
Will Europe's high-speed ‘Metro-style' rail network really happen?
the 'Starline' report
.
'Designed like a Metro system, Starline changes how Europeans perceive their own continent – not as a collection of distant capitals, but as a single, fast-moving network where every connection, whether for people or goods, is within easy reach.'
Sounds great, and the
think-tank has published a map to demonstrate how 39 cities across Europe, from Dublin to Kyiv and Helsinki to Lisbon, could be connected - the map uses a common diagrammatic Metro map style, which is known to sometimes ignore real-world geography in favour of easier understanding for travellers.
So how realistic is this proposal?
Map of the proposed Starline European connections. Map: 21st Europe
Geography
Munich to Milan via Zurich is a straight vertical line on the map, which ignores the existence of Innsbruck and the minor geographical obstacle that is the Alps.
Advertisement
It also connects Estonia's capital Tallinn with Finland's Helsinki via a still-on-the-drawing-board €20 billion tunnel that – if it is completed, with earliest projections setting a date sometime in the 2030s – would be the longest rail tunnel in the world.
The project would also require a tunnel under the Irish Sea, which drops at its deepest point more than 300m below sea level, to connect Liverpool and Dublin.
A possible future direct link between Glasgow and Belfast, meanwhile, would face the same problems as former UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson's dead cat plan for a
bridge or tunnel to connect Scotland and Northern Ireland
.
What actually is it?
Starline's proposal appears to involve being a train operator - the trains would be blue, with 'quiet carriages' and family spaces - while also coordinating European ticketing systems and building quite a lot of new infrastructure.
In addition to the new tunnels and tracks required, the proposal specifies: "The trains will arrive at new stations built just outside major cities with connections to existing urban transport systems."
It would also create an 'open' ticketing system, where passengers could buy tickets for anywhere in Europe on a single platform - similar to the British online platform Trainline, which also sells tickets in Europe.
It is not specified exactly how this would fit in with the existing rail operators that already run services around Europe, many of whom are publicly funded, other than to say that national rail operators would be "responsible for specific routes under a common framework".
They add that "harmonised labour agreements" would be required for rail employees - we'll let them break that one to the famously militant French rail unions.
Advertisement
Who pays?
Which brings us to the question of funding.
According to its Starline blueprint, 21st Europe
proposes 'central coordination for trains, passenger experience, and technology while allowing national rail operators to run routes under a franchise model.'
It adds: "Starline should be structured as a publicly funded, privately operated system, designed to maximise efficiency while ensuring strong public oversight".
Many European countries do, of course, already provide public funding for rail operators - such as France's SNCF, Spain's Renfe and Germany's Deutsche Bahn.
Advertisement
Starline's proposal would seem to involve
the hundreds of billions in infrastructure spending being publicly funded, and operated by national rail companies – all overseen by an as-yet non-existent European Rail Authority (ERA).
'Now, we begin building the network to push for real change, bringing together policymakers, designers, and industry leaders to turn vision into action,' the think tank said.
Reasons for change
Some slight issues of practicality aside, the Starline report does identify many real problems with Europe's rail network.
Ticketing issues, a lack of co-ordination and integration across borders means travelling between countries in Europe can be 'fragmented, slow, and expensive'.
The think tank says unifying design is key to a cross-border travel network.
'Stations feel disconnected, trains vary wildly in design, and the journey itself is rarely considered as part of the experience,' it says of the current system.
And it is looking to build on an existing EU initiative to unify transport across the bloc, known as the Trans-European Transport Network (TEN-T).
TEN-T, which Starline lambasts as lacking in speed and ambition, seeks to develop a network of railways, inland waterways, short sea shipping routes and roads linking urban nodes, maritime and inland ports, airports and terminals for the 'efficient transportation for people and goods, ensures access to jobs and services, and enables trade and economic growth'.
It seeks to work with European state and private rail operators, offer funding for infrastructure projects and create Europe-wide systems such as a common rail signalling system.
Even with all these problems, cross-border rail travel is rapidly growing in popularity as travellers become more conscious of their environmental impact.
'A bold shift to high-speed rail might be Europe's best chance to meet its 2050 net-zero goals while ensuring mobility remains both fast and green,' the think tank said.
