High speed rail
route was designed to facilitate easy cross- border travel between the UK and France, the HS2 plans are concentrating on high- speed domestic travel.
is there; it’s now up to the rail operators to capitalise. For all the merits of high-speed rail lines, the proposed HS2 line within the UK has proved a highly contentious topic, particularly by groups whose homes and businesses fall across the proposed route. The HS2 plans, which now have the ‘green light’ to go ahead following lengthy court battles by campaigners, will link London to Birmingham in under 30 minutes by 2026, and later extend to Manchester and Leeds. The building of this line will halve journey times, and minimise travel times for onward destinations. Supporters have pointed out that the completion of the line will reduce pressures on other domestic rail routes, which are already hovering dangerously close to their capacity. It’s interesting to note that while the HS1
HS2 will affect European-wide operators While HS2 won’t directly link the UK to neighbouring Europe, the plans for it come at an interesting time. Now more than ever, there is a growing appreciation of the need for competition within the rail industry. The EU has ambitions to see 'a European high-speed network triple the length of the existing high- speed rail network by 2030.' (Roadmap to a Single European Transport Arena, March 2011). The liberalisation of the mainline international passenger railway market in January 2010 was a key step, as it allowed operators to compete and offer users a wider range of transport options. The EU’s plans to spur competition on domestic and cross-border travel will see new market entrants come onto the scene, and compete with companies who have previously enjoyed dominance. So despite HS2 focusing on bolstering our domestic rail service, its operations will affect other European-wide operators in the long run. They will no doubt be keeping a close eye on its development.
The UK is just part of an ambitious
and fast-growing rail transport network within Europe. There are plans to use the trans-European transport network (TEN-T) to create a link between all high- speed lines on the continent, thereby creating a fully-integrated European high-speed network. Expected passenger numbers for high-speed services are set to grow in line with the bettered infrastructure. As it currently stands, the proportion of long-distance passenger volume accounted for by high-speed rail will increase from 28.6 per cent of all traffic in 2011, to over a third (33.9 per cent) of all long-distance traffic in 2020. The UK might be surrounded by water,
but it’s an integral part of a European rail market set to experience keen growth over the next seven years. Amadeus anticipates that the UK will be one of four key markets representing more than 70 per cent of this growth (alongside France, Switzerland and Germany), and that it will be the market contributing the greatest proportion of this increase (70 million passengers). There’s no doubt that the UK will be a vital part of the European rail force as it become a more competitive, and tightly fought market. Sometimes ‘small’ works. Thomas Drexler is director of Rail at Amadeus IT Group
www.amadeus.com
June 2013 Page 75
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