As it reaches its final year, Horizon 2020 continues to support research and innovation projects across the European Union. How has it helped advance the bloc’s rail infrastructure, what have its successes been and what more can be expected?

In 2020, a record 12,406 China-Europe freight train journeys were made, up 50 percent from 2019. The number hit 1,165 in January, up 66 percent year on year. It is reported that the EU statistics agency Eurostat has said China last year overtook the United States as the EU’s biggest trade partner, with the bilateral trade totaling around 586 billion euros (about 711 billion U.S. dollars).