This article is more than 1 month old A continent-wide rail renaissance can play a vital part in the battle to meet net zero climate targets ‘A revival of the Trans Europe Express is even being mooted as part of a wider aspiration to raise the number of Europeans making journeys by train’. Photograph: Ullstein bild/Getty Images ‘A revival of the Trans Europe Express is even being mooted as part of a wider aspiration to raise the number of Europeans making journeys by train’. Photograph: Ullstein bild/Getty Images Tue 2 Feb 2021 13.48 EST Last modified on Tue 2 Feb 2021 15.01 EST The avant garde German band Kraftwerk understood perfectly the special pleasures of cross-border train travel. The spare lyrics to their 1977 classic Trans-Europe Express celebrated the frissons that come with being stylishly on the move: “Rendezvous on Champs-Élysées / Leave Paris in the morning with T-E-E / In Vienna we sit in a late-night cafe / Straight connection T-E-E.”