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Making Europe's railways safer and more efficient

The European Commission has adopted a set of common characteristics for the trans-European high speed rail system, making possible the use of a traffic management system, developed with funding from the European Union, which will improve safety and efficiency on Europe's railw...

The European Commission has adopted a set of common characteristics for the trans-European high speed rail system, making possible the use of a traffic management system, developed with funding from the European Union, which will improve safety and efficiency on Europe's railways. The development of the European Rail Traffic management System (ERTMS) was financed by the EU first as a research project under the Second Framework programme, and then in the context of the development of the trans-European networks. ERTMS will make it possible to control the spacing between trains as well as emergency braking, thus drastically reducing the risk of collisions. The system will also permit better management of the existing infrastructures' capacity by allowing a considerable proportion of bottlenecks to be removed and avoiding changes of locomotives, which cuts productivity. The introduction of ERTMS will additionally facilitate the creation of a single market in railway equipment at European level to replace the current fragmented market. Costs will also be reduced by around 25 to 50 per cent compared to most modern systems.