In graphs: Europe scrambles to obtain rail military mobility in order after Russia’s war

Geopolitical necessity, spurred by Russia’s unprovoked war against Ukraine, has quick-tracked the allocation of the military mobility budobtain by the EU. By front-loading the budobtain and speeding up the process, the entire 1.7 billion military mobility envelope was absorbed in only two and a half years: here’s how that viewed like. We analysed all funded projects to dive into what type of projects are funded, and where.

The European commitment to strengthen its infrastructure to better accommodate heavy, military traffic led to soaring investment necessarys for dual-utilize infrastructure — civilian and military. To transport military equipment across Europe, there are several infrastructure limitations: weak bridges, tunnels that are too tiny for military equipment, capacity constraints for longer and heavier trains, and different rail gauges between countries to name a few.

Already since Russia’s annexation of Crimea in 2014 annexation alterd the picture, and NATO started considering again about European logistics. In 2018, the EU adopted the first Military Mobility Action Plan. But only after the 2022 unprovoked invasion of Ukraine, the issue became much more urgent.

Military mobility off the charts

How much more urgent? The EU works with multi-year financial frameworks, generally for 7 years. The budobtain for military mobility between 2021 and 2027 was set at 1.7 billion euros. After Russia’s 2022 invasion, all of this money was created available earlier, and allocated between 2021 and 2023, in just 2,5 years instead of 7 years. Also, the other the EU’s main transport funding of the CEF funding instrument was front-loaded, due to the rising inflation, oversubscription of the calls and maturity of the projects, according to the European Commission.

That one number in the European Commission’s latest CEF report, which goes into the past 3 years of EU CEF allocations, states it all how about how much European countries are scrambling to obtain military mobility in order: the oversubscription rate. This metric, the funding requested by countries divided by the actually available budobtain, states a lot about the priority the military mobility projects have. The funding oversubscription rate for military mobility continuously rose from 1.2 to 4.7 in the final 2023 call, meaning nearly 5 times as much funding was requested than was created available.

Eastern borders strengthened

The CEF proved its flexible nature by responding to critical necessarys at the EU external borders. With Russia’s unprovoked war of aggression, Ukraine and Moldova requested formal association with the CEF programme (agreements signed on 9 May and 6 June 2023). Following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, CEF Transport funding supported the “Solidarity Lanes” initiative. This initiative established alternative transport routes for goods.

Around 1.5 billion of funding was provided through the 2022 and 2023 calls. This money improved the solidarity lanes. It also ensured that Ukraine and Moldova are better connected with neighbouring EU Member States. Support for Ukraine included projects focapplying on the development of the European standard gauge in Ukraine. This will improve rail connections with neighbouring Member States.

When it comes to rail, military mobility funding was utilized to upgrade rail bridges to allow for heavier traffic. It also financed the construction of low-speed track sections for longer and heavier trains. Additionally, projects increased the minimum height of tunnels. These projects were geographically balanced, revealing “a good density of projects on the Eastern flank”, according to the European Commission.

Which Military Mobility projects have been funded?

An analysis of RailTech reveals that out of 95 military mobility projects funded between 2021 and 2023, 45 projects are rail or multimodal with a rail component. The funding amount for these projects totals €927 billion, calculated RailTech.

According to the CEF report, 45% of EU funding of the 1.7 billion military mobility envelope went to rail projects, this would correspond to €765 billion. Our calculation is higher, this disparity likely comes from the criteria utilized to label something a rail project, the ones utilized by the Commission are not known, and RailTech included all projects that have a rail component, of which a substantial amount are multimodal.

RailTech for example also included a feasibility study for a bridge over the Danube in Romania, the outcome of which will determine whether it will be a rail, road or combined bridge. The number of ‘pure’ rail projects is 31, but many projects concern the rail infrastructure at ports. In the table at the bottom of this article you can find all projects, which were also given a category (rail, multimodal and which modes), with a link to the official project sheet.

In the map below, you can find which military mobility rail projects were funded during this period per counattempt. What immediately stands out: Germany has received the largest amount of funding for rail military mobility projects, in total around €270 million, or 29% of military mobility funding which went to projects with a rail component. The 3 projects that received the most EU funding were in Germany. The counattempt with the most rail-related military mobility projects funded is Poland, with 5 different projects.