In 2022, the transport sector contributed approximately 29 per cent of the EU's total greenhouse gas emissions, according to the European Environment Agency.
There are good economic reasons for it too -
'When China expanded its high-speed rail network, cities with HSR connections experienced a 14.2 percent increase in GDP, and each new HSR line contributed an additional 7.2 percent to urban GDP growth,' the think tank explained in its online brochure.
'A European project of similar scale could drive investment, unlock regional economies, and make the single market feel like a single market – physically, not just economically.'
Hashtags

Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles


Local Norway
02-07-2025
- Local Norway
Naturalisation becomes 'fragile' as European countries make moves to strip citizenship
The first Global State of Citizenship report, by the Global Citizenship Observatory (GLOBALCIT) at the European University Institute (EUI) in Florence, analysed citizenship laws in 191 countries in 2024. Researchers found that "with the growing number of armed conflicts and incidence of terrorism worldwide, many countries have introduced provisions for withdrawing the citizenship of a person on the basis of national security grounds.' Over a third of countries, including many in Europe, 'can now strip a person of their citizenship when their actions are seen as disloyal or threatening to state security,' the report said. The trend has been gaining pace in recent years. The move to make it easier to take away someone's newly acquired nationality is linked to an 'increasing securitisation of citizenship' since the 2001 September 11th terror attacks in the US. Between 2000 and 2020, 18 European countries put in place measures to deprive individuals of their citizenship for reasons of national security or counter-terrorism. Before 2001, these measures were 'virtually absent'. Recently, the Swedish government commissioned an inquiry on the revocation of citizenship from individuals threatening national security . Germany's coalition parties discussed a similar policy for those found to be 'supporters of terrorism, antisemites, and extremists'. Hungary has also amended the constitution to allow the temporary suspension of citizenship for national security reasons. The Middle East and North Africa are other regions where these policies have expanded, the report said. Advertisement Ways to strip citizenship Four ways were identified in the report for when individuals can be stripped of their citizenship on security grounds. Nearly 80 per cent of countries have rules covering at least one of these situations. In 132 countries around the world, and two thirds of European states, citizenship can be removed for acts that threaten national security, such as treason, espionage, trying to overthrow a government or terrorism. These laws exist in Belgium, Estonia, France, Germany, Greece, Ireland, the Netherlands, Switzerland, Turkey and the UK. In 89 countries, however, this rule concerns only people who were naturalised, not those who acquired citizenship by birth. Another reason that can lead to the stripping of citizenship is when naturalised individuals have committed serious criminal offences, which typically involves having been sentenced to imprisonment for a certain period. These rules exist in 79 countries but only a few in Europe. In 70 countries, citizenship can be removed if someone was found to have served in a foreign army and in 18 countries this measure concerns only people who acquired citizenship by naturalisation. In Europe, 40 percent of countries – including France, Germany, Greece, the Netherlands, Estonia, Turkey, Belarus and Bosnia Herzegovina – can remove citizenship under certain conditions if naturalised nationals were found to have served in a foreign army. Latvia, one of the countries that can revoke citizenship for such reasons, changed the law in 2022 to allow its citizens to work with the Ukrainian military forces. Citizenship can also be removed for providing non-military services to another state, such as being elected in a public office, working for certain agencies or even taking up a role in the civil service. Such rules exist in 75 countries around the world, including European countries such as France, Greece and Turkey. Advertisement Naturalised citizens more at risk Luuk van der Baaren, co-author of the report, said 'these developments indeed raise an important question as to what extent citizenship is still a secure legal status'. The data also shows that 'a large share of the citizenship stripping provisions are discriminatory in nature, as they only apply to specific groups, particularly naturalised citizens'. This is to prevent a person from becoming stateless, but it means that 'citizens by birth have a secure legal status, while those who acquired citizenship later in life do not,' he added. Losing citizenship may not only affect the individual's security and opportunities for work, but also that of dependants, the report warned. In 40 percent of countries removing someone's citizenship can extend to their children. Other ways of losing citizenship There are other ways, intentional or not, that people can lose their citizenship, according to the report. The most common, is