PurposeTo provide a unified analytical tool, based on Park transformation, for the theoretical and practical analysis of a lossy three‐phase transmission line.Design/methodology/approachThe results obtained in the study of TEM waves propagation in two‐wire line can be extended to a symmetric m‐wire line by employing the modal analysis. This approach relates the dynamic of m‐wire guided field to the propagation of m modal voltages and currents acting on m single‐wire decoupled transverse electromagnetic (TEM) lines. In the symmetric three‐phase system case, the modal analysis includes, as a particular case for m=3, the symmetric component theory. In previous papers, the authors applied the Park transformation to study the wave propagation of (TEM) three‐phase symmetrical lines. The formulation proposed and tested considers the lossless TEM wave propagation of a three‐phase line without consideration to the dissipations phenomena present in the line itself. Taking into account the obtained results, the extension of the developed approach to the lossy three‐phase transmission line transient analysis is very useful on both theoretical and practical points of view.FindingsThe symmetrical three‐phase line Park model for the lossy transmission line transient analysis, regarded as vector formulation of the line modal analysis, has been presented. The proposed examples highlight how, thanks to the Park model, the dynamic analysis of the three‐phase line in distorted and unsymmetrical systems becomes an integral part of the more general and well‐established power electric system dynamic theory.Originality/valueThe three‐phase transmission line transient analysis presented in this paper emphasizes the conceptual contents, specific to the Park approach. Furthermore, it gives some results very important for the practical analysis of a lossy three‐phase transmission line.