Europe is not in the grip of a 'high-speed rail revolution' with nations instead leaning towards a three-speed rail system with trains running at fast, medium and slow speeds across the continent, claims a minister of the European parliament.
The minister is debating statements made by UK publication The Economist that Europe is, in fact, in the grip of a high-speed rail revolution.
The publication says that over the next two years four new high-speed lines are set to open across Europe with trains running up to 320km/h - this includes a link from the Channel tunnel to a new rail hub at London St. Pancras connecting Britain's first high-speed line to the rest of the network, set to open in November.
But MEP and member of the European Parliament's Transport Committee Brian Simpson says advances in high-speed railways are limited to certain member states only – Spain, France, Germany, Belgium, the Netherlands and Italy.
He says the UK, Sweden, Denmark and Luxembourg have medium speed railways with the remainder of countries operating a slow system.
"Other countries – particularly Eastern Europe - are 30 years behind, so what we have is a three-speed rail Europe", he told www.offshore-technology.
And while existing technologies are making headway in France and Germany, Brian Simpson believes new technology is still in demand to drive the industry forward:
"ERTMS signalling [which works by standardizing both the information and the means of transmission that trains automatically send and receive to and from signalling control systems] is one idea but railways and governments can never agree.
"Railways and the railway industry need to change their attitudes and adopt a more positive outlook instead of finding problems".
"The biggest technical difficulty to overcome is the issue of interoperability – particularly in the area of locomotives, power supply and signalling", he added.
Last week, high-speed railways in France, Germany, Belgium the Netherlands, Austria and Switzerland joined with existing international services, including cross channel Eurostar and the Paris-Brussels Thalys, to form Railteam – a new marketing alliance designed to achieve better coordination between high-speed rail operators through the European rail network. By the end of next year the alliance hopes to run one website where passengers can buy tickets and make reservations for services across the continent.
By Ozge Ibrahim
