From Vienna to Berlin via Prague in four hours, three ministers promise
Today, Vindobona will travel the next 800 between the two capitals in 8 hours and 44 minutes.
On Monday, the third annual German Railway Summit was held, where European transport ministers (online connection) discussed the future of rail transport. Among other things, plans for a significant acceleration of trains between Berlin and Vienna via Prague attracted attention here.
“Railways are the backbone of climate-friendly transport. Together with colleagues from Germany and the Czech Republic, we signed an agreement to improve the connection Vienna – Prague – Berlin. We will connect Vienna and Berlin in 4 hours and five minutes, “ tell the Austrian Ministry of Transport and Climate Leonore Gewessler.
Today, Vindobona will travel the next 800 between the two capitals in 8 hours and 44 minutes. The time mentioned by the Minister should be achieved in the mid-1930s, when high-speed lines on Czech territory will be completed, including the German-Czech tunnel under the Ore Mountains. The high-speed connection from Berlin to Dresden should be completed in 2025.
The Berlin-Prague-Vienna route is part of the Trans-Europ-Express 2.0 (TEE 2.0) concept, which was introduced during the German Presidency of the EU Council in September 2020. It envisages the construction of additional high-speed lines between European capitals and the expansion of night trains.
The first step should be to restore night lines where the necessary infrastructure already exists. These include, for example, planned connections between Amsterdam and Rome or Berlin and Barcelona.
Note: Below is a video from the conference, the contribution of the Czech Minister of Transport Karel Havlíček begins in approx. 37.
Seid LIVE while big #Schienengipfel dabei! Under the motto “Deutschlandtakt trifft auf #Europathy“Launch Andreas Scheuer with his EU colleagues on the specific implementation of TEE 2.0 and new train connections. #EUYearofRail https://t.co/sXSqJiEpHc
– BMVI (@BMVI) May 17, 2021
292 comments