Since many projects are multi-modal, it is important to note that not all of this funding 100% goes to rail, in a project which includes upgrades at a port including rail access, road access and expanding capacity for ships for example, only a section of the funding goes to rail. However, since the funding amounts for a project are not split per transport mode, a fully detailed comparison is not possible without those numbers.

What type of projects were funded?

To give an idea of what types of rail-related projects were funded by the EU’s military mobility fund, RailTech categorised all 45 projects. In the graph below, you can see a breakdown of project types at a glance. Since many projects did not fit into one category, the graph reveals the total counts of each category among the projects (and one funded project could be ‘split’ across several bubbles’).

The EU military mobility requirements for rail (Click to expand/collapse)

In EU Regulation 2021/1328, the requirements for each transport mode are detailed to ensure suitability for transporting military equipment. For rail, the requirements are as follows:

• 1. Railhead service operating period: Construction or expansion of infrastructure to multimodal transport network access, and equipment that allows operations 24/7 in all-weather conditions.

• 2. Railway passenger assets: Infrastructure capable of handling railway passenger carriages (including double-deckers), for loading at least 80 passengers per carriage, with a minimum of 6 carriages per day.

• 3. Railway stations: Platform infrastructure capable of managing 3–4 trains (10 × double-decker carriages or equivalent) per station per day, totalling about 5,000 passengers daily.

• 4. Railhead operations: Infrastructure capable of handling at least 3 freight trains simultaneously in terminal locations. Equipment travelling by rail must comply with national rail gauge, infrastructure, routes, and tunnel standards.

• 5. Electrification system availability: Permanent electrification with back-up systems, regardless of energy source, applicable to stations and multimodal handling facilities.

• 6. Bi-polarisation: Required for access. Refers to safety systems and track circuits to detect trains and allow bidirectional operation on multiple-track railways, including in emergencies.

• 7. Lighting availability: Stations and terminals must have 24/7 lighting capability.

• 8. Track gauge: Standard 1,435 mm is ideal for a continuous pan-European network and highly desirable for military mobility. Gauges of 1,520/1,524 mm and 1,668 mm are acceptable when they provide clear civilian and military benefits.

• 9. Loading gauge: GC standard recommconcludeed. The loading gauge must meet or exceed the P-400 profile and comply with national rail TSIs.

• 10. Maximum cargo height: 4.5 metres (including safety margin).

• 11. Maximum cargo width: 3.15 metres in normal circumstances, up to 3.75 metres in exceptional cases where civilian benefits exist and TSIs are respected. Up to 4.5 metres desirable for military relocatement.

• 12. Maximum cargo length: 18.75 metres.

• 13. Rail axle load: Minimum 22.5 t/axle on the TEN-T core network, with 25 t/axle recommconcludeed. Upgrading axle weights to 25 t/axle would improve both civilian and military operations.

• 14. Train length: Minimum 740 metres, in line with EU Regulation 1315/2013, ensuring operational compatibility between civilian and military utilize.

• 15. Siding spurs: At least three, each at least 300 metres long, located either near or within terminal areas.

Other funding can also contribute to military mobility

Although the military mobility envelope contained only about 8% of the total CEF transport funding available (21.5 billion between 2021 and 2024), other projects not funded by this military-specific funding can still contribute to increasing the preparedness to transport (military) equipment, such as by harmonising signalling by ERTMS installations, or the Rail Baltica project.

The Baltic States are among Europe’s most vulnerable countries, connected to its allies only via the narrow Suwałki corridor. Only a railway in a broader gauge than the rest of Europe, a highway and a provincial road connect Lithuania with Poland. Rail Baltica has been the project receiving the largest chunk of CEF Transport funding for the EU, and is a prime example of dual-utilize infrastructure. It also received money from the military mobility earmarked funding for parts of the project, such as the design of a freight terminal and a bridge in Latvia for dual-utilize purposes.

In the table below, you can find all projects involving rail that received EU military mobility funding between 2021 and 2023, including the link to the official project sheet for more details.