Rail transport in Europe

Rail transport in Europe has diverse technological standards, operating concepts, and infrastructures. Common features are the widespread use of standard-gauge rail, high operational safety and a high proportion of electrification. Electrified railway networks in Europe operate at many different voltages, both AC and DC, varying from 750 to 25,000 volts, and signaling systems vary from country to country, complicating cross-border traffic.

The European Union (EU) aims to make cross-border operations easier as well as to introduce competition to national rail networks. EU member states were empowered to separate the provision of transport services and the management of the infrastructure by the Single European Railway Directive 2012. Usually, national railway companies were split into separate divisions or independent companies for infrastructure, passenger and freight operations. The passenger operations may be further divided into long-distance and regional services, because regional services often operate under public service obligations (which maintain services which are not economically interesting to private companies but nonetheless produce societal benefit), while long-distance services usually operate without subsidies.

Across the EU, passenger rail transport saw a 50% increase between 2021 and 2022, with the 2022 passenger-kilometers figure being slightly under that of 2019 (i.e. before the COVID-19 pandemic). The trend is expected to continue and rapid investments in European Union railways are under way.

Switzerland is the European leader in kilometres traveled by rail per inhabitant and year, followed by Austria and France among EU countries. In 2024, the Italian national rail service Trenitalia was recognized as the best rail passenger operator in Europe.

Nearly all European countries have operational railway lines, the only exceptions being Andorra (which never had one), Cyprus, Iceland, Malta and San Marino (whose single or multiple railway lines were either entirely or mostly dismantled). Despite having operational railway lines, Liechtenstein, Monaco and Vatican City do not have their own national railway companies due to their small size and network. Their railways are instead operated by their larger neighbours (Austria, France and Italy, respectively). Russia, Germany and France have the longest railway networks in Europe. Apart from the islands of Great Britain, Ireland and Denmark, operational island railways are also present on Corsica, Isle of Man, Mallorca, Sardinia, Sicily and Wangerooge.

Public transport timetables, including rail, are amended yearly, usually on the second Sunday of December and June, respectively. The European Rail Timetable publishes rail schedules for all European countries.

Eurail and Interrail are both rail passes for international rail travel in Europe for tourists.

History

Europe was the epicenter of rail transport and has today one of the densest networks (an average of for every in the EU as of 2013).Rail swissworld.org Because of its history, European railway systems often differ between countries regarding their main line track gauges, loading gauges, electrification systems and platform heights, among others (see below).

Interoperability on its conventional network and further development of its high-speed network are current issues.

Differences between countries The 2017 European Railway Performance Index ranked the performance of national rail systems as follows: Tier One: Switzerland, Denmark, Finland, Germany, Austria, Sweden, and France. Tier Two: Great Britain, Netherlands, Luxembourg, Spain, Czech Republic, Norway, Belgium, and Italy. Tier Three: Lithuania, Slovenia, Ireland, Hungary, Latvia, Slovakia, Poland, Portugal, Romania, and Bulgaria.

Rail gauge

Most railways in Europe use , while in some other countries, like on the Iberian Peninsula, or countries whose territories used to be part of the Russian Empire or Soviet Union, widespread broad gauge exists (except Southeastern European countries). For instance, Eastern European countries like Russia, Ukraine, Armenia, Moldova, Belarus, Finland, and the Baltic states (Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania) use a gauge width of or , also known as Russian gauge. Spain and Portugal both use the track gauge, also known as the Iberian gauge. Ireland uses the somewhat unusual gauge, referred to in Ireland as "Irish Gauge" (but is an island with no external cross-border links). There are also many narrow-gauge railways in Europe, especially in mountainous regions.

There are different technical solutions whenever a break of gauge occurs. Between Eastern European countries that use standard gauge and Belarus and Ukraine, the bogies of passenger trains are exchanged in a time consuming procedure. For the Rail Baltica project, a new international standard gauge railway is currently built that connects the Baltic states with the European standard gauge network. In some places, trains with variable gauge bogies are used, such as between France and Spain (also used between narrow and standard gauge railways, for example the GoldenPass Express in Switzerland). Some lines have dual gauge in place. European high-speed railway lines outside of Russia are all built in standard gauge.

