The Magistrale for Europe(MoE) is a Trans-European Networks

Trans-European Networks

The Trans-European Networks were created by the European Union by Articles 154-156 of the Treaty of Rome , with the stated goals of the creation of an internal market and the reinforcement of economic and social cohesion...

 (TEN) project for the creation of a high-speed railway

High-speed rail

High-speed rail is a type of passenger rail transport that operates significantly faster than the normal speed of rail traffic. Specific definitions by the European Union include for upgraded track and or faster for new track, whilst in the United States, the U.S...

 line between Paris

Paris

Paris is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...

 and Budapest

Budapest

Budapest is the capital of Hungary. As the largest city of Hungary, it is the country's principal political, cultural, commercial, industrial, and transportation centre. In 2011, Budapest had 1,733,685 inhabitants, down from its 1989 peak of 2,113,645 due to suburbanization. The Budapest Commuter...

. It TEN project No. 17 (Paris - Bratislava), and is already under way..

MoE adds a connection from Vienna

Vienna

Vienna is the capital and largest city of the Republic of Austria and one of the nine states of Austria. Vienna is Austria's primary city, with a population of about 1.723 million , and is by far the largest city in Austria, as well as its cultural, economic, and political centre...

 to Budapest. The project is planned to be completed by 2020. It will link 34 million people in five states. The overall length of the route is 1500 km.

France

The French part of MoE is the LGV Est

LGV Est

The LGV Est européenne is an extension to the French high-speed rail network, connecting currently Vaires-sur-Marne and Baudrecourt , and later Vaires-sur-Marne and Vendenheim . , it is the newest high-speed line in France and still under construction, with of a planned in service...

. Its first section as far as Baudrecourt has been in use since 2007 whilst the second section to Strasbourg is under construction, to be opened in 2016.

Germany

In Germany the MoE follows the Europabahn to Appenweier and then the Rheintalbahn to Bruchsal. The Europabahn is built for a maximum speed of 200 km/h while Rheintalbahn to Rastatt-Süd is for 250 km/h. The second part of the new Rheintalbahn (Rastatt-Süd to Bruchsal) is to be completed by 2014. In Bruchsal the MoE joins the Mannheim–Stuttgart high-speed railway which was built for 250 km/h. In Stuttgart

Stuttgart

Stuttgart is the capital of the state of Baden-Württemberg in southern Germany. The sixth-largest city in Germany, Stuttgart has a population of 600,038 while the metropolitan area has a population of 5.3 million ....

 MoE joins the Stuttgart–Augsburg new and upgraded railway which is expected to be completed in 2020 and will provide a maximum speed of 250 km/h between Stuttgart and Ulm and 200 km/h between Ulm and Augsburg.

The Munich–Augsburg railway is being upgraded to separate slower traffic (freight and short-distance trains) from high speed trains, which will be able to reach 230 km/h.

Route

Section	Distance	Opening	Duration before1	Recent duration1	Planned duration1
Paris–Strasbourg	476 km	Paris–Baudrecourt 2007	237 min	137 min	110 min
		Baudrecourt–Vendenheim 2016
Strasbourg–Karlsruhe	81 km	2010?		54 min	25 min
Karlsruhe–Stuttgart	90 km	in use	61 min	35 min	35 min
Stuttgart–Ulm	94 km today	2019/20		54 min	28 min
	81 km new
Ulm–Augsburg	86 km	not before 2019		41 min	28 min
Augsburg–Munich	61 km	2011		37 min	18 min
Munich–Salzburg	153 km	Munich–Freilassing 2015		87min	62 min
		Freilassing–Salzburg 2009
Salzburg–Linz	127 km	Salzburg–Attnang-Puchheim 2013		64 min	60 min
		Attnang-Puchheim–Wels 2011
		Strecke Wels–Linz 2015
Linz–St. Pölten	130 km	2013		48 min	45 min
St. Pölten–Vienna	61 km today	2013		41 min	25 min
	44 km new
Vienna–Budapest	263 km			181 min
Vienna–Bratislava	northern line 65 km	2011		57 min	35 min
	southern line 80 km	2013			55 min
total:
Paris–Budapest	1592 km			812 min (13h29)1 2	634 min (10h34)1 2
Paris–Bratislava (northern line)	1394 km			685 min (11h25)1 2 3	488 min (8h08)1 2
Paris–Bratislava (southern line)	1409 km				508 min (8h28)1 2
Paris–Munich	875 km		484 min (8h4)1 2	358 min (5h58) 1	244 min (4h4) 1

<sup>1 It is calculated with the fastest possible durations between the towns.

2 Real duration is longer due to changing.</sup>

3 The time needed to travel between Wien Westbahnhof and Wien Südbahnhof is not taken in calculation. There will be no need to change after completion of Lainzer Tunnel and Wiener Hauptbahnhofs

Wien Hauptbahnhof

Wien Hauptbahnhof is the name for a railway station under construction in Vienna, Austria. It will replace the Südbahnhof terminal station with a through station which links four major railway lines that converge on Vienna from the North, East, West and South...

which is planned for 2013.

^{Quelle: annual report 2006/07 of Péter Balázs}