Abstract
This White Paper examines international rail transport in Europe as a whole from the railways' point of view. With the continent becoming increasingly frontier-free, more and more integrated in many respects and exposed as never before to competition from other parts of the world, railways must concentrate on international business even though it is sometimes difficult to keep national and international issues completely separate since the same rolling stock and infrastructure are used for both domestic and international traffic. In the emerging new Europe, railways will have a much more important role to play than before. A modern, high-performance system is therefore vital to European passenger and freight transport.