High-speed rail is emerging in Europe as an increasingly popular and efficient means of transport. The first high-speed rail lines in Europe, built in the 1980s and 1990s, improved travel times on intra-national corridors. Since then, several countries have built extensive high-speed networks, and there are now several cross-border high-speed rail links. Railway operators frequently run international services, and tracks are continuously being built and upgraded to international standards on the emerging European high-speed rail network. In 2007, a consortium of European railway operators, Railteam, emerged to coordinate and boost cross-border high-speed rail travel. 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. Today only the core countries of Western Europe are 'plugged in' to a cross-border high-speed railway network. This will change rapidly in the coming years as Europe invests heavily in tunnels, bridges and other infrastructure and development projects across the continent.
Integration of European High-speed rail network
The Trans-European high-speed rail network is one of a number of the European Union's Trans-European transport networks. It was defined by the Council Directive 96/48/EC of 23 July 1996 .
The aim of this EU Directive is to achieve the interoperability of the European high-speed train network at the various stages of its design, construction and operation.
The network is defined as a system consisting of a set of infrastructures, fixed installations, logistic equipment and rolling stock.
Austria
The Austrian Western Railway is being upgraded. The new sections have a continuous maximum design speed of 250 km/h. Due to technical restrictions, the German ICE trains currently running on the line travel with speeds of up to 200 km/h. Austrian locomotive-hauled trains operating at 200 km/h (called railjet ) were launched in 2008. ÖBB is planning to increase the operational speed to 230 km/h some time after 2013.
The 56 km (35 mi) Brenner Base Tunnel currently under construction will allow speeds of up to 250 km/h. The Unterinntalbahn , the line connecting the Brenner Base Tunnel to Southern Germany, is also being upgraded from two tracks to four tracks and maximum design speeds of 250 km/h.
The Koralmbahn , the first entirely new railway line in the Second Austrian Republic is under construction since 2006. It includes a new 33 km tunnel ( Koralmtunnel ) connecting the cities of Klagenfurt and Graz. Primarily built for intermodal freight transport, it will also be used by passenger trains travelling up to 250 km/h. The travel time from Klagenfurt to Graz will be reduced from three hours to one hour.
Belgium
Main article: High-speed rail in BelgiumBelgium's rail network is served by four types of high-speed trains: Thalys, Eurostar, ICE and TGV trains. All of them stop in Brussels South station, Belgium's largest train station. Thalys trains operate between Belgium, Germany (Köln), The Netherlands (Amsterdam) and France (Paris). Thalys trains are a variant of the French TGV. Since 2007 Eurostar connects Brussels to London St Pancras. Before that date trains connected to London Waterloo. The German ICE operates between Brussels, Liège and Frankfurt Hbf.
The HSL 1 is a Belgian high speed railway line which connects Brussels with the French border. 88 km long (71 km dedicated high-speed tracks, 17 km modernised lines), it began service on 14 December 1997 . The line has appreciably shortened rail journeys, the journey from Paris to Brussels now taking 1:22. In combination with the LGV Nord, it has also impacted international journeys to France and London, ensuring high-speed through-running by Eurostar, TGV, Thalys PBA and Thalys PBKA trainsets. The total construction cost was €1.42 billion.
The HSL 2 is a Belgian high-speed rail line between Brussels and Liège, 95 km long (61 km dedicated high-speed tracks between Leuven and Ans, 34 km modernised lines between Brussels and Leuven and between Ans and Liège) it began service on 15 December 2002 . When its extension to the German border is completed (the HSL 3), the combined eastward high speed line will greatly accelerate journeys between Brussels, Paris and Germany. HSL 2 is currently used by Thalys and ICE trains as well as fast internal InterCity services.
The HSL 3 is a Belgium|Belgian high-speed railway line currently under construction which will connect Liège to the German border. 56 km long (42 km dedicated high-speed tracks, 14 km modernised lines), it is scheduled for completion on 15 December 2007, but trains will not start to use it until 2009. HSL 3 will be used by international Thalys and ICEtrains only, as opposed to HSL 2 which is also used for fast internal InterCity services.
The HSL 4 is a Belgian high-speed railway line currently under construction which will connect Brussels to the Dutch border. 87 km long (40 km dedicated high speed tracks, 57 km modernised lines), it is scheduled for completion by 2007. HSL 4 will be used by Thalys trains as well as fast internal InterCity and NS Hispeed trains. Between Brussels and Antwerp (47 km), trains travel at 160 km/h on the upgraded existing line (with the exception of a few segments where a speed limit of 120 km/h is imposed). 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) at 300 km/h.
The completion of the Channel Tunnel rail link (High Speed 1) and the nearing completion of the lines from Brussels to Amsterdam and Cologne led to news reports in November 2007 that both Eurostar and Deutsche Bahn were pursuing direct services from London to Amsterdam and Cologne. Both trips would be under 4 hours, the length generally considered competitive with air travel.
Bulgaria
As part of a railway modernisation campaign, tracks in the northwestern part of the country have been modernized to meet modern standards. A high-speed train line will be built, connecting Sofia and Vidin through Botevgrad. The trains will develop speeds of between 160 and 200 km/h. The line is expected to be complete by 2017 at a cost of 3 billion euro.
Croatia
With the highway construction programme in its final stages, the Croatian parliament has passed a bill to build its first high-speed line, a new Botovo-Zagreb-Rijeka line, with an initial maximum planned speed of 200 km/h.. The cost of the new line is estimated at 9,244,200,000 kuna (approx. 1.6 bil USD). The project will include the modernisation of the current Botovo-Zagreb-Josipdol line and a construction of a completely new line between Josipdol and Rijeka.
Also, the Pan-European Corridor X, running from the Slovenian border, through Zagreb, to Serbian border is a likely future candidate for the high-speed extension to this line. It is currently the most modern Croatian track, already initially built for 160 km/h and fully electrified and connects most branch lines in Croatia, rapidly growing Croatian cities of Slavonski Brod and Vinkovci, and Pan-European Corridor Vc towards Osijek and Bosnia and Herzegovina.
Czech Republic
The ČD Railway has been running the Super City Pendolino from Prague to Vienna and Bratislava since 2005. The Pendolino is capable of operating at 230 km/h. However in-service trains are limited to 160 km/h due to the speeds the railways were constructed to meet. These limits will be raised in future (see Czech rail records).
Denmark
Large-scale bridge projects in Denmark have made fast rail links between Scandinavia and Germany a real possibility. The completed Great Belt Fixed Link and Oresund Bridge have made possible overland transportation between Germany and Sweden. A Fehmarn Belt bridge has been approved, and upon completion in 2018, will reduce rail travel between Hamburg and Copenhagen to 3.5 hours.
The main lines in Denmark allow 180 km/h at many places, for example most of the route Copenhagen-Århus (map). Some parts will be upgraded to 200 km/h. Currently the fastest trains reach 180 km/h. A new train, the IC4 diesel train, can reach 200 km/h and has during 2007 been put into test operation with passengers in western Denmark. This project is delayed and it remains to be seen when they will run long-distance full-scale operation. During the winter 2007/2008 the German railways has started service with the ICE-TD in Denmark, which are diesel trains capable of 200 km/h, but they run at maximum 180 km/h for now in Denmark.
It is not likely that any train will run above 200 km/h in Denmark for many years. Denmark is a small country having about 300 km between its two biggest cities Copenhagen and Aarhus. 200 km/h is enough to compete with air travel here. The mainlines are usually too curvy for higher speeds,
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