Christos Dionelis
School of Rural and Surveying Engineering, National Technical University Athens
John C. Mourmouris
Democritus University of Thrace
Maria Giaoutzi
School of Rural and Surveying Engineering, National Technical University Athens
Abstract
Railway systems consist of a mode with many advantages such as environmentally friendly transport services, rational energy consumption- non-oil based- as well as much spare capacity available.
The European Commission promotes a range of measures to maintain the efficiency and competitiveness of the European transport sector. Their final goal is to change the traffic share of the various transport modes in order to face among others the lack of additional capacity of the road system, the environmental impacts resulting from the over-use of the road systems etc. In this context, the revitalisation of the railway system is of real importance.
The railway system consists of a valuable European asset that may contribute substantially towards the ratification of the entire transport system. Strengthening of the railway sector implies both modernisation of the infrastructure as well as improvement of the efficiency of the operations.
In the framework of the Common Transport Policy – as a result of the Maastricht Treaty- the European Parliament and the Council issued the decision No 1692/96/EC on the guidelines for the development of the Trans-European Network (TEN).
In such a framework the railway system consists of an integral part of the TEN. For the efficient implementation of the rail TEN the Commission is proposing to focus on the construction of the missing links as well as on the upgrading of the rail infrastructure providing great potential for shifting freight transport from roads to railways.
Along these lines there has already been identified a group of railway projects which guarantee the efficient development of infrastructure in critical routes all over the continent. These priorities were agreed during the 1994 Essen European Council, and provide a basis for the EU co-financing of the TEN. The focus of this paper is on the role of the railways in the context of the TEN planning and implementation. More precisely, in chapter one some useful information on the advantages of the railways will be presented. Chapter two will present the development of the European railways, before the establishment of the TEN. Chapter three will present the vision of an integrated European rail network in the context of the TEN. In chapter four, the extension of the railway network in the framework of the revision of the TEN will be presented. Finally in chapter five, conclusions and recommendations will be drawn.