Trains will run faster on key routes across Europe and ticket prices and provider costs could be slashed under a Brussels plan to boost faltering efforts to make rail Europe’s default mode of transport.
A new speed requirement to ensure trains on a core network of track are able to travel at 160 km/h or faster would be introduced by 2040, the European Commission has proposed.
Cross-border travel, including by night trains, would be encouraged by making ticketing easier and potentially through cutting the track access charges faced by rail companies.
The commission vice-president Frans Timmermans, who presented the proposals for the bloc’s 27 member states to agree, said the EU’s executive would also look at introducing a VAT exemption for rail
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