Border regions within the European Union represent 40% of the Union's territory and close to 30% of the EU population. Generally, they perform less well economically than other regions within a Member State. Access to public services such as public transport is generally lower in border regions. Against this background "missing links" within the EU with a focus on passenger services across small-scale cross-border railway connections gained political momentum in the past years. Additional cross-border railway passenger transport could enhance mobility and economic development in the border regions. The present study is an exhaustive analysis of all cross-border rail connections along 43 EU and EFTA internal land borders. As a first step, the study provides an inventory of 365 cross-border rail connections, including: - operational cross-border connections: existing rail infrastructure where regular passenger train services run in the 2017 annual timetable or are technically possible; - non-operational cross-border connections: rail infrastructure which existed in the past ("missing links") without any traffic and - projected cross-border connections: rail infrastructure which is expected to be implemented. The fact sheets of cross-border rail connections display maps and data on the operational status, technical aspects and relevant stakeholders for each link. The inventory reveals that most of the small-scale cross-border railway connections do not belong to the TEN-T Core or Comprehensive Network. Furthermore, it shows that gaps in the cross-border passenger rail network are not necessarily caused by missing elements of infrastructure: in many cases, even on operational railway infrastructure, there is a severe lack of cross-border passenger services. In a second step, the study analyses possible new railway connections on missing and promising links. Promising links are understood as cross-border rail connections which were assessed as "not fully exploited" or only had freight trains in the 2017 annual timetable. In total 176 missing and promising links were recorded among all cross-border rail connections. A pan-European demand estimation of rail travel potential was carried out for all these links. Potential projects were identified by regionally differentiated filtering: when links exceeded a specific threshold of passenger numbers in the border area, they were analysed in detail. Thus, for 38 missing and promising links the economic viability was assessed, mostly by estimations of investment needs and annual operating costs. The estimations of operating costs showed that most of the connections in further examination would need public subsidies under a public service obligation (PSO) contract in line with Regulation (CE) 1370/2007. Bearing in mind that 83 % of passenger rail services within the EU are under a PSO regime, it is obvious that the competent authorities of the Member states play a crucial role for implementing cross-border passenger rail services. Therefore, competent authorities with missing and promising links were consulted, in order to identify the "potentially most beneficial projects". While for some of the further analysed 38 connections competent authorities showed no interest in a rail reactivation, in other cases the attention was drawn to additional connections which were assumed to have more potential. Competent authorities often pointed out the connections' importance in terms of enhancing cross-border labour mobility, improving connectivity of TEN-T corridors, alleviating structural spatial effects or promoting sustainable and eco-friendly mobility. In the end, 48 cross-border rail connections were assessed as "potentially most beneficial projects", following this stakeholder consultation. In a final step, the study presents its key findings and proposes recommendations on how to smoothen the implementation of new cross-border railway connections. The recommendations relate to funding budgets, operational issues, governance and cooperation aspects, the simplification of procedures and increasing the attractiveness of cross-border rail transport. They are addressed to stakeholders at EU, national and regional level. The study reveals that the successful implementation of new small-scale cross-border railway connections is mostly rather linked to a "bottom-up" engagement of local and regional stakeholders. Such an approach is more adequate than a mere "top-down" one from higher levels. In fact money and political willingness are the core prerequisites of new cross-border rail connections to be implemented. Taking this fact into account, good news can be derived from the bunch of recommendations proposed by the study: With the cooperation of European, national and regional stakeholders, competent authorities and infrastructure managers of many today's missing railway links may see new passenger services in the future, contributing to the functioning of prospering and integrated European cross-border regions.
