From the Iberian Peninsula to the Baltics and with connections between some of Europe’s most iconic destinations, travellers in Europe will soon be able to get further, faster by train, thanks to five revolutionary high-speed train journeys, two of them brand new routes.
Improvements to, and investments in, the Trans-European Transport Network (TEN-T) are significantly slashing the journey times between Copenhagen and Berlin, Paris and Rome, and Vienna and Ljubljana. By 2030, rail passengers will be able to travel between Berlin and Copenhagen in just four hours instead of the current seven. The Paris-Rome journey time will be cut from a whopping 10 hours and 50 minutes total at present to eight hours and 45 minutes. And the train trip between the Austrian and Slovenian capitals will drop from just over six hours currently to four and a half hours. (By a little further ahead in 2035, the ambition is to halve the journey time between Athens and Sofia).
🚄🇪🇺 Europe is picking up speed. #HighSpeedRail pic.twitter.com/ts8ueGxhDp
— Apostolos Tzitzikostas (@tzitzikostas) November 6, 2025
Meanwhile, the completely new route between Lisbon and Madrid, for which an EU implementing decision was signed in late October 2025, will see Portugal and Spain at last integrated into the bloc’s high-speed rail network. The development of the fast, cross-border rail connection aims to provide a viable alternative to the forty or so daily flights in both directions between Lisbon and Madrid. By 2030, the over-600-km trip between the two capital cities will be doable in just five hours by rail, with journey times falling further to only three hours by 2034.
And over at the other end of the region, a new Baltic high-speed line from Estonia to Poland is set to connect Tallinn – Riga – Vilnius – and Warsaw in seven hours and 45 minutes.
🚄🇪🇺 A faster, more connected Europe is on track. Today, I presented the EU’s new high-speed rail plan, set to deliver a truly European high-speed network by 2040.
— Apostolos Tzitzikostas (@tzitzikostas) November 6, 2025
The traveling time of many of Europe’s most popular rail journeys will drop significantly – for example:
📍… pic.twitter.com/8qugGUtmXw
The “well-functioning and faster high-speed rail network” envisioned by 2040 is, authorities say, being made possible by a “comprehensive” action plan that includes better interoperability of infrastructure and ticketing, and coordinated financing, and addresses rolling stock shortages with a push on a second-hand marketplace, while removing barriers for new operators. Revised powers for the European Union Agency for Railways will enable it “to remove redundant national rules and issue authorisations and certifications more efficiently,” a press release from the Directorate-General for Mobility and Transport says.
We’re launching a bold plan to make high-speed rail the fastest, more sustainable way to travel across Europe by 2040. 🚆
— European Commission (@EU_Commission) November 5, 2025
It’s a concrete timeline to remove bottlenecks, unlock investment, and harmonise rail systems⬇️ pic.twitter.com/QH5x1eEhOS
The Commissioner for Sustainable Transport and Tourism, Apostolos Tzitzikostas, has said the push on high-speed rail “is not just about cutting travel times – it is about uniting Europeans, strengthening our economy, and leading the global race for sustainable transport.” Another milestone in that same race within the bloc has been the recent adoption of a landmark initiative, the Sustainable Transport Investment Plan (STIP), that lays down a strategic course to accelerate energy transition within Europe’s aviation and maritime transport sectors. It paves the way for the mobilisation of billions in investment in sustainable aviation fuels (SAF) and looks to strengthen partnerships and producer-buyer mechanisms to build a sustainable aviation market driven by innovation and competitiveness.
