TEN-T – the EU transport network, the deadlines, and Norway's place in it

TEN-T is often described as “the EU’s train project”. That is the most common way of talking about it in Norwegian public debate, and it is a useful way in – but it is not what TEN-T is.

The network does cover rail. But it also covers roads, ports, inland waterways, short sea shipping, airports and terminals, with cities as the nodes. Rail gets most of the attention because that is where the requirements bite hardest and the backlog is largest, but it is one part among several.

This episode goes through what the network actually is, which deadlines apply, what the 2024 regulation requires – and how Norway fits into all of it.

What TEN-T is

TEN-T stands for Trans-European Transport Network. It is the EU’s framework for building one coherent transport network across national borders, instead of twenty-seven national networks that meet at the frontier by coincidence.

What the network covers

Part	What it means in practice
Rail	Both passenger and freight. This is where the hardest requirements sit.
Roads	The main roads tying the nodes together.
Inland waterways	Rivers and canals, a far larger mode on the continent than in Norway.
Short sea shipping	The sea route as an alternative to hauling goods the long way round by land.
Ports	Both maritime and inland ports.
Airports	With their own requirements on how they connect to rail.
Terminals	Where goods change mode. Often the real bottleneck.

The underlying idea is the same as with the barcode: the valuable thing is not the technology but the agreement that everyone does it the same way. A railway line that stops at the border because the signalling system on the other side is a different one is not half a line. It is a dead end.

Three layers, three deadlines

This is the structure you need in your head to read news about TEN-T. The network is divided into three layers, and each layer has its own completion deadline.

The layers, and when they are to be complete

1. The core network – 2030The most important connections between major cities and nodes. This is where the requirements bite first.
2. The extended core network – 2040An intermediate layer introduced by the 2024 revision, with a deadline ten years later than the core.
3. The comprehensive network – 2050Connects every region of the EU to the core network. The largest layer, and the one with the longest horizon.

The nine corridors

On top of the layers sit the corridors: nine named axes capturing the largest long-distance flows. The 2024 revision merged two schemes that previously ran side by side – the core network corridors and the rail freight corridors – into what are now called European Transport Corridors.

The nine corridors

Corridor
Atlantic
Baltic Sea–Adriatic Sea
Mediterranean
North Sea–Baltic
Baltic Sea–Black Sea–Aegean Sea
Western Balkans–Eastern Mediterranean
North Sea–Rhine–Mediterranean
Rhine–Danube
Scandinavian–Mediterranean

What the regulation actually requires

This is where it becomes concrete, and these are the numbers that recur in news coverage without anyone explaining them.

Four requirements from the regulation

Requirement	What it involves
160 km/h	Passenger lines on the core and extended core network must support at least 160 km/h by 2040.
ERTMS	The common European signalling system is to be deployed across the whole network.
740 metres	Terminals must have capacity for freight trains of 740 metres.
Airport connection	Airports with more than 12 million passengers a year must be connected to long-distance rail.

ERTMS: one signalling system instead of many

This is the part that is hardest to grasp from the outside, and the one that matters most.

A train crossing a border has historically met a different signalling system on the other side.

What it costs in practice: the locomotive must either carry several systems on board, or be swapped at the border. The latter takes time, requires staff, and turns the border crossing into a fixed cost in every single service.
What ERTMS does: replaces the national systems with one common one. A locomotive with ERTMS can in principle run through the whole network without changing system.
Why it takes time: signalling installations have long lifespans, the rollout has to happen while trains are still running, and both the infrastructure and every individual locomotive must be rebuilt. This is not a software update.

Norway is worth mentioning here, because we have our own ERTMS programme running independently of the EU deadlines. So this is not a requirement Norway meets unprepared – the work was under way long before the 2024 regulation.

Why 740 metres

The number looks arbitrary. It is not. It is a capacity requirement, not a speed requirement.

What train length actually decides

Short trains

More of everything per tonne

• One driver per train, whatever the length
• One path in the timetable per train
• More departures for the same volume of goods
• Weaker competition against lorries

740 metres

Same input, more goods

• Same driver, same path
• Fewer departures for the same volume
• Lower cost per tonne
• But: requires the whole route to handle it

Norway

Norway is not an EU member, so the question people ask is a fair one: are we actually part of this?

What Norway is part of, and what it is not

In

The rules

• The regulation was incorporated into the EEA Agreement in October 2025
• Norwegian infrastructure appears on the maps
• The Scandinavian–Mediterranean corridor extends north to here
• Norway has taken part in TEN-T cooperation since the 1990s

Out

The money

• The funding instrument (CEF) is not part of the EEA Agreement
• Norway does not take part in TEN-T funding
• Projects must therefore be financed from national budgets

What is worth being sceptical about

Three things, which apply to most large infrastructure plans.

Three caveats

1. Deadlines are not completion2030 is an obligation in a regulation, not a forecast. Large infrastructure projects run late almost everywhere, and TEN-T is no exception.
2. Maps are not moneyA route being drawn into the network does not mean it is funded. It means it qualifies to be.
3. The weakest part decidesFor train length, signalling and speed alike, the benefit only arrives once the whole route is upgraded. A corridor that is 90 per cent complete does not deliver 90 per cent of the benefit.

What is worth taking with you

That TEN-T is not a railway project but a multimodal framework in which rail is simply the part with the hardest requirements.

That the network has three layers with their own deadlines – 2030, 2040 and 2050 – and that “finished by 2030” applies only to the innermost one.

That the requirements are about compatibility rather than new construction: a common signalling system, a common train length, a speed threshold.

And that Norway is part of the rules, but not of the funding.

The TEN-T names and corridor designations belong to the EU. This episode explains how the framework is built and does not reproduce the text of the regulation. For binding detail, Regulation (EU) 2024/1679 and the Norwegian implementing decisions apply.

Main topics

• What TEN-T is, and why it is not only rail
• The three layers of the network, and the three deadlines
• The nine European Transport Corridors
• What the 2024 regulation actually requires
• ERTMS – one signalling system instead of twenty
• 740 metres, and why the number keeps coming up
• Norway's connection, and what it does not include
• What is worth being sceptical about

Questions this episode answers

• What is TEN-T?
• Is TEN-T only a railway project?
• What is the difference between the core, extended core and comprehensive networks?
• Which deadlines apply – 2030, 2040 and 2050?
• Which nine corridors are there?
• What is ERTMS, and why is it needed?
• Why does everyone talk about 740-metre trains?
• Is Norway part of TEN-T?
• Does Norway receive EU funding for infrastructure through TEN-T?

Key points

• TEN-T is not a railway project. It covers roads, rail, ports, inland waterways, airports and terminals.
• The network has three layers with their own deadlines: core 2030, extended core 2040, comprehensive 2050.
• The nine corridors merge the former core network corridors and the rail freight corridors.
• The 160 km/h requirement applies to passenger lines on the core and extended core network, by 2040.
• ERTMS is to replace national signalling systems across the whole network.
• 740 metres is the length terminals and tracks must handle – a capacity requirement, not a speed one.
• The regulation was incorporated into the EEA Agreement in October 2025.
• Norway takes part in the rules, but not in the EU funding scheme behind them.

Sources and references

• European Commission – Trans-European Transport Network (TEN-T)
• Regulation (EU) 2024/1679 on Union guidelines for the development of the trans-European transport network
• EFTA – factsheet for 32024R1679, with EEA Joint Committee Decision 247/2025
• Council of the European Union – press release on final adoption of the TEN-T Regulation, 13 June 2024
• Regjeringen.no – Norway joins EU rules on a safe, efficient and environmentally friendly transport network