The Commission has recently published a study on missing rail links (“Comprehensive analysis of the existing cross-border rail transport connections and missing links on the internal EU borders”). KCW carried out this study in cooperation with partners from several European countries between summer 2017 and spring 2018.

The background is the political debate around the so-called “missing links”, i.e. missing (smaller) rail links between EU countries. Additional international passenger traffic could help to improve mobility and economic development in EU border regions.

The study includes a thorough inventory of 365 cross-border rail links which are under exploited or not exploited at all, many being abandoned lines. In total 176 missing and promising links along 43 EU and EFTA internal land borders have been identified. Missing links represent an obvious obstacle and lost opportunity in European cross-border regions.  A pan-European demand estimation of rail travel potential was carried out for all these links. Following stakeholder consultation and taking into account the opinion of competent authorities, 48 cross-border rail connections were assessed as “potentially most beneficial projects”.

The study presents its key findings and proposes recommendations on how to smoothen the implementation of new cross-border railway connections.

Furthermore, the study develops from taking a purely infrastructural perspective on “missing links” to assessing the possible role competent authorities can take in the area of cross-border rail operations.  Funding and political willingness are the core prerequisites for new cross-border rail connections to be implemented. With this in mind, we can derive inspiration from the series of recommendations proposed by the study: With the cooperation of European, national and regional stakeholders, competent authorities and infrastructure managers for many of today’s missing railway links may see new passenger services in the future, contributing to the functioning of prospering and integrated European cross-border regions.

In this regard, we would like to encourage you to get familiar with the new TEN-T funding possibilities for cross-border projects. The Commission proposal establishing the Connecting Europe Facility (CEF) (COM/2018/438) refers to the eligibility of cross-border projects on the comprehensive network, and in Annex I, Part III, it sets out an indicative list of such projects. This applies to TEN-T projects. However, DG REGIO may complement this funding under the Structural Funds – which could open up new ways of ensuring complementarity between the two instruments and strengthening synergies. 

Furthermore, we would like to draw your attention to the upcoming CEF call 2019, which will include a possibility to submit funding requests for cross-border railway connections on the comprehensive network. Please see below an overview of this call for your information.

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The call for proposals will be available at Innovation and Networks Executive Agency  website: https://ec.europa.eu/inea/en/connecting-europe-facility/cef-transport/apply-funding