the main European railway associations ERFA, CER, and UIRR. Present was also Dr Josef Doppelbauer, Executive Director of the EU Agency for Railways, and members of the Transport Comittee of the European Parliament.