Left-hand vs. right-hand traffic

Electrification system

The percentage of electrification of lines varies between countries. Nearly 57% of railway lines in the European Union are electrified, whereas in Switzerland about 99% are electrified.

Likewise, the electrification systems of lines varies between countries. 15 kV AC has been used in Germany, Austria, Liechtenstein, Switzerland, Norway and Sweden since 1912, while the Netherlands and France use 1500 V DC. France, most of England, Wales, Portugal, Lithuania, most of Southeastern Europe (Hungary, Croatia, Serbia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Montenegro, Kosovo, North Macedonia, Greece, Bulgaria, Romania) and Turkey (also parts of the Czech Republic, Slovakia and Ukraine) use 25 kV AC, while Spain, Belgium, Poland, Italy, Slovenia, Moldova, the South Caucasus (Armenia, Azerbaijan, Georgia) and Russia (also parts of the Czech Republic, Slovakia and Ukraine) use 3 kV DC. As of 2024, railway lines in Albania are not electrified and the same is true for most lines in Ireland and the greater part of Scotland. All this makes the construction of truly pan-European vehicles a challenging task and, until recent developments in locomotive construction, was mostly ruled out as being impractical and too expensive.

The development of an integrated European high-speed rail network is overcoming some of these differences. All high-speed lines outside of Russia, including those built in Spain and Portugal, use tracks. Likewise all European high-speed lines, outside of Germany, Austria and Italy use 25 kV AC electrification (Electrification of high-speed rail in Italy is mixed 3 kV DC and 25 kV AC). This means that by 2020, high-speed trains can travel from Italy to the United Kingdom, or Portugal to the Netherlands without the need for multi-voltage systems or breaks of gauge — or they could, if they did not have to transfer from one high-speed line to the next over "classical" lines using a different voltage and/or frequency.

Train protection Multiple incompatible train protection systems are another barrier to interoperability. A unified system, ETCS, is the EU's project to unify train protection across Europe. The specification was written in 1996 in response to EU Directive 96/48/EC. ETCS is being developed as part of the European Rail Traffic Management System (ERTMS) initiative, and is being tested by multiple railway companies since 1999. All new high-speed lines and freight main lines funded partially by the EU are required to use ETCS Level 1 or Level 2. and Also Switzerland, not being part of the EU, has implemented the ETCS.

Loading gauge

The loading gauge on the main lines of Great Britain, almost all of which were built before 1900, is generally smaller than in mainland Europe, where the slightly larger Berne gauge (Gabarit passe-partout international, PPI) was agreed to in 1913 as a general minimum standard (individual lines can and do adhere to larger loading gauge standards) and came into force in 1914. As a result, British (passenger) trains have noticeably and considerably smaller loading gauges and smaller interiors, despite the track being standard gauge.

This results in increased costs for purchasing trains as they must be specifically designed for the British network, rather than being purchased "off-the-shelf". For example, the new trains for HS2 have a 50% premium applied to the "classic compatible" sets which will be able to run on the rest of the network, meaning they will cost £40 million each rather than £27 million for the captive stock (built to European standards and unable to run on other lines), despite the captive stock being larger. Similarly prior to the construction of High Speed 1 (then also known as the "Channel Tunnel Rail Link") to continental European standards, the first generation Eurostar trains were required to have several custom modifications compared to the TGV trains they are based on, including narrower loading gauge and provision for third rail electrification as used in southeast England. The successor Eurostar e320 is an almost "off the shelf" Siemens Velaro and is thus incompatible with most of the British legacy rail network but can run on most of Europe's high speed rail network.

Railway platform height

The European Union Commission issued a TSI (Technical Specifications for Interoperability) that sets out standard platform heights for passenger steps on high-speed rail. These standard heights are . As the map indicates, there are several areas where 550 mm and 760 mm platform heights overlap and many trains serve stations with platforms of both heights posing challenges for step-free access. Where trains optimized for 760 mm platforms have to serve 550 mm platforms (or vice versa) accessibility is often limited. Due to path dependency a mixture of platform heights will continue to exist for the foreseeable future.

Freight Overview There are specific railway corridors for freight operations across Europe. Overall, only about 18% of European cargo moves by railway. In comparison, in the United States, 38% of cargo (by ton-kilometer) moved via rail in 2000. The differences are primarily due to external factors such as geography.

Rail transport in Europe

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