The trans-european railway (TER) and the trans-european motorway (TEM)
Arguably, the first systematic approach towards solving the transportation infrastructure problem at Eastern European level was the Trans-European Motorway project. It was started in 1977 by countries in Central, Eastern and Southeastern Europe. The purpose of the project is to plan, design and build a high quality motorway network, to facilitate the road traffic within the TEM countries, between these countries and the adjacent regions (Western Europe, Asia, Africa) and between the adjacent regions themselves. The project would thus promote the overall development of Eastern Europe, as well as contributing to the development of the adjacent regions.
Initially, the proposed network was consisting of a North - South backbone corridor, along with six branches oriented essentially in a West - East fashion. Along time, additional segments have been added, so that the topolgy of the network now resembles a matrix, as opposed to the initial fishbone structure.
According to the current version of the TEM network, its length is 23,858 km, of which only about 30% has been built.
In 1990, a similar initiative has been launched for a modern railway network at Eastern European level: the TER - Trans-European Railway (see Figure).
