EU Unveils High-Speed Rail Plan to Cut Travel Time, Cut Flights

(EUROPEAN UNION) The European Commission on November 5, 2025 set out its most ambitious rail agenda yet, unveiling a plan to accelerate high-speed rail across the bloc and cut rail travel times by up to half on key routes by 2040, a move designed to make trains a compelling alternative to short-haul flights. The blueprint, presented as a “High-Speed Rail Deal,” lays out fixed timelines, funding targets, and legislative steps to connect major cities faster, ease pressure on airports, and push the EU toward its carbon-neutral goal by 2050.

Commissioner for Sustainable Transport and Tourism, Apostolos Tzitzikostas, framed the effort in sweeping terms of mobility, cohesion, and competitiveness.

“High-speed rail is not just about cutting travel times – it is about uniting Europeans, strengthening our economy, and leading the global race for sustainable transport. With today’s plan, we are turning ambition into action: breaking down barriers, mobilising investments for modern infrastructure, and making cross-border rail the backbone of a carbon-neutral, competitive, and secure Europe. Citizens across the Union will benefit from faster, safer, and more affordable journeys that bring Europe closer together,” said Tzitzikostas.

Officials put precise numbers on what the next 15 years could deliver. Berlin to Copenhagen would fall from seven hours to four by 2030. Sofia to Athens would drop from 13 hours and 40 minutes to six hours by 2035. Lisbon to Madrid, pegged at five hours in 2030, would be cut to three hours by 2034. Madrid to Paris would be targeted at six hours. Berlin to Vienna via Prague would be sliced from over eight hours to four and a half. Baltic connections would tighten dramatically: Tallinn to Riga in one hour and 45 minutes; Riga to Vilnius in two hours; and Vilnius to Warsaw in four. The Commission said these travel times are designed to make rail the default choice for many cross-border journeys that today still lean on short-haul flights.

The commitments come with money attached, alongside a sequence of legal and technical steps to open bottlenecks that slow cross-border trains. The Commission said the EU has already backed 804 rail infrastructure projects, channeling €34.4 billion through the Connecting Europe Facility. That figure represents 68.76% of total CEF investment, signaling the tilt toward rail inside the EU’s infrastructure spending. Building on that base, Brussels aims to mobilize at least €2.9 billion by 2027 and is preparing a pilot project later this year that it hopes will raise €500 million for priority links. The spending, according to officials, will target missing cross-border sections, upgrades to existing lines, and modern signaling that allows high-speed trains to run seamlessly across national systems.

For passengers, the headline promise is faster journeys, but the Commission also moved to fix the everyday obstacles that make international rail hard to use. Tzitzikostas said a new push on ticketing and booking will make itineraries easier to find and buy, especially when more than one company is involved or when trains connect with planes.

“The priority, at this moment, is to ensure that citizens, when they want to use the train for cross-border connections through different companies, can book it as a single ticket,” he said.

Under the plan, proposals will be tabled by 2026 to improve cross-border rail ticketing and booking systems, enabling passengers to purchase seamless multimodal tickets—combining train and plane—“with a single click,” according to the Commission’s outline. A revision of passenger rights law is due in early 2026 to support those changes and codify protections for travelers who rely on combined journeys.

The timeline is tightly staged, with binding steps to keep the network build-out on track. By 2027, the Commission will set binding timelines for removing cross-border bottlenecks—stretches where infrastructure, signaling, or capacity lags create long delays and force trains to slow down at national borders. The same year, legislation will be introduced to ban the anticompetitive scrapping of safe rolling stock and require transparent resale conditions, a measure intended to keep usable trains in service and spur open access for new operators. The European Union Agency for Railways and the Directorate-General for Mobility and Transport will support these efforts by aligning technical standards and monitoring implementation across member states.

The plan’s center of gravity is the construction of a fully connected high-speed rail network by 2040, with the European Commission coordinating a dedicated financing strategy that ties together EU funds, national budgets, and private capital. The strategy, officials said, will be rolled out through the High-Speed Rail Deal framework to mobilize investments for priority projects and ensure delivery of the corridors that have the highest impact on travel times and cross-border flows. A new EU scoreboard for high-speed rail will track progress, providing transparent benchmarks on construction, performance, and the pace at which travel times fall between major cities.

Beyond faster trains, the Commission said the expansion will ease congestion on conventional lines by shifting long-distance passenger traffic to high-speed tracks, opening space for night trains and freight. Military mobility—moving equipment and personnel quickly across the continent—would also benefit from stronger rail links, particularly on routes that today depend on road convoys or limited airlift capacity. The overarching aim is to reduce short-haul flights where rail provides a comparable journey, cutting emissions while keeping European cities closely connected as the economy grows.

Years of investment have begun to close gaps on several important corridors, but the new plan presses for larger gains within a defined timeframe. Berlin–Copenhagen at four hours by 2030 hinges on cross-border infrastructure upgrades and Danish and German coordination. Sofia–Athens at six hours by 2035 requires substantial modernization across Bulgaria and Greece, where current travel can stretch to nearly 14 hours. Lisbon–Madrid reaching three hours by 2034 would tie Iberia’s capitals more tightly, drawing travelers off flights that remain popular due to speed. Berlin–Vienna via Prague at four and a half hours promises a stronger link between Germany, the Czech Republic, and Austria, where today’s journey exceeds eight hours. And in the Baltics, the projected one hour and 45 minutes from Tallinn to Riga and two hours from Riga to Vilnius reflect a step-change in regional connectivity, with four hours from Vilnius to Warsaw connecting the Baltic states more directly to Central Europe.

