The track line is drawn in the middle of Europe: a circle of perimeter 2400 km, a balanced composition taking in account the distance to the sea in Genoa, Venice, Calais and Rotterdam.
Money can be just not enough: to expropriate all this land the train crosses will bring a lot of legal, patrimonial, social and ecological problems.
How are land acquisitions and the environmental problems managed? How did they deal with it at the American transcontinental lines or in the new Chinese high speed train network?
The train will cross UNESCO Heritage sites, old vineyards, and beautiful landscapes. It crosses right through Valence, Orleans and Eindhoven, among other cities. These are issues to deal with.
Air quality control, level of noise, deterioration of the landscape, energy efficiency, etc. Engineers explain how to reach the standards that the project needs to comply in order to be environmental feasible.
A PR company explains how to put in good light a project that is going to make so many people move from homes and industries.
A pole with the sign 06:00 is nailed down at this point near Fossano (IT) where the train will pass at 6 o’clock.