Rail transport in Europe

Overall only about 18% of European cargo moves via railways; in some countries, such as France, the percentage is much lower, but it is obviously higher in other countries, including Lithuania where over 70% of domestic cargo is transported by train.[2] The relative weakness of rail freight is due to the lower price of truck transport which externalizes a larger share of costs than rail,[3][4][5] as well as the high usage of coastal and inland shipping. By way of comparison, in the U.S., 38% of cargo (by ton-kilometer) moved via rail in 2000, primarily due to external factors such as geography.[6] Similarly Swiss railroads carry about 40% (by ton kilometers) of Swiss domestic freight[7] and even more than 70% of the (mostly international) Alp-crossing cargo traffic - 74.4% in the first half of 2021.[8][9] The New railway link through the Alps which includes the Gotthard Base tunnel, one of the longest tunnels in the world was built specifically to shift Alp-crossing freight traffic from road to rail.[10][11]

A big problem for long running international freight services - despite the European Single Market allowing for freedom of movement of goods, capital, labor and people and the Schengen area drastically reducing internal border controls - are the various differing standards for electrification, loading gauge, signaling, driver certificate and even gauge. Finland (Russian gauge), Portugal and Spain (Iberian gauge) use their own broad gauges as do the Baltic States and several non-EU members (mostly Russian gauge). Rail Baltica is an EU-funded project to provide a standard gauge rail link in and through the Baltic countries, potentially connecting to a Helsinki-Tallinn tunnel. While attempts to unify the divergent standards date back to at least the 1880s with the Conférence internationale pour l’unité technique des chemins de fer (international conference for the technical unity of railroads) in Berne, Switzerland, setting minimum standards for loading gauges (so called Berne gauge) and the so called "Berne space" (the space reserved for railroad workers in buffer and chain couplers[12]), most standards still differ widely between and even within countries as many rules only apply to newly built infrastructure, as much of Europe's rail infrastructure was built in the 19th century and upgrading it would be costly and disruptive.

Another problem is that unlike aviation, where Aviation English is a de facto global standard with few non-English holdouts, rail operations is virtually always done in the local language, requiring train operators either to be polyglots[13] or necessitating a change of staff at every (language) border. Another impediment to freight rail in Europe is the coupling system commonly used. While the Scharfenberg coupler, a mostly automatic system, is now commonly used on passenger trains,[14] its relatively low limit on maximum tonnage it can pull makes it unsuitable for most freight operations. While American freight railroads largely use Janney couplers, European freight trains primarily still use buffer and chain couplers, which require railway workers to screw each connection open and shut again during shunting, reducing speed and efficiency and increasing labor cost,[15] though unlike Janney couplers they allow for workers to adjust the slack between railcars.[16] There are plans to replace these couplers with a new digital automatic coupling system, but those have taken longer than expected and are still far from completion.[17][18] A pilot project regarding the digital automatic coupling system was launched by the German Federal Ministry of Transportation in 2020 and is to last until 2022.[19][20]

Train lengths in Europe are limited by the size of passing loops and refuge sidings as well as the placement of signals.[21][22] There are plans to allow trains of lengths up to 740–750 meters to use the main freight lines by upgrading the requisite infrastructure.[23][24] And various construction projects to that end have already been completed.[25][26] 750 meters is still much shorter than the longest trains worldwide, with many freight railroads throughout the world routinely running significantly longer trains, however most European rail infrastructure is not built to allow for longer trains without severe disruption. In addition, longer trains are considered to be more dangerous, as they provide more opportunities for freight cars to derail and make brake applications slower. Therefore, shorter freight trains may actually be an advantage rather than a disadvantage if safety is the priority.[27]

Double stack rail transport where two intermodal containers are stacked atop another either on flatcars or specifically designed well cars is virtually unheard of in Europe as the loading gauge of most lines doesn't allow for it. While the Betuweroute in the Netherlands was built with height clearances allowing double stacking,[28] it does not (as of 2021) connect to any rail line that allows double stacking and no double stack container trains have ever run along it.

Unlike countries like United States, where mainline freight rail electrification is nonexistent, a large percentage of European freight trains are electrified.

European freight railways are generally considered to be highly safe compared to other countries, with American freight railroads being described as "very bad by European standards" by an American-born Danish professor.[29]

Eurobalise (radio module) of the ETCS system (digitally guided train control).

