4. Outlook

4.1 External railway system interfaces

The analogies between land transport (moving people and goods) and telecommunications networks (transporting data) bring to mind another concept common to these two fields: that of the network backbone, which carries the bulk of traffic over long distances using faster technologies.

Because of its characteristics, rail transport (particularly freight transport) can be the backbone of land transport in Europe and beyond (Eurasia). To reinforce its backbone role, rail transport needs to master two types of interface:

• internal interfaces, in particular the technical and legal interoperability issues described in section