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The implementation complies between 81 and 100% with the Regulation requirements, a set of rules defining what needs to be done.
The major challenges of the TEN-T infrastructure network can only be met with a sound mix of funding and financial instruments. The years 2016 and 2017 were successful in that regard, states the progress report on the work done to implement the trans-European transport network (TEN-T). The core transport network of Europe should be complete by 2030, with a lot of projects still on the shelves.
In the years 2016 and 2017, TEN-T received increased funding from the Connecting Europe Facility (CEF), as well as from other EU means. This has surely helped the successful implementation of the TEN-T network thus far, the report suggests. Currently, the implementation complies between 81 and 100% with the Regulation requirements, a set of rules defining what needs to be done.
Not always reality
However, these compliance rates do not always fully reflect the reality in terms of quality or operational functionality of the transport network, the report also concludes. “Indeed, this analysis needs to be put in the context of partly limited technical TEN-T standards compared to the real needs on the ground. These standards might therefore need to be further specified and developed in the upcoming revision of the TEN-T Regulation in order to better capture the actual potentials and limitations of the network.
It also gives a concrete example. While compliance is already reached to a large extent in terms of electrification (89%), track gauge (86%), freight line speed (86%) and freight axle load (81%), this is not yet the case when it comes to freight train length (43%) and especially ERTMS deployment (11%). “These are still lagging behind. A line may be fit for 740m train length but does not have enough sidings to ensure full interoperability in practice.”
Also telling are the compliance levels in certain countries. Take for example the freight line speed, where the parameter is 100km/h. Compliance with this requirement was already at a high 86% per 2017 data. But this is not the case in the Baltic States, Poland and Bulgaria. For example in Poland, the average speed of an intermodal train is 31.7km/h, and of a conventional freight train 25.5km/h. Read more
Source: RAILFREIGHT.COM
