New announcement by the European Commission on connecting Europe by train

The European Commission recently announced that 10 pilot projects will be supported in order to establish new rail services and improve existing ones. This action will improve cross-border rail connections across the EU, making them faster, more frequent and more affordable.

The Commission has selected the following proposals for cross-border pilot services:

• Hungarian Ministry of Transport, new services connecting Hungary, Austria and western Romania;
• Connection Germany  – Denmark – Sweden, with participation of SJ (new night train service Stockholm – Copenhagen – Berlin and day train Hamburg – Gothenburg (and potentially Oslo, in co-operation with DSB and DB), Snälltaget (enhanced night train service Stockholm – Copenhagen – Berlin), České dráhy (new service Prague – Berlin –Copenhagen, in co-operation with DB and DSB) and Flixtrain (new service Leipzig – Berlin – Copenhagen– Stockholm)
• Midnight Trains, new night train service Paris – Milan – Venice;
• Flixtrain, new service Munich – Zurich;
• WESTbahn, new service Munich – Vienna – Budapest, extension of existing service;
• Nederlandse Spoorwegen, enhancement of the existing Amsterdam – London service, in cooperation with Eurostar;
• European Sleeper, new night train service Amsterdam – Barcelona;
• Ferrovie dello Stato Italiane /Deutsche Bahn, new services Rome – Munich and Milan – Munich, with a possible extension to Berlin;
• ILSA, new services Lisbon – A Coruña and Lisbon – Madrid;
• Ferrocarrils de la Generalitat de Catalunya, new services connecting Catalonia and the South of France.

The proposals comes in response to the Commission’s Action Plan to boost long-distance and cross-border passenger rail, adopted in December 2021.

Source: European Commission