Funding numbers point to momentum but also to the scale of the task. The €34.4 billion already committed through the Connecting Europe Facility underscores rail’s central role in EU infrastructure policy, with rail taking 68.76% of all CEF investment to date. The planned €2.9 billion by 2027 and the €500 million pilot later in 2025 are designed to bridge immediate financing needs and bring in new partners, including private investors, to accelerate delivery. The Commission said it will open a strategic dialogue with member states, industry, and financial actors to coordinate funding and sequence construction so that travel time gains arrive on high-impact routes earlier, giving passengers—and airlines—clear signals about shifting demand.

The operational and legislative measures are as important as the concrete and steel. Binding timelines for removing bottlenecks by 2027 force attention on border points where trains slow for signaling changes, track constraints, or limited capacity. The 2027 legislation to prevent anticompetitive scrapping of safe rolling stock aims to keep serviceable trains in circulation, supporting competition and faster scaling of cross-border services. Together with the 2026 ticketing proposals and the early 2026 revision of passenger rights, the legal package is meant to give high-speed rail not just fast tracks but also a smooth customer experience. The European Commission emphasized that a single-click multimodal ticket should be a normal option, not a rare exception, for trips that combine national operators or mix trains and planes.

By anchoring the plan in hard travel times and specific route targets, the Commission seeks to change how travelers evaluate their choices. If Berlin–Copenhagen becomes a four-hour journey with reliable departures and easy ticketing, rail can compete directly with flights once airport transfers and security queues are counted. Madrid–Paris at six hours extends the reach of day-trips for business and leisure, while Lisbon–Madrid at three hours draws Iberian travelers onto rail for trips that today typically default to air. In Southeastern Europe, cutting Sofia–Athens to six hours would redraw mobility patterns across the Balkans and the Aegean, attracting riders who now face a day-long train journey. For the Baltics, the projected times to Riga, Vilnius, and Warsaw promise a new backbone for regional travel and trade, reducing the friction that has historically hampered cross-border trips.

The Directorate-General for Mobility and Transport will guide member states through the technical standards needed to knit national systems into a true network, while the European Union Agency for Railways will help align safety and interoperability rules. The Commission said it will monitor progress through the forthcoming scoreboard, allowing passengers, operators, and governments to see where travel times are improving and where delays in construction or bottleneck removal are holding the network back. The scoreboard will also measure the knock-on effects for conventional lines, where capacity freed by high-speed services can be redirected to night trains and freight, helping shift cargo from road to rail.

Airlines and airports are likely to feel the effects as key corridors become competitive by rail. The Commission’s message is not a blanket rejection of air travel but a reshaping of the short-haul market where trains can offer city-center to city-center journeys with shorter total travel times once check-in and transfers are included. In countries where high-speed rail is already strong, like France and Spain, travel patterns have shifted toward rail on certain routes; the EU’s plan would extend that dynamic across borders, making a Berlin–Prague–Vienna service or a Lisbon–Madrid connection as routine as domestic high-speed lines are today. The goal, the Commission reiterated, is to make high-speed rail the backbone of a modern, efficient, and low-emission transport system, not just a patchwork of fast trains inside national borders.

The financing strategy behind the High-Speed Rail Deal is intended to lock in these changes. By mapping priority projects to measurable cuts in travel times and aligning EU and national budgets with private finance, Brussels aims to avoid the delays that have plagued some cross-border links in the past. Legal certainty—through the 2026 and 2027 proposals—and clear timelines are meant to reduce investor risk, encourage manufacturers to plan production of rolling stock and signaling equipment, and give construction firms predictable pipelines of work. The move to outlaw anticompetitive scrapping of safe rolling stock and to require transparent resale conditions should also help operators expand fleets quickly and affordably, boosting service frequency as new lines open.

The Commission said the investments will also aid resilience and security. High-speed corridors free up conventional tracks that can handle more freight and night services, linking ports, industrial hubs, and logistics centers with reliable rail paths. Military mobility benefits from the same backbone, with faster transit times and coordinated standards simplifying cross-border movements in times of crisis. These broader impacts, coupled with the emissions cuts from shifting short-haul travel to rail, are central to the EU’s pitch that the plan is not merely about faster trains but about a stronger, more connected union.

Progress will be assessed against the scoreboard and the fixed milestones, with the next two years focused on ticketing and passenger rights, and 2027 marking the shift to binding bottleneck timelines and new rolling stock rules. The Commission will keep convening member states, industry, and financiers to align funding decisions with the sequence of projects that deliver the largest travel time gains earliest. The European Commission’s transport department has published background materials and policy outlines on its website; more details are available via the European Commission transport policy.

Ultimately, the Commission is betting that clear targets, visible travel time cuts, and reliable service will build a self-reinforcing cycle of demand. As city pairs like Berlin–Copenhagen approach four hours and Lisbon–Madrid hits three, trains will absorb a larger share of trips that now go by air. Better booking tools will make cross-border journeys less fragmented, while harmonized rules will lower barriers for new operators and more frequent services.

“High-speed rail is not just about cutting travel times – it is about uniting Europeans, strengthening our economy, and leading the global race for sustainable transport,” Tzitzikostas said, repeating the case for why the EU is pushing so hard on this file.

With the High-Speed Rail Deal, the Commission is trying to turn those words into a network that travelers can measure in minutes saved and journeys made easier.