EU Commission and Parliament agree on new transportation plan for Europe
Originally published at Europe in Review on January, 2024
The EU Commission and EU Parliament agreed to update the Trans-European Transport Network Ten-T guidelines on December 18. [EC, EC]
The TEN-T was established under a 2013 regulation to reduce travel time between and connect 424 European cities and towns, primarily by rail, road, inland waterways, and short sea routes. [EU News]
The update provides additional funding to connect TEN-T municipalities via a 27-year plan to 2050. The proposed regulation will now undergo technical finalisation and must be passed separately by the EC and European Parliament to become law.
The proposed TEN-T plan establishes additional updates to the environmental regulations requiring participating jurisdictions to develop sustainable urban mobility plans to reduce transportation emissions by constructing new cycling paths and sidewalks by 2027.
The plan also provides funding for strategic transportation, extending new rail links to Ukraine and Moldova while eliminating previous plans to build links to Russia and Belarus. The plan significantly upgrades electric rail transport, improving funded train speeds to 160 KPH. Electric rail will lead in nine new transportation corridors outlined by the regulation.
The plan also integrates the EC 2021 Sustainable and Smart Mobility Strategy. [EC]
The Smart Mobility Strategy includes measures to build transportation infrastructure across the EU, including new electric vehicle charging stations and building autonomous vehicle-to-vehicle and vehicle-to-signal communications to improve safety and traffic management. This includes an update to technical specifications for interoperability (TSIs) for all modes of transportation in TEN-T and relies heavily upon new 5G communications networks. [European Parliament Think Tank]
US follows EU lead
The US is following the EU’s lead in this area.
The 2021 EU plan was released the same year as a similar policy initiative in the US, the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law (BIL), which has a broad scope to build out electric vehicle charging stations and nationwide digital transportation infrastructure, according to the leader of the ICF International transportation consulting practice Jeffrey Ang-Olson during a June 13 interview.
Sensors in new cars will allow network transportation systems through onboard sensors and traffic control systems on the ground. This could assist drivers in braking at intersections and, in the future, govern autonomous EV transportation within cities to avoid accidents.
On June 22, 2022, the EU mandated that all new vehicles sold in 2024 include Intelligent Speed Assistance (ISA). This onboard system warns drivers when speeding through a four-level warning series, culminating in automated de-acceleration of the vehicle. [Autoweek] [EC]
The US BIL mandates a system to detect drivers impaired by drugs or alcohol be included in all new cars sold starting in 2026. [US Department of Transportation]
The current TEN-T plan mandates the connections of all major airports to long-distance rail. Future TEN-T sensor networks could be expanded in three directions to include governance of flight patterns for electric vertical takeoff and landing (e-vtol) aircraft taxis on multiple flight elevations, planes above, and trains and EVs below. The current new TEN-T regulations showcase the continued advancement of international transportation planning in Europe and globally.
New TEN-T regulations demonstrate that new European transportation infrastructure will continue to develop with three main goals: increasing continental integration, digitisation, and decreasing carbon emissions.
(rw/gc)