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Rail transport in Europe is characterised by its diversity, both technical and infrastructural. Rail networks in Western and Central Europe are often well maintained and well developed, whilst Eastern, Northern and Southern Europe often have less coverage and/or infrastructure problems. Electrified railway networks operate at a plethora of different voltages AC and DC varying from 750 to 25,000 volts, and signalling systems vary from country to country, hindering cross-border traffic. The European Union aims to make cross-border operations easier as well as to introduce competition to national rail networks. EU member states were able to separate the provision of transport services and the management of the infrastructure by Directive ''91/440/EEC''. Usually, national railway companies were split to separate divisions or independent companies for infrastructure, passenger and freight operations. The passenger operations may be further divided to long-distance and regional services, because regional services often operate under public service obligations (which subsidise unprofitable but socially desirable routes), while long-distance services usually operate without subsidies. == Differences between countries == While most railways in Europe use , in some other countries, like Spain or countries which territories used to be a part of Russian Empire and Soviet Union, widespread broad gauge exists. For instance in Spain it is (also known as Iberian gauge), while in Russia, Ukraine, Belarus, Finland, Baltic states gauge width is or (also known as Russian gauge). Ireland uses the somewhat unusual 5 ft 3 in (1600mm) gauge, which is referred to in Ireland as "Irish Gauge". The reason different track gauges between countries was mainly because of the idea of preventing trains running on "your" track from a competing country. Likewise, electrification of lines varies between countries. 15 kV AC has been used in Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Norway and Sweden since 1912, while the Netherlands uses 1500 V DC, France uses 1500 V DC and 25 kV AC, and so on. All this makes the construction of truly pan-European vehicles a challenging task and, until recent developments in locomotive construction, was mostly ruled out as being impractical and too expensive. The development of an integrated European high-speed rail network is overcoming some of these differences. All high-speed lines outside of Russia, including those built in Spain and Portugal, use tracks. Likewise all European high-speed lines, outside of Germany and Austria, use 25 kV AC electrification. This means that by 2020 high-speed trains can travel from Italy to England, or Portugal to the Netherlands without the need for multi-voltage systems. Multiple incompatible signalling systems are another barrier to interoperability. The EU countries have 19 different signalling systems. A unified signalling system, ETCS is the EU's project to unify signalling across Europe. The specification was written in 1996 in response to EU Directive ''96/48/EC''. ETCS is developed as part of the European Rail Traffic Management System (ERTMS) initiative, and is being tested by multiple Railway companies since 1999. All new high-speed lines and freight main lines funded partially by the EU are required to use level 1 or level 2 ETCS signalling. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Rail transport in Europe」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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