I was recently reading an opinion piece where the writer talks about a dream of an interconnected high speed Europe where:

“…In the super-speed rail world of my dreams I would have … caught a midnight high speed train to Vienna. I would have boarded a dimly lit carriage, settled into a comfy seat with a generous pitch and deep recline and dozed all the way to Munich. Somewhere around the Austrian-German frontier I would take a seat in a perfectly appointed dining car and tuck into a very Mitteleuropean breakfast buffet …As most European legacy carriers have all but given up even trying to run a differentiated business class product, a completely high speed Europe, where the connections are fast and frequent (and round the clock), can’t come soon enough.”

I totally agree with him. How great would it be, to be in London and rather than get an early morning flight to Vienna but a night train and arrive in Vienna ready for a day of meetings? If Europe wants to integrate and form a better Union then it really needs to consider an integrated transport system as well. I know RailTeam exists, but there is more work to do. In a united integrated Europe, issues of not being able to exchange a Belgian ticket because you are in The Netherlands or you cannot get a train to London because its a public holiday in Brussels should be a thing of the past.

Perhaps airlines should partner with rail services and offer an integrated service? If I want to fly to Sydney on QANTAS, I will need to fly from either London or Franfurt as QANTAS does not fly from Amsterdam. It is easy for my to get a Deutsche Bahn ICE to Frankfurt Airport a journey of over three hours and then get on my flight. If I wanted to fly from Amsterdam to Frankfurt the whole process could take just about the same time but the costs would be higher.

It is high time at the fully integrated, high speed rail network links the major cities of Europe. I know I bang on about high speed trains and the benefits of train travel but having done most of Europe by train I cannot recommend it enough. Does wonders for your carbon footprint!

Image Source: www.railteam.co.uk