EU high-speed rail: an ineffective patchwork of lines without realistic long-term plan, say Auditors
The EU’s current long-term plan for high-speed rail is unlikely to be achieved and there is no solid EU-wide strategic approach, according to a new report from the European Court of Auditors. The European high-speed rail network, say the auditors, is only a patchwork of national lines without proper coordination across borders, planned and built by Member States in isolation, resulting in poor connections. The European Commission has no legal tools and no powers in the decision making to ensure that Member States make rapid progress towards completing the core network.
Since 2000, the EU has provided €23.7 billion of co-funding to support investments in high-speed rail lines. The auditors visited six Member States (France, Spain, Italy, Germany, Portugal and Austria) and analysed spending on more than 5,000 km of high-speed lines, covering around 50% of the EU total.
They found that although the length of national high-speed rail networks is growing, the EU target of tripling the length of high-speed rail lines (to 30,000 km) by 2030 will not be reached.
“An ineffective patchwork of poorly connected national lines has been constructed”, said Oskar Herics, the Member of the European Court of Auditors responsible for the report. “High-speed lines crossing national borders do not rank among national priorities for construction and the Commission has no
power to enforce them. This means the added value of EU co-funding is low”.
The decision to build high-speed lines is often based on political considerations, and cost-benefit analyses are not generally used to support cost-efficient decision-making. In many cases, trains are running on very high-speed lines at far lower average speeds (of only 45% of maximum speed) than the lines are designed to handle. Average speeds so far below design speeds raise questions as to sound financial management, say the auditors.
High-speed rail infrastructure is expensive: on average, the lines audited cost €25 million per km. Four of the ten lines will cost more than €100 million per minute of saved travel time. The highest figure is on the Stuttgart to Munich line, which will cost €369 million per minute saved. On the other hand, giving due consideration to the alternative solution of upgrading existing conventional lines could save billions of euros.
Source: European Court Of Auditors
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