Less than 20% of the Trans-European Transport Network (TEN-T) corridors are equipped with the European Train Control System (ETCS), warns the think-tank Transport & Environment in a report published on Monday 23 June.
What’s more, the average speed of rail lines often remains low, with eight Member States achieving a maximum speed of just 80 km/h on the majority of their lines, well below the 160 km/h target set for the TEN-T.
T&E therefore recommends implementing the European Rail Traffic Management System (ERTMS) (see EUROPE 13433/10), of which ETCS is the signalling and control component. To this end, the EU should increase its financial support for ERTMS to give Member States greater incentives to speed up deployment and promote more standardised implementation. It also recommends making 160 km/h the new standard for conventional rail, and increasing capacity and adding new track only where necessary.
This study comes at a time when European co-legislators are currently discussing the regulation on the use of rail capacity (see EUROPE 13657/12).
Read the study: https://aeur.eu/f/hj0 (Original version in French by Anne Damiani)