We carried out our audit in six Member States, analysing expenditure for more than 5 000 km of infrastructure on ten high-speed rail lines and four border crossings, covering around 50 % of the high-speed rail lines in Europe. We carried out a performance audit on the long-term strategic planning of high-speed lines in the EU, on the cost-efficiency (assessing construction costs, delays, cost overruns and the use of high-speed lines which received EU co-funding), and on the sustainability and EU added value of EU co-funding. Since 2000, the EU has provided 23.7 billion euro of co-funding to support high-speed rail infrastructure investments. It brings environmental performance and socio-economic benefits which can support the EU’s transport and cohesion policy objectives. High-speed rail is a comfortable, safe, flexible and environmentally sustainable mode of transport. Moreover, nine out of 14 lines and stretches have insufficient high numbers of passengers, and 11 000 national rules still exist, although the Court already asked in 2010 to lift these technical and administrative barriers.
Sustainability is low, effectiveness of the investments is lacking and EU added value is at risk with three out of seven completed lines having low passenger numbers leading to a high risk of ineffective spending of €2.7 billion EU co-funding. Cost-efficiency is at stake, because not everywhere very high speed lines are needed, as the cost per minute of saved travel time is very high, going up to €369 million, and as the average speeds only amount to 45 % of the maximum capacity, while cost overruns and construction delays are the norm rather than the exception. There is no realistic long term EU plan for high speed rail, but an ineffective patchwork of national lines not well linked since the European Commission has no legal tools and no powers to force Member States to build lines as agreed. A European high-speed rail network: not a reality but an ineffective patchworkĪbout the report Since 2000, the EU has been investing €23.7 billion into high speed rail infrastructure.
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