A general approach on the proposal for a regulation on the use of railway infrastructure capacity in the single European railway area has been agreed by EU transport ministers. This legislation is part of the Commission's 'Greening Freight' package. It comes together with proposals for a harmonised system for counting EU emissions, maximum weights and dimensions for heavy goods vehicles and a revision of the Combined Transport Directive.
The new law will provide the single European railway area with better and more efficient tools to achieve the objective of shifting to more sustainable modes of transport, in particular rail, and to ensure that climate neutrality targets are ultimately met.
The new legislation is expected to make a significant contribution to more efficient management of rail infrastructure capacity and traffic by increasing infrastructure availability through better planning and allocation processes and improved cross-border coordination. This will be done by strengthening digital tools, improving collaboration between operators, increasing transparency on infrastructure performance, increasing competition, especially in long-distance passenger services.
The Community of European Railway & Infrastructure Companies (CER) welcomes the Council's General Approach as an important step towards negotiations with the European Parliament. However, it has identified a number of areas of concern.
“CER would like to see harmonisation of capacity management processes across Europe; in particular it is necessary to ensure a specific coordination mandate in the case of national guidance on conflict resolution to facilitate and not block cross-border traffic. Time is of the essence and we need to do it right if we want to optimise and boost existing capacity to meet the increasing demand,” said CER Executive Director Alberto Mazzola.
