Magic Carpets and Seamless Webs: Opportunities and Constraints for High-Speed Trains in Europe

The modern high speed train, developed in Japan in 1964, spread widely in Europe from the end of the 1970s. It has taken different forms in various European countries, reflecting different national approaches but also the realities of different national geographies, which make integration into a single European network difficult. Nonetheless such a network will be virtually complete in the urban core of NW Europe, as well as France, Spain and Italy, by 2009 and more widely across Europe about a decade later. The spatial impacts of the new lines will be complex. They will favour the large central cities they connect, especially their urban cores, and this may threaten the position of more peripheral cities. Within large metropolitan areas they will favour zones close to the traditional central stations, but interesting possibilities exist for edge-city locations which may assist local urban regeneration. The UK's Thames Gateway is the most ambitious attempt in the world to achieve this on a sub-regional scale.