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If we want a competitive Europe which creates jobs, then people and goods have to be able

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to move around easily and quickly, and without harming the environment.

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That's the aim of the Trans-European Transport Network, a huge continental-scale programme

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that will interconnect the national transport infrastructures to create a genuine Trans-European Network.

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Although initiated at the beginning of the 90s, the Trans-European Transport Network

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has not yet attained its ambitious goals. It's running to financing problems and difficulties

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with cross-border coordination. Meanwhile, road traffic in Europe is constantly

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on the rise. However, solutions exist. Goods transported

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by road today can be switched to other, less-polluting means of transport, such as rail, waterways

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or sea transport. This is referred to as modal transfer, or moving from one mode of transport

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to another that is less used. This solution is strongly encouraged by Europe.

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In this context, rail offers important potential for easing traffic on major Trans-European

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roads. That's why the European Union wants to reinvigorate Trans-European railway projects.

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It's identified five fundamental railway axes where progress is not being made quickly enough

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due to difficulties of various kinds. To give impetus to these projects, the European

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Union has appointed important public figures to serve as European coordinators for the

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different axes. Their assignment is to bring the member states involved together to come

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up with solutions to the problems, and to speed up project execution.

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Pavel Tolichka is one of those coordinators. He plays the role of locomotive for the Warsaw-Helsinki

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Rail Axis, also known as Rail Baltica. The role practically is to facilitate, through

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more or less political coordination, all the steps and all the works that are to lead to

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implementing the project Rail Baltica, and that is building the north-south track, which

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would be integrating these new member states with the rest of the European Union in terms

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of transport infrastructure.