Eurpean rail investment
The European Commission has selected 94 transport projects to receive a share of €2.8 billion in funding, with rail projects accounting for 77 per cent of the total spending.
The grants are part of the EU’s Connecting Europe Facility (CEF), which is designed to “boost sustainable and connected mobility across Europe”.
EU funding will also be used to develop high-speed rail lines in the Czech Republic and Poland, as well as improvements to lines in Greece and Slovakia.
Other projects will see 11 EU members, including Austria, Germany, Italy and Poland, implement the European Rail Traffic Management System (ERTMS) on both trains and tracks, which will improve rail safety and interoperability across national borders.
The rail initiatives form part of the EU’s major infrastructure upgrades across the Trans-European Transport Network (TEN-T). This will create a “sustainable and smart” transport network linking more than 400 major European cities with airports, railway stations and other transport terminals.
The rest of the EU’s latest grants will pay for projects to reduce the environmental impact of maritime and inland waterway transport, including port upgrades in several countries.
There is also money to pay for road safety initiatives and air traffic management projects to “reduce congestion, lower emissions and improve the overall air travel experience”.
Several cities, such as Nice and Marseille in France, Leuven in Belgium, Norrköping in Sweden and Bolzano in Italy will gain new or upgraded multimodal passenger hubs to provide connections between different types of transport.
Stephen Inskip “Travelling by rail is an integral component of delivering a sustainable travel policy. Not only does this significantly reduce the carbon impact of travel programme, it is quite often a more attractive proposition for your travellers, being able to work and avoid extended time at airports and the associated security protocols.”
The 94 successful transport projects were chosen from 258 applications and funding agreements are expected to be finalised by October 2025.
