Trans-European Transport Network


The Trans-European Transport Network is a planned network of roads, railways, airports and water infrastructure in the European Union. The TEN-T network is part of a wider system of Trans-European Networks, including a telecommunications network and a proposed energy network. The European Commission adopted the first action plans on trans-European networks in 1990.
TEN-T envisages coordinated improvements to primary roads, railways, inland waterways, airports, seaports, inland ports and traffic management systems, providing integrated and intermodal long-distance, high-speed routes. A decision to adopt TEN-T was made by the European Parliament and Council in July 1996. The EU works to promote the networks by a combination of leadership, coordination, issuance of guidelines and funding aspects of development.
These projects are technically and financially managed by the Innovation and Networks Executive Agency, which superseded the Trans-European Transport Network Executive Agency Agency on 31 December 2013. The tenth and newest project, the Strasbourg-Danube Corridor, was announced for the 2014–2020 financial period.

History

TEN-T guidelines were initially adopted on 23 July 1996, with Decision No 1692/96/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council on Community guidelines for the development of the trans-European transport network. In May 2001, the European Parliament and the Council adopted a Decision No 1346/2001/EC, which amended the TEN-T Guidelines with respect to seaports, inland ports and intermodal terminals.
In April 2004, the European Parliament and the Council adopted Decision No 884/2004/EC, amending Decision No 1692/96/EC on Community guidelines for the development of the trans-European transport network. The April 2004 revision was a more fundamental change to TEN-T policies, intended to accommodate EU enlargement and consequent changes in traffic flows.
In 2017, it was decided that the Trans-European Transport Networks would be extended into Eastern Europe and would include Eastern Partnership member states. The furthest eastern expansion of the Trans-European Transport Network reached Armenia in February 2019.
;Priority axes and projects
On 17 October 2013 nine projects were announced, afterwards increased to ten. These were:
  1. the Baltic-Adriatic Corridor ;
  2. the North Sea-Baltic Corridor ;
  3. the Mediterranean Corridor ;
  4. the Orient/East-Med Corridor ;
  5. the Scandinavian-Mediterranean Corridor ;
  6. the Rhine-Alpine Corridor ;
  7. the Lisboa-Strasbourg Corridor ;
  8. the North Sea-Mediterranean Corridor ;
  9. the Rhine-Danube Corridor ;
  10. the Strasbourg-Danube Corridor.

    Core Networks

This is the complete list of the TEN-T Core Network Corridors.
CorridorNameFromViaToLength
1Baltic–Adriatic Corridor Gdynia Vienna Ravenna2400 km
2North Sea–Baltic Corridor Helsinki Warsaw Antwerp3200 km
3Mediterranean Corridor Algeciras Lyons – Venice Miskolc~ 3000 km
4Orient/East–Med Corridor Hamburg Budapest – Sofia Nicosia~ 3700 km
5Scandinavian–Mediterranean Corridor Helsinki Copenhagen – Munich Valletta4858 km
6Rhine–Alpine Corridor Genoa Cologne Rotterdam
7Atlantic Corridor Lisboa Vitoria Strasbourg
8North Sea–Mediterranean Corridor Dublin Cork – Le Havre Brussel933 km
9Rhine–Danube Corridor Amsterdam Luxembourg Marseille
10Seine–Danube Corridor Strasbourg Budapest Constanța2137 km

Funding timeline

Financial support for the implementation of TEN-T guidelines stems from the following rules:
In general, TEN-T projects are mostly funded by national or state governments. Other funding sources include: European Community funds, loans from international financial institutions, and private funding.

List of transport networks

Each transportation mode has a network. The networks are:
At its meeting in Essen in 1994, the European Council endorsed a list of 14 TEN-T ‘specific’ projects, drawn up by a group chaired by then Commission Vice-President Henning Christophersen. Following the 2003 recommendations from the Van Miert TEN-T high-level group, the Commission compiled a list of 30 priority projects to be launched before 2010.
The 30 axes and priority projects were:
As of 2019, several of them are finished, e.g. no 2, 5 and 11, other are ongoing e.g. no 12 and 17, and some are not started, e.g no 20 and 27.

Related networks

In addition to the various TENs, there are ten Pan-European corridors, which are paths between major urban centres and ports, mainly in Eastern Europe, that have been identified as requiring major investment.
The international E-road network is a naming system for major roads in Europe managed by the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe. It numbers roads with a designation beginning with "E".