No C 191/10 Official Journal of the European Communities 16.7.83 
II 
(Preparatory Acts) 
COMMISSION 
Proposal for a Council recommendation to the national railway companies of the 
Member States on strengthening their cooperation in the commercial management of 
international passenger and goods transport by rail 
(Submitted by the Commission to the Council on 5 July 1983) 
THE COUNCIL OF THE EUROPEAN 
COMMUNITIES, 
Having regard to the Treaty establishing the 
European Economic Community, and in particular 
Article 75 thereof, 
Having regard to the proposal from the Commission, 
Having regard to the opinion of the European 
Parliament, 
Having regard to the opinion of the Economic and 
Social Committee, 
Having regard to the Council resolution of 15 
December 1981 (x) on Community railway policy, 
which stressed the need to encourage international 
cooperation between railways in the commercial field, 
Whereas Council Decision 82/529/EEC of 19 July 
1982 on the fixing of rates for the international 
carriage of goods by rail (2) stipulates in Article 5 that 
'The railway undertakings shall have the commercial 
independence necessary for intensifying their 
cooperation in the quotation of transport rates and 
conditions for international transