EU-DIGEST

Europe's rail system moving full steam ahead - by Ed Perkins

High-speed rail is moving ahead at high speed in Europe. Railroads there keep adding new high-speed lines and increasing service, while here in the United States, we keep fretting about the need for better transportation but do little about it. If you're heading for Europe next year, you can try out several new lines, and additional lines will open by summer.Europe's latest opening is in Italy: a new dedicated high-speed line from Milan to Bologna. According to the Italian Railways' press release, nonstop trains can now make the Milan-Rome trip in 3 1/2 hours, although current schedules show only trains that stop in Bologna and Florence, taking three hours, 55 minutes. Still, that's pretty good time, and I assume some non stops will run by summer. The new segment leaves only a small gap between Bologna and Florence that, once filled, will provide high-speed tracks from Milan to Naples, about 530 miles. That final gap will close either next year or in 2010.

Rail travel is much greener than air or automobile travel - especially electrically driven rail travel, which is the norm for heavily traveled routes in most of Western Europe. In addition to investing heavily in rail, several European countries have imposed or are considering taxes or duties designed to discourage air travel.

Labels: EU, Railways, TGV

Vandalism disrupts French high-speed train service

Vandals jammed iron bars into two electrical lines on a high-speed rail track in northern France, disrupting service Saturday on more than 30 trains to London, Brussels and other routes, the national rail authority said. No injuries were immediately reported, but hundreds of people were stranded for hours on the tracks and others crowded into train stations awaiting delayed departures. The chief of the SNCF national rail network said it was the fourth act of "malice, even sabotage," on high-speed French rail lines in the past three weeks.

Note EU-Digest: "This not a question of vandalism anymore. The culprits when caught must be treated as serious criminals.

Labels: EU, France, Railways, TGV, Vandalism

Spains High Speed Train System takes off

For the complete report from SUR click on this link

Spain - The future coastal railway opens the door for high-speed trains - by Cristina Gonzales

Now that the AVE trains run to and from Malaga, municipalities on the Costa del Sol are already looking ahead to 2013 when this high speed train service will be extended along the coast. The railway line for the future coastal train service will play a major part in bringing to fruition this long-awaited dream of local people and professionals in the tourism industry. The first steps are already being taken. The Ministry of Public Works will be responsible for creating the line for the coastal train between Malaga and Fuengirola, while the Junta de Andalucía will build the link between Fuengirola and Estepona. These two projects, which will cost more than one thousand million euros, will mean that one day in the future the AVE could have its own stop, for example, in the centre of Marbella, something the regional government's delegate for Public Works and Transport, Concepción Gutiérrez, has referred to on several occasions in the past. Sources at the Junta de Andalucía have told this newspaper that the first works to be carried out will be on the stretch between Fuengirola and San Pedro Alcántara, and will involve two separate projects. At the moment, they are in the phase of supervision before final approval, which is the step prior to the works being put to tender sometime in 2008. The Junta's budget for next year already includes the sum of 14.1 million euros to start off the coastal railway project, and during a visit to Marbella the president of the regional government, Manuel Chaves, announced that trains will be traveling as far as San Pedro within six years. The stretch of line between San Pedro and Estepona is currently the subject of an informative study.

Spain has ambitious plans for its high-speed network. In the future the target is for 7,200km (4,500 miles) of high-speed railway for 350km/h operation, and progress has being made on several fronts to extend the network. The Spanish government has also agreed to pursue a high-speed link between Madrid, Lisbon and Paris with the Portugese and French Governments.

Labels: AVE, EU, France, Portugal, Railways, Spain, TGV

If you visit Europe next year, you can expect to travel on several new high-speed rail facilities. And you'll see still more in the next few years, as European railroads continue to build their high-speed rail systems. Meanwhile, here in the United States, we're not only failing to build and improve our systems but also we're not even keeping up with what we have.
Three other new and improved lines have opened recently or will open by the end of this year in Europe:
• An important addition to the high-speed link between Barcelona and Madrid (with full completion slated for 2008).
• The new Lotschberg low-level tunnel in Switzerland, substantially shortening travel times on trains that link south Germany, Bern and Basel with Italy.
• The new Zuid high-speed route linking Amsterdam with Brussels (although the line won't reach full speeds until the completion of improved signaling systems next year).

Labels: EU, Railways

With a week to go before Eurostar services start operating from St Pancras station, the Queen last night opened the newly renovated Victorian station which has restored what was once the largest enclosed space in the world to its former glory.More than 1,000 guests attended the reopening of the station, once the Cinderella of the London rail terminals, too grandiose for its services to the east Midlands, but now at last coming into its own as the terminus for Europe. When the original station was built, the cellars underneath were used to store barrels of beer from the Midlands but now the space is being opened up to boutiques. Something else the Victorians never thought necessary is the 92ft-long champagne bar for thirsty businessmen.

The renovation of the terminus completes the EURO 8.30bn British rail link to the Channel tunnel which is expected to shave 20 minutes off the 68-mile journey to Folkestone, bringing journey times to Paris down to 2 hours 15 minutes, the same time as London to Manchester. Passengers can be in Lyon, on the way to the Alps, in as little time as it takes to get to Newquay, Cornwall.

Labels: EU, Railways, TGV

EU RAIL SYSTEM - British Safety system delayed again - by Lisa Kelly

The proposed Europe-wide computerised safety system for high-speed trains will not be fully in place in the UK for another 30 years, said the plan submitted to the EU last week. The rollout of the Euro 5.5 bn European Rail Traffic Management System (ERTMS) will take until 2038 to complete, with main lines only starting to get the technology from 2025, according to the British Department for Transport (DfT) schedule.

Labels: EU, Railways

Rail link with Southeast Asia, Turkey and Europe soon

Within the next few years, travellers from India will have the option of going to places like Singapore, Bangkok, Yangon, Tehran and even cities in Turkey by train, giving airlines a run for their money. Travel by train to these cities is set to become reality with the proposed revival of the Trans Asian Railway, for which an agreement was signed by Railway Board Chairman J P Batra in New York.The southern corridor of the proposed Asian rail network will link China's historic Kunming province, bordering Vietnam, with Kapikule in Bulgaria in the Euopean peninsula via a 11,460-km line. The cities to be linked include Bangkok in Thailand and idyllic towns of Myanmar, Bangladesh, India, Iran and Turkey, giving Indian families a wide variety of holiday locales to pick from.

The dream rail project, according to experts, will not take long to become operational as a good railway network already exists in major junctions like Turkey, Iran, Pakistan, India, Thailand and China.

Labels: Asia, Europe, Railways