Title page

Contents

ABBREVIATIONS AND GLOSSARY 6

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY 8

INTRODUCTION 12

High-speed rail in Europe 12

The EU's high-speed rail network is growing in size and in rate of utilisation 12

EU policies for high-speed rail 14

Transport policy 14

Cohesion policy 15

EU support for building high-speed lines: significant, but a fraction of total cost 15

AUDIT SCOPE AND APPROACH 17

OBSERVATIONS 20

EU co-funded investments in high-speed rail can be beneficial, but there is no solid EU-wide strategic approach 20

High-speed rail is a beneficial mode of transport which contributes to the EU's sustainable-mobility objectives 20

The Commission's powers are limited, and its plan to triple the length of the high-speed rail network is unlikely to be achieved 21

Member States plan and decide on their national networks, leading to a patchwork of poorly connected national high-speed networks 23

Decision-making lacks reliable cost-benefit analyses 29

"Very high-speed" is not needed everywhere 29

Cost-efficiency checks are rare 31

Cost-benefit analyses are not used as a tool for decision-making in the Member States 33

Cost overruns, construction delays and delayed entry into service: a norm instead of an exception 35

A citizen's view: a real-life assessment of travel times, prices and connections, of passenger-services and of stations and their catchment area 38

Travel times and ticket prices, are important factors for success 38

Further improvements needed to rail ticketing, and in monitoring passenger-services data 41

The number and location of stations are both important 42

High-speed rail sustainability: effectiveness of the EU co-funding at risk 46

Passenger data analysis: three of the seven completed high-speed rail lines carry fewer passengers than the benchmark of nine million per year 46

Catchment-area analysis of the number of people living along the lines: nine of 14 audited high-speed lines and stretches do not have sufficient high number of potential passengers 47

The competitiveness of high-speed rail compared to other modes of transport: there is no "polluter-pays" principle yet 50

Seamless and competitive cross-border high-speed rail operations: not yet universal 51

With many barriers still existing, there is a long way to go before markets become open and competitive on high-speed lines in the EU 51

Track access charges: overly complicated, and a potential hindrance to competition 54

A strong and independent regulator: necessary, but not always a reality 57

CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS 58

High-speed rail operations have many advantages but there is no realistic long term EU plan, and there is no truly EU high-speed network 58

The principles of sound financial management have not consistently been applied for the audited high-speed rail infrastructure investments 59

Assessing the situation for the EU citizens highlights the advantages of high-speed rail, while the sustainability of the EU co-funding to high-speed lines is at risk 59

Seamless and competitive cross-border high-speed rail operations are still some way off 60

ANNEX I. EUROPEAN HIGH-SPEED NETWORK MAP 65

ANNEX II. OVERVIEW OF HSR FUNDING SINCE 2000 BY MS AND MANAGEMENT MODE 66

ANNEX III. ANALYSIS OF PROJECTS 67

ANNEX IV. KEY HSR DATA PER MEMBER STATE 69

ANNEX V. SPEED YIELD ANALYSIS 70

ANNEX VI. A CITIZEN'S VIEW: ASSESSMENT OF TRAVEL TIMES, PRICES AND CONNECTIONS ON THE AUDITED HIGH-SPEED RAIL LINES: THE METHODOLOGY AND THE DATA 71

ANNEX VII. IMPACT OF STATIONS ON TRAVEL TIME AND SPEED 76

ANNEX VIII. MAP OF THE CATCHMENT AREA AND KEY DATA FOR EACH OF THE AUDITED HSLS, AS WELL AS FOR THE BORDER CROSSINGS ASSESSED 77

ANNEX IX. ANALYSIS OF STATIONS 91

REPLIES OF THE COMMISSION TO THE SPECIAL REPORT OF THE EUROPEAN COURT OF AUDITORS 92

Table 1. Overview of key financial data on audited projects 20

Table 2. Assessment of time from planning to operation 22

Table 3. Cost comparison of high-speed versus conventional rail: Venice - Trieste 32

Table 4. Cost of the audited high-speed line per km and per minute saved 33

Table 5. Overview of costs per km and comparison with estimates 36

Table 6. Door-to-door travel analysis on selected high-speed lines 40

Figure 1. Operational models for high-speed rail traffic 12

Figure 2. Length of national high-speed rail networks in the EU - growth over time 13

Figure 3. Overview of EU co-funding for high-speed rail by Member State (2000-2017) 16

Figure 4. Overview of audited lines (10 high-speed lines, four cross-border connections) 19

Figure 5. Differences in construction costs of high-speed lines 31

Figure 6. Station analysis of the Madrid-Barcelona-French border high-speed line 44

Figure 7. Catchment area analysis of the Madrid-Barcelona-French border high-speed line 48

Figure 8. Track access charge levels for selected origin-destination pairs in the EU 56

Boxes

Box 1. Poorly connected national networks, and their impact 25

Box 2. The operations of the Shinkansen 49

Box 3. The impact for travellers when there is no seamless travel of trains crossing borders 52

Pictures

Picture 1. Missing link at the border crossing on the Madrid-Lisbon high-speed line 27

Picture 2. Construction works on the Stuttgart 21 station 37

Picture 3. The Meuse TGV station 45

Picture 4. A Shinkansen train in Tokyo Central Station 49

Picture 5. Passengers waiting at Brenner station to continue their journey 53

Picture 6. All passengers must change trains at the border between France and Spain 54