the European Union's (eu) efforts to boost passenger and goods transport on railways have not quite succeeded.

The Eurostat report on transport infrastructure reveals that railway network is lagging behind motorway network. According to Eurostat, the statistics agency of the eu in Brussels, motorways grew by one quarter while the railway network actually shrank by four per cent.

In 1999, eu countries had almost 50,000 kilometres of motorway with the biggest increases in Spain and France. Its rail network plummeted to around 154,000 kilometres. This indicates that eu has not been successful in reducing congestion and pollution on roads.