On 5 November 2025, the European Commission unveiled a comprehensive plan to accelerate the development of high-speed rail across the EU, offering passengers significantly reduced travel times whilst supporting the EU's twin goals of achieving carbon neutrality by 2050 and strengthening Europe's global competitiveness. Building on the Trans-European Transport Network (TEN-T), the plan sets the ambitious target of cutting the duration of many popular rail journeys across Europe by half compared to today, transforming high-speed rail into the backbone of sustainable, competitive, and secure European mobility.

This initiative represents a decisive shift in European transport policy, recognising high-speed rail as essential infrastructure for uniting Europeans, boosting economic growth, and leading the global transition to sustainable transport. The plan was developed following an Implementation Dialogue with railway industry stakeholders, passenger organisations, cities, civil society, trade unions, private investors, and related companies, ensuring that the strategy addresses real-world challenges and opportunities across the sector.

• By 2030, passengers will travel from Berlin to Copenhagen in four hours instead of seven; Sofia and Athens will be just six hours apart by rail, whilst new cross-border connections will link the Baltic countries and enable travel from Paris to Lisbon via Madrid, demonstrating concrete travel time reductions across Europe's most important corridors.
• The plan is structured around four strategic pillars: accelerating investment and harmonising a truly interoperable European high-speed rail network; removing cross-border bottlenecks through binding timelines and identification of options for speeds well above 250 km/h when economically viable; creating an attractive and competitive framework for rail services; and supporting a strong, innovative, and harmonised European rail sector.
• A dedicated EU financing strategy will be prepared in the coming months, culminating in a High-Speed Rail Deal, a multilateral commitment to mobilise necessary investments for priority projects. This strategic dialogue with Member States, industry, and financial actors aims to better coordinate funding sources and private investment, strengthening the EU financing ecosystem to ensure completion of the TEN-T network by 2040.

This comprehensive high-speed rail plan places research and innovation at the centre of Europe's rail transformation strategy. The dedicated 2026 Europe's Rail research call specifically targets technical barriers that currently prevent individual high-speed trainsets from operating seamlessly across Europe, addressing fundamental challenges in interoperability, standardisation, and technical harmonisation. By funding research into next-generation rolling stock, the plan accelerates the development and deployment of innovative technologies that will define the future of European high-speed rail.

Beyond immediate travel time reductions, the plan delivers multiple systemic benefits for European transport. Faster high-speed connections will ease congestion and increase capacity on conventional lines, improving services for regional and night trains whilst strengthening multimodal integration. 

Source: https://transport.ec.europa.eu/news-events/news/commission-launches-plan-accelerate-high-speed-rail-across-europe-2025-11-05_en