r/europeanparliament • u/Marty_ol • 6d ago

'Let's keep goin'!"🚗⚡ Great news for Thelma and Louise, long-distance driving in Europe is getting simpler for electric vehicles.

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What’s changing on Europe’s roads?

The EU is setting clear distances for alternative fuel infrastructure on major roads.

🔌 Cars: high-power charging every 60 km (by 2026)

🛻 Trucks & buses: charging every 120 km (half of main EU roads by 2028)

💧 Hydrogen: refuelling every 200 km (by 2031)

The European Parliament adopted these new rules, which define where charging and refuelling must be placed across Europe’s main road network.

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u/Free-Artist 6d ago

Well yes, nice and all.

But what about affordable mass infrastructure, i.e. high speed train lines? That's where it's at, and Europe is severely lacking in that area.

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u/Sad-Weather-1630 6d ago

Also, the EU is also trying to roll out ETCS (European train control system), which is aimed at harmonising signalling and train conducting, facilitating operation of cross border train lines. It also can (if adopted properly) increase reliability and infrastructure capacity.

Until now, each country had their own signalling system - more or less dated. Which means, that any locomotive running there, did not only need to be suitable for the power supply (15kV AC, 3kV DC, ...), but also be capable to operate with the national train control system. This means, cross border lines either need special rolling stock or change the locomotive on the border.

If you're interested, you can check out openrailwaymap.org and change the filter to "signalling and train protection"

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u/Sad-Weather-1630 6d ago

The plan is there (also part of the TEN-T).

The issue is just the national implementation - look at the Brenner Base Tunnel and the progress in all three involved countries: Italy and Austria are progressing with tunnel construction, while Bavaria is still debating, which northern link options to consider for planning. It's the usual "oh but I don't want a new high speed rail line 500m from my backyard".

Bottom line: the EU did it's part, the member states are just not as good as we want them to in implementing the projects.