Transportation

Ambitious improvements in rail transport and commercial aviation slated by the 12 members of the European Community (EC) for 1992 and beyond are discussed. Most publicized has been the Folkestone-to-Calais tunnel (actually three 50-km tunnels) beneath the English Channel. The tunnel is to open in June 1993, with high-speed trains operating about every five minutes, carrying passengers, their cars, and other cargo. Other plans underway will culminate in a high-speed rail network extending throughout the EC and perhaps into Eastern Europe. The European Commission, the EC´s executive arm, is to develop plans by the end of the year for the network, which will span 19000 to 30000 km of existing and still-to-be-built track. In the air, the emphasis is on control. A unified system controlling the upper airspace was the goal of Eurocontrol, founded by European civil aviation authorities in 1963, but it has yet to come about. Eurocontrol has established a European Coordination Team to find quick ways of improving the existing airspace capacity; it is also managing a program to create operational and technical standards for both air-traffic control equipment and facilities to which all Eurocontrol members must eventually adhere. The most volatile area of the transportation market is the automotive segment, with the burning issue being cars from Japan. No major technical advances are foreseen in European cars in the near future.<>