EU's Ambitious TEN-T Transport Network Plan Facing Major Delays

The EU will miss the goal of completing the core of its continental transport network by 2030, according to an audit that reveals worsening delays and cost overruns for major rail, road and waterway projects. This so-called Trans-European Transport Network (TEN-T) is meant to link the bloc’s most important ports, airports and population centres by the end of the decade, allowing people and goods to move more easily and quickly around the EU. But six years after its last check-up, the European Court of Auditors reported on Monday that five of the eight ‘megaprojects’ it assessed had accumulated an additional four years of delay on average, with four of them expected to miss the end-of-decade deadline entirely. This is despite EU taxpayers contributing a total of €15.3 billion to the projects so far, with over half of that sum, or €7.9 billion, disbursed only in the last few years. Decades overdue The inauguration of the Lyon-Turin rail link is now expected in 2033, or 18 years behind schedule. The Brenner Base tunnel looks set to be completed in 2032, a mere 16 years later than scheduled, while the canal linking a tributary of the river Seine in France to waterways further north faces a record 22-year delay. Moreover, six of the eight projects are facing cost overruns running into billions, with the “Rail Baltica” line connecting the Baltic states to the rest of the continent leading the pack. Its costs almost quadrupled, rising from €4.6 billion to over €18 billion compared to the initial estimate. The bill for the aforementioned Seine–Nord Europe Canal is up 225% to €5.4 billion, while that of the Lyon-Turin train line has more than doubled, rising 127% to €11.8 billion. There is some good news in the latest audit. The anticipated costs of the A1 motorway in Romania and the E59 railway line in Poland have decreased – by 11% and 18%, respectively. Annemie Turtelboom, the auditor responsible for the report, noted that some 30 years after most of the megaprojects were first put on the drawing board, the bloc is still far from realising the improvements for passengers and freight carriers that the plans had promised. (rh, aw)