The figures
Transport is an essential element in the European single market, to ensure the free movement of people and goods. There are some 210,000 kilometres of railways, including 7,000 high-speed railways, 52,000 kilometres of inland waterways and 49 European airports, each of which handles more than 10 million passengers per year.
The trans-european transport network tte-t
The idea of a continental transport policy began to develop in the 1980s, but it was not until the Maastricht Treaty of 1992 that it was formally established, with the conception of the Trans-European Transport Network (TEN-T).
The latter aims to build and improve the various European transport infrastructures in order to allow citizens and goods to move easily within the single market area. In France, the high-speed rail lines linking Paris to London, Brussels and Amsterdam are part of this network.
The ambition of the TEN-T is to have, by 2050, a single European transport network, making it possible to travel to the various regions of the European Union (EU) with any type of transport: road, rail, air, river or sea.
Market liberalisation
To achieve this objective, the EU is strongly encouraging the liberalisation of the transport market, which has already been applied to air transport. This is the case, in particular, with the emergence of low-cost airlines which now link most European countries and which are also authorised to carry out internal routes previously provided only by national companies, such as Air France. Another recent development has been in rail transport, with the possibility for an operator like SNCF to run trains in Spain or, vice versa, for trains from other EU companies to arrive on the French rail network. In the long term, this should make it possible to improve the competitiveness of companies, reduce prices and offer a better service to users.
Eu funding and initiatives
In terms of funding, the implementation of the TEN-T network is ensured through the Connecting Europe Facility (CEF), which supports trans-European transport, telecommunications and energy infrastructure development projects. Over the period 2014-2020, the EIM has made €33.2 billion available to finance projects such as UNIT-E, which has enabled the connection of national networks of fast charging stations.
The European Commission has also created initiatives such as the European Year of Rail (2021) with several events throughout the year in different regions of the continent to promote the use of this sustainable means of transport in the EU. Amongst these initiatives, “Discover EU” allowed 60,000 18 year olds to win an Interrail pass to visit the countries of the old continent by train.