European Commission Sets Goal to Slash Train Times Across the Continent
The high-speed rail plan would more than halve travel time between cities like Madrid and Lisbon by 2040. But executing the vision will take €345 billion.
Train travel from Berlin (pictured) to Copenhagen would be reduced from seven hours to four under the European Commission’s new plan.
Photographer: Michael Nguyen/NurPhoto via Getty Images
A new high-speed rail plan from the European Commission aims to slash journey times across Europe over the next few decades. The plan announced Wednesday set a goal that all major hubs in the European Union be linked by train services running at least 200 kilometers per hour (125 miles per hour) by 2040, with many services surpassing 250 kph (155 mph).
If fully realized, the time savings offered by this upgrade and expansion would be spectacular: Trains from Berlin to Copenhagen would take four hours instead of the current seven, journey times between Warsaw and Vienna would fall to four hours and 15 minutes instead of the current seven and a half hours, while travel times between Madrid and Lisbon would drop by two-thirds, to three hours from the current nine.