European Rail Network


The IRPUD European rail network contains all passenger and freight railway lines and rail ferries of the 38 European countries. In addition the database contains all railway stations for Germany, Belgium, Italy, Ireland, Northern Ireland, Switzerland and the Netherlands. For the remaining countries, only the most important stations are included. Currently the rail network contains 38,572 links and 35,448 nodes. In addition to current rail lines all future projects of the trans-European transport network (TETN) programme of the European Union as specified in Decision 1692/96/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council and specified in the TEN implementation report (European Commission 1998) as well as the so-called TINA networks (TINA = Transport infrastructure needs assessment‘; TINA 1999) for the 12 candidate countries and the "Helsinki Corridors" for the remaining east European countries are included in the database.

The rail network database contains, inter alia, the following link attributes (see Data Formats):

 - country code
 - length of link
 - link categories (electrification, number of lanes)
 - inclusion in the TETN programme
 - line classifications according to Thomas Cook European Timetable
 - usage (passengers only, freight only, passenger and freight)

The rail network database contains, inter alia, the following node attributes (see Data Formats):

 - country code
 - node identifier
 - node type (e.g. intersection, rail ferry seaport, border node)
 - location (x, y coordinates)

A subset of the rail network is the 'strategic rail Network' used in the DGVII projects STREAMS, SASI, STEMM and other research projects performed at IRPUD. The strategic rail network contains the trans-European rail links specified in Decision 1692/96/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council, the TINA networks for the candidate countries and the "Helsinki Corridors" for the remaining east European countries as well as selected additional links in eastern Europe and links to guarantee connectivity of regions and centroids. The strategic rail network is dedicated as a transport modelling network, e.g. for accessibility calculations, on the European level and currently contains about 3,000 links and 3,000 nodes.For modelling purposes, it also contains virtual access or connector links linking the centroids of the transport zones to the network. The transport zones correspond to the NUTS-2 regions of the system of region as defined by Eurostat.


European rail network

European strategic rail network



Inclusion in the trans-European rail network

For rail lines that are part of the trans-European rail network of the European Union or of the 12 Candidate Countries the database distinguishes between high-speed lines, upgraded high-speed lines and conventional lines. High-speed lines are recently built or planned tracks for a maximum speed equal to or greater than 250 km/h or average speeds between 150 and 250 km/h depending on the country and the system. Links upgraded for high-speed are designed for speeds up to 200 km/h or average speeds between 100 and 150 km/h. All other TETN rail links are conventional lines.

The Trans-European Transport Outline Plan, Section Railways and the TINA network cover not only the member states of the European Union and the Candidate Countries but also the so-called "Helsinki Corridors" towards the remaining east European countries. It is intended to implement efficient rail lines along these corridors by bilateral cooperations.