A recent EU survey shows that a large majority of European citizens would like to travel faster and more easily between European countries, preferring to travel by high-speed rail instead of flying. Commissioned by the Community of European Railway and Infrastructure Companies (CER) and carried out by Polling Europe, this new European perception survey comes at a key moment, as the European Commission prepares to launch a plan, requested by President Ursula von der Leyen, for a European High-Speed Rail Network connecting all EU capitals and major cities.
Over five thousand interviews were conducted across Europe as part of the survey to understand EU citizens’ perceptions of transport connections between European countries, their likelihood of travelling by high-speed rail within Europe, and their views on transport infrastructure investments:
• When asked about their perception of current transport options, only 1 out of 10 EU citizens consider transport connections between EU countries to be adequate. 83% of citizens surveyed believe there is room for improvement, with 49% stating that transport connections must be improved to make travel significantly faster and easier.
• Regarding the perception of high-speed rail in Europe, 3 in 4 EU citizens would take a high-speed train instead of a plane when travelling across Europe for short and medium distances if there were fast and reliable high-speed rail connections between European capitals and major urban areas. (....)