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- 01 30, 2025
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THE CENTREPIECEEUCEREUSNCF of this year’s European Year of Rail was the “Connecting Europe Express”. Between September and October its cars whisked officials across the continent on a whistle-stop tour promoting the future of railways. But the train itself was a nostalgia trip: most of its wagons were built in the 1980s, since more recent models were less likely to be certified by the rail-safety boards of all 26 countries it visited. Without arm-twisting by the European Commission, said Alberto Mazzola of the , a rail-industry group, the trip would have been impossible.It was a classic European story. The has grand ambitions for trains as a way of cutting carbon emissions, and its national railway networks are strong. But rail is the form of transport that requires the most co-ordination, and on a continent split into dozens of countries that is a problem. Governments pour money into domestic high-speed lines, but often leave just a winding bit of track linking to the neighbours. For the national carriers that dominate the sector, such as Germany’s Deutsche Bahn and France’s , cross-border trips are a side business and competitors a nuisance. “The single European railway area exists in terms of a market opening,” says Kristian Schmidt, the European Commission’s director of land transport. ”But we have a long way to go.”