Travelling by train across European countries is hard. High costs, delays, cumbersome booking systems, “temporary” border checks and other impediments to smooth journeys are widespread. This comes with an increasing need and demand for train travel because train journeys often have a significantly lower climate impact than taking the same trip by plane.
Questions remain: why is it so difficult—and expensive—to take the train across European countries and how can train travel truly take off and compete with low-cost airlines? In 2023, European travel demand soared and almost returned to pre-pandemic levels, as did discussions around the expansion of long-distance and cross-border train travel. However, chronic underfunding has plagued this sector in recent decades, aggravating the challenges seen today.
The current spate of issues started with the European Union (EU)’s “railway packages”, a series of policies designed to increase the competitiveness and reliability of European railways. These were introduced in four rounds from 1996 onwards. The first railway package brought market forces into EU railway systems by separating the operation of rolling stock (the trains and carriages themselves) and railway infrastructure into different companies.