Rail : a fragmented market and infrastructure

Further gains from making the EU rail fully inter-operable
Historical development of rail systems within national borders results in many differences in Europe’s railway networks: different track and loading gauges, electrification and signalling systems, and train designs. These remain the main obstacle to a single market in the rail sector, since the availability of trains that can cross borders is limited. There are huge constraints to upgrading rail infrastructure to remove borders for trains, and so the process must therefore be implemented in steps. How-ever, the long-term benefits of a truly European rail market could be up to 10 times those quantified here, i.e. between 10 and 27 billion euros annually taking into account the cost of upgrading rail infrastructure.

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