to have it withdrawn because it was acquired in a fraudulent way. Such rules exist in 157 countries. Some 156 states also have rules on how to voluntarily renounce citizenship, usually with provisions to ensure that a person does not end up stateless. In 56 countries, people can lose their citizenship if they acquire another nationality, and in 55 this may occur by simply residing abroad. Under the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, 'everyone has the right to a nationality', but four million people in the world are stateless 'because their citizenship remains denied or unrecognised,' the report continued. On the other hand, 35 countries do not allow people to renounce citizenship, or they make it impossible in practice. Advertisement Unequal rights The report also looked at ways to acquire citizenship and concluded different countries offered 'highly unequal pathways'. Countries make vastly different demands on applicants when it comes to criteria such as economic self-sufficiency, civic or cultural integration, language or citizenship tests, and renunciation of other citizenships. And on residency requirements, the Americas and Western Europe have the more inclusive measures. Citizenship in European countries is also regulated via the European Convention on Nationality, under which the residence requirement cannot exceed 10 years. But in 15 countries the wait is longer than 10 years: Equatorial Guinea (40 years), United Arab Emirates (30), Bahrain (25), Qatar (25), Bhutan (20), Brunei (20), Eritrea (20), Oman (20), Chad (15), Gambia (15), Nigeria (15), Rwanda (15), Sierra Leone (15), St. Kitts and Nevis (14), and India (11).


Local Norway
24-06-2025
- Local Norway
France's Macron holds Norway talks on eve of Nato summit
Last week, the French leader paid a visit to Greenland, where he criticised US counterpart Donald Trump for threatening to annex the Danish territory. During the Norway trip, Macron's office said he would once again underline "France's commitment to the Nordic and Arctic region, particularly with security". Trump has repeatedly said America needs to take Greenland for security reasons -- and he has refused to rule out the use of force. Trump's threats to annex the territory of a Nato ally are likely to make for tricky talks as leaders of the 32 members gather in The Hague for the two-day meeting starting Tuesday. The flagship announcement will be an agreement pushed by Trump for all members to boost defence spending to five percent of GDP. Advertisement Most Nato members see Russia as their greatest threat as the war rages in Ukraine but Trump has long cosied up to President Vladimir Putin. And the US decision to launch strikes on Iran over the weekend in support of Israel has divided Europe's Nato members. Germany is strongly backing the US move but others -- including Norway -- have said it broke international law. Macron met Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Store for talks and the two countries were due to sign a strategic partnership deal on defence and energy. The two nations also signed an agreement on carbon capture, which would allow France, which does not have any carbon dioxide storage sites, to ship it abroad for storage. Nordic nations are also locked in a competition for resources and territory in the Arctic -- with China, Russia, the US, Canada and northern European countries all staking a claim.


Local Norway
17-06-2025
- Local Norway
Norway's king visits Arctic Svalbard 'to show that this is ours'
Situated halfway between the European continent and the North Pole, the region around Svalbard has gained in geopolitical and economic importance as tensions mount between Russia and the West, not least with the ice sheet receding. Interest in the Arctic has intensified since US President Donald Trump's threats this year to annex Greenland, which he says the US needs for reasons of national security. "It was especially appropriate to come this year," the 88-year-old monarch said after stepping off the royal yacht with his wife Sonja in Longyearbyen, Svalbard's main town which is home to 2,500 people. "We have seen increased attention being paid to the Arctic and Svalbard. This brings both challenges and opportunities," he added. The king was in Svalbard to take part in celebrations marking the 100th anniversary of the entry into force of an international treaty that put the Svalbard archipelago under Norwegian rule. Drawn up in Paris in 1920, the treaty gives the citizens of the nearly 50 signatories -- including China and Russia -- an equal right to exploit the archipelago's natural resources. As a result, Russia is able to maintain two settlements, including a mining community, in the small village of Barentsburg where a Lenin statue stands and Soviet flags are regularly flown -- all in a NATO country. China has meanwhile defined itself as a "near-Arctic state" and has displayed a growing interest in the region. Advertisement "When the royal yacht 'Norge' drops anchor with the royal standard atop the mast, this emphasises, even more than King Harald's words could say, that Norway is taking care of its rights and assuming its responsibilities," said Lars Nehru Sand, a commentator at public radio NRK. "The king is here to show that this is ours," he said.