Imagine boarding a train in Paris and stepping off hours later in Berlin, Rome, or Madrid — without the hassle of airports or the guilt of jet fuel. That future is closer than you might think. The European Union is making a big push to expand high-speed rail across the continent, and a new report from the European Parliament wants to make those plans even bolder.
In November 2025, the European Commission unveiled its High-Speed Rail Plan, a strategy to build more train tracks and add more routes connecting major cities across the 27-country bloc. Now, Parliament has released its own initiative report to strengthen that proposal further. The goal? Cut emissions from flying and help Europe hit its climate targets for 2040.
Transport & Environment, a European clean-transport advocacy group, released a position paper supporting the plans but calling for stronger action. One of its key recommendations is straightforward: stop giving tax breaks to planes and ships. The group wants to end Value Added Tax (VAT) exemptions for aviation and passenger shipping and instead apply that tax break to international rail travel. VAT is a sales tax added to goods and services in many countries — essentially, removing these exemptions would make flying and sailing more expensive while keeping train tickets cheaper.
The report also warns against a sneaky trap. If short-haul flights get replaced by trains, airlines might respond by adding more long-haul routes to faraway destinations — which actually increase emissions. To prevent this, T&E recommends attaching climate conditions to airport expansions and airport slot rules (the rules that decide which airlines can use takeoff and landing times at busy airports).
Other recommendations include speeding up train manufacturing through a European Railway Industrial Strategy, expanding cross-border rail links between major cities, and requiring countries to include rail in their national e-credits systems (programs that track pollution allowances).
The underlying ambition is clear: make taking the train the obvious, affordable choice for Europeans traveling between countries. High-speed rail produces far fewer carbon emissions per passenger than planes, and advocates hope these policies will shift millions of travelers onto tracks in the coming years. If the recommendations are adopted, the next decade could see European skies less crowded and train stations more alive than ever.