IT
DE
HR
NL
FR
JA
RO
RU
ES
TR
Travel from Budapest could be cut by hours with the EU’s new high-speed rail network!
The European Commission’s new rail plan aims to connect Europe’s capitals with a single high-speed network. If the Hungarian sections are completed, travel from Budapest to other major cities could be shortened by several hours.
The new network would link the EU’s capitals and large cities, making high-speed rail a genuine alternative to air travel. According to the Commission, it would simultaneously serve climate, economic, and transport policy goals.
Budapest’s role on the high-speed map
The Commission’s plan envisions Europe’s major cities connected through a single high-speed network that would effectively cover the entire continent by 2050, although some sections could be ready as early as 2030 or 2035. The project aims to make rail competitive with air travel while reducing carbon emissions from transport and boosting economic ties.
The development is part of the TEN-T network (Trans-European Transport Network), which links the EU’s main transport corridors. The Commission expects that on the new tracks, designed for speeds of at least 200–250 km/h, current travel times will be significantly reduced. Notable examples include:
- Berlin–Copenhagen: about 4 hours instead of 7
- Paris–Rome: around 9 hours instead of 10 hours 50 minutes
- Sofia–Athens: roughly 6 hours instead of 13 hours 40 minutes
- Vienna–Ljubljana: 4.5 hours instead of 6
- Lisbon–Madrid–Paris: a new, connected route by 2035
- Tallinn–Riga–Vilnius–Warsaw: the first high-speed rail link connecting the Baltic states by 2030
Hungary is also included in the plan. Budapest would connect to the western network via Vienna, while a new line eastward through Transylvania would shorten travel to Bucharest. If the planned Hungarian sections are completed, estimates suggest that travel from Budapest to Berlin or Bucharest could take about six hours, and to Vienna around 1 hour 40 minutes.
Source: European Commission
The total cost of building the European high-speed rail network is estimated at around EUR 546 billion. Funding would come from EU sources, favourable loans, and private investment, with high-speed projects receiving priority in EU funding allocations.
Not even my great-great-grandchildren will live to see this. We know how it goes: There will first be “feasibility studies,” which will take 20-30 years. Then there will be several abortive tenders before one is finally accepted, taking another 20-30 years. Amid all of it, dozens of “green” “nonprofits” and the like will file hundreds of legal challenges against the project due to the deleterious environmental impact thereof. It’ll take the best part of a half a century to wrap those up, including the inevitable appeals and counter-appeals. When they finally get a backhoe out there to start doing the digging, it’ll be all of two minutes before they come across an owl’s nest or some such. That will cause all work to immediately cease while said owl is relocated or, far more likely, another feasibility study is conducted on rerouting the whole thing. That’s another 20-30 years.
So, yeah, they won’t lay a single sleeper until right around 2150 at the earliest. I dare surmise we’ll have teleportation by then, rendering this obsolete.
Oh, and there’s also this little tidbit: “Funding would come from EU sources[.]” The E.U. has no “sources” of anything except seemingly endless supply of hot air. This is European countries’ citizens’ tax money.