While most railways in Europe use 1,435 mm (4 ft 8+1⁄2 in) standard gauge—in some other countries, like on the Iberian Peninsula, or countries which territories used to be a part of Russian Empire and Soviet Union: widespread broad gauge exists. For instance Eastern European countries like Russia, Ukraine, Armenia, Moldova, Belarus, Finland, and the Baltic states (Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania) use a gauge width of 1,520 mm (4 ft 11+27⁄32 in) or 1,524 mm (5 ft) (also known as Russian gauge). In Spain and Portugal 1,668 mm (5 ft 5+21⁄32 in) (also known as Iberian gauge) is used. Ireland uses the somewhat unusual 5 ft 3 in (1,600 mm) gauge, referred to in Ireland as "Irish Gauge" (but is an island with no external cross-border links). If a (railroad) Irish Sea Bridge were ever built, the break of gauge issue between the island of Ireland and Great Britain would turn from a hypothetical question into a concrete problem.

Likewise, electrification of lines varies between countries. 15 kV AC has been used in Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Norway and Sweden since 1912, while the Netherlands and France use 1500 V DC. France and Croatia also use 25 kV AC, Belgium, Italy and Slovenia use 3 kV DC. All this makes the construction of truly pan-European vehicles a challenging task and, until recent developments in locomotive construction, was mostly ruled out as being impractical and too expensive.

The development of an integrated European high-speed rail network is overcoming some of these differences. All high-speed lines outside of Russia, including those built in Spain and Portugal, use 1,435 mm (4 ft 8+1⁄2 in) standard gauge tracks. Likewise all European high-speed lines, outside of Germany, Austria and Italy use 25 kV AC electrification (Electrification of high-speed rail in Italy is mixed 3 kV DC and 25 kV AC). This means that by 2020 high-speed trains can travel from Italy to the United Kingdom, or Portugal to the Netherlands without the need for multi-voltage systems or breaks of gauge — or they could, if they didn't have to commute from one high-speed line to the next over "classical" lines using a different voltage and/or frequency.

Multiple incompatible train protection systems are another barrier to interoperability. A unified system, ETCS is the EU's project to unify train protection across Europe. The specification was written in 1996 in response to EU Directive 96/48/EC. ETCS is developed as part of the European Rail Traffic Management System (ERTMS) initiative, and is being tested by multiple Railway companies since 1999. All new high-speed lines and freight main lines funded partially by the EU are required to use ETCS Level 1 or Level 2.

The loading gauge on the main lines of Great Britain, almost all of which were built before 1900, is generally smaller than in mainland Europe, where the slightly larger Berne gauge (Gabarit passe-partout international, PPI) was agreed to in 1913 as a general minimum standard (individual lines can and do adhere to larger loading gauge standards) and came into force in 1914.[31][32] As a result, British (passenger) trains have noticeably and considerably smaller loading gauges and smaller interiors, despite the track being standard gauge.

This results in increased costs for purchasing trains as they must be specifically designed for the British network, rather than being purchased "off-the-shelf". For example, the new trains for HS2 have a 50% premium applied to the "classic compatible" sets which will be able to run on the rest of the network, meaning they will cost £40 million each rather than £27 million for the captive stock (built to European standards and unable to run on other lines), despite the captive stock being larger.[33] Similarly prior to the construction of High Speed 1 (then also known as the "Channel Tunnel Rail Link") to continental European standards, the first generation Eurostar trains were required to have several custom modifications compared to the TGV trains they are based on, including narrower loading gauge and provision for third rail electrification as used in southeast England. The successor Eurostar e320 is an almost "off the shelf" Siemens Velaro and is thus incompatible with most of the British legacy rail network but can run on most of Europe's high speed rail network.

Application of the EU standard heights for new construction; Green = 550 mm, Blue = 760 mm, Turquoise = both, dark gray = New builds in other heights than the EU standards

The European Union Commission issued a TSI (Technical Specifications for Interoperability) that sets out standard platform heights for passenger steps on high-speed rail. These standard heights are 550 and 760 mm (21.7 and 29.9 in). As the map indicates, there are several areas where 550 mm and 760 mm platform heights overlap and many trains serve stations with platforms of both heights posing challenges for step-free access. Where trains optimized for 760 mm platforms have to serve 550 mm platforms (or vice versa) accessibility is often limited.[34][35][36] Due to path dependency a mixture of platform heights will continue to exist for the foreseeable future.

Liberalization of European passenger rail market

Fourth Railway Package attempts liberalization of domestic passenger services in an attempt to reduce European rail subsidies.