The damaging floods that took place last summer in northern Europe still strongly affect railway networks. In Germany, for instance, parts of the damaged network will become functional again during 2022 or even later.
RailTech Europe 2022
The plan to ‘revive’ the Trans Europ Express was launched at the end of last year by Germany: a network of cross-border trains in Europe by cooperating railway companies. “The network needs to be expanded all over Europe to convince as many passengers to take the train”, says Enak Ferlemann, Germany’s previous Parliamentary State Secretary for Transport and Digital Infrastructure.
Night trains are making a comeback as a more sustainable long-distance transport. There are however quite some challenges, such as high costs and different standards across countries. “The infrastructure is there, so it should be made full use of at night”, says Philippe Lorand, Senior Advisor at the UIC Passenger Department.
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An increase in extreme weather over the past two years has seen several washouts on the Marches Line in the UK, causing short notice closures of up to seven days. To minimise future disruption and delays, Network Rail engineers have installed half-a-mile of rock armour and refurbished culverts (under track drainage) between Hereford and Abergavenny.
Czech-based Railway Research Institute VUZ plans to further upgrade its test tracks with ETCS and study the testing of autonomous trains. They will also install their own sources of clean energy and production of hydrogen, investing 24 million euros in both projects.