Optimising the integration of cycling with High-Speed Rail

This ECF Policy Brief analyses how cycling could be better integrated with European high-speed rail (HSR) to the mutual benefit of generating more customer-friendly services for bicycle travellers as well as increasing the number of high-speed railway passengers. This comes at the back of one of the main findings of ECF’s 2025 “Cyclists love trains” report: among all long-distance types of trains (IC, EC, night trains and HSR), HSR is by far the least performing rail category when it comes to accepting passengers travelling with non-dismantled bicycles.

We herewith propose several solutions on how to improve intermodal bike and HSR solutions and call upon the European Commissioner for Sustainable Transport and Tourism, Mr Apostolos Tzitzikostas, as well as on DG MOVE, to include these proposals into its forthcoming Action Plan on High-Speed Rail. 

Key recommendations

ECF recommendations include, among other:  

• Increasing, over time, the legal minimum requirement for bicycle carriage on all regional and long-distance trains in the EU from 4 to 8 per train composition; 
• removing technical and regulatory barriers to retrofit bike spaces on rolling stock servicing cross-border connections; 
• creating a “Single EU Bicycle Ticket” across different rail operators; 
• tying EU funding to multimodal accessibility; 
• prioritizing Bike-Rail Integration in TEN-T Regulation implementation processes; 
• funding research and monitoring.