The Economist - USA (2021-11-13)

56 Europe TheEconomistNovember13th 2021

their conventional networks, according to

the European Court of Auditors.

A  less  costly  approach  is  to  bring  back

the original long­distance rail technology:

the  night  train.  Sleeper  cars  were  disap­

pearing  in  Europe  by  the  mid­2010s,  but

were revived between Brussels and Vienna

in  2016  by  öbb,  Austria’s  national  carrier.

They have become a romantic fad, popping

up again in France, Germany and Sweden.

But their carrying capacity is small. 

Berth of a nation

National divisions have always been a pro­

blem  for  rail.  Sleeper  trains  were  brought

to Europe by Georges Nagelmackers, a Bel­

gian banking heir who fell for the Pullman

car  while  travelling  in  America  in  the

1860s.  It  took  him  years  of  negotiations

with  various  governments  to  set  up  the

Compagnie  Internationale  des  Wagons­

Lit,  which  ran  sleeper  coaches  that

switched  between  national  operators’  lo­

comotives when they crossed borders.

In  some  respects  European  cross­bor­

der rail has gone backwards. The trip from

Brussels  to  Luxembourg  can  take  an  hour

longer  than  it  did  in  1980.  Along  the  Ger­

man­Czech border some timetables are not

much better than those in Hendschel’s Tele-

graphof  1914.  When  Germany’s  transport

minister last year announced “Trans Europ

Express 2.0”, it raised the question of why

the original Trans Europ Express trains im­

mortalised by Kraftwerk in 1977 were aban­

doned by the early 1990s.

One difficulty in reviving them is com­

patibility.  Europe’s  electric  railways  use

four different voltage levels. Signalling and

safety systems are even worse: almost ev­

ery country initially had its own. The Euro­

pean  Rail  Agency  is  gradually  enforcing

common specifications, but that effort has

been  under  way  since  1996.  At  Europe’s

edges,  even  the  width  of  the  track  varies:

the  Baltic  countries  use  the  Russian  Em­

pire’s wider gauge, and Spain and Portugal

have one of their own.

Private rail entrepreneurs say that traf­

fic would rise if countries actually lived up

to  their  obligations  to  allow  competition.

Under  eulaw  all  member  states  have  un­

bundled their rail infrastructure from their

train operators, and must let outside play­

ers run on their tracks. But some countries

are in practice more open than others. Ger­

many’s track owner is an arm of Deutsche

Bahn and charges high service fees, which

tends  to  deter  competitors.  Sweden  char­

ges  only  for  the  added  maintenance  that

new  users  require,  fostering  competition

from  newcomers  such  as  FlixTrain  and

mtrthat has cut prices. 

Then  there  is  ticketing.  Because  sys­

tems are incompatible, only a few agencies

sell rail tickets across the entire continent.

As  for  refunds,  operators  are  responsible

only for the portion of the trip on their own

trains. High­speed  rail  tickets  typically

cost far more than a budget airfare on the

same  route.  That  is  unlikely  to  change

while  jet  fuel  and  most  airline  emissions

are tax­free.

If  Europe  wants  passengers  to  shift  to

rail,  it  will  need  to  tax  airlines’  carbon

emissions properly. Until then, many pas­

sengers will think of trains nostalgically. At

a Connecting Europe Express event in Ber­

lin, Christopher Irwin of the European rail

passengers’  union  reflected  that hefirst

travelled to the city by rail fromBritainin

the 1960s. “It was easier back then.”n

Copenhagen

Stockholm

Brussels

Lux.

Warsaw

London

Madrid

Athens

Vilnius

Lisbon

Rome

Paris

Oslo

Riga

Berlin

Vienna

FRANCE

AUSTRIA

GERMANY

SWEDEN

PORTUGAL SPAIN

NETHER-

LANDS

Milan

Frankfurt

Prague

Tallinn

Ba

lti

c^ S

ea

North

Sea

Mediterranean Sea

ATLANTIC

OCEAN

Brenner tunnel

HSR route,

est. ~2038

Polish HSR

est. ~2034

France/Spain

HSR link,

est. ~2040

European core passenger

railway network, 202

High-speed

Completed

To be upgraded

Planned

Conventional

Completed

To be upgraded

Planned

Source: European Commission

TheBelarus-Polandborder

Caughtatthewire

A

lexanderlukashenko, mastertacti­

cian? The president of Belarus has

broughtthousandsofmigrantsfromthe

MiddleEasttotheeu’s doorstepontheeve

ofwinter,daringthebloctoabandonits

humanitarianinstinctsastheworldlooks

on.MrLukashenkoseemstohaveintend­

edtoreignitetheinternaldivisionandpo­

liticalupheavalthatfollowedtheinfluxof

migrantstoEuropein2015.Hehasinstead

forgeda consensusinfavouroftheswift

punishmentofhisregime.

The scenesthathaveunfoldedatthe

Polish­BelarusianbordersinceNovember

8thwerehisconcoction.Belarusiantravel

agentsinIraqofferflights,a visaandthe

shampromiseofaneasypathtoa newlife

inEuropeinexchangeforthousands of

dollars. Arrivals in Minsk are whisked

throughthewoodstoa spotontheborder

where,farfromswiftlycrossingintoPo­

landandembarkingonthesupposedop­

portunityto movearoundtheSchengen

free­travelzone,migrantsendupsqueezed

between theeu’s razor­wirefences and

Belarusianmenwithguns,unabletogo

forwardorback.AsTheEconomistwentto

pressonNovember11th,some2,000were

trappednear the current main point of

concern,theKuznicacrossing(seemap).

Therehavebeena numberofattemptsto

breach the border there. An estimated

20,000migrantsarethought tobe else­

whereinBelarus,withmorestillcontinu­

ingtoflyinviaIstanbulandotherMiddle

EasterncitiesonBelavia,theBelarusian

statecarrier.

Mr Lukashenko’s foreign policy has

increasingly resembled that of a mafia

bosssincehistheftofelectionslastyear.

Hehassentgoonsafterdissidentswhofled

Aschemetousemigrantsto splitthe

euislikelytobackfire

Warsaw

Vilnius

Minsk

LATVIA

LITHUANIA

RUSSIA

UKRAINE

BELARUS

POLAND

Kaliningrad

(Russia)

Kuznica-Bruzhi

border crossing

150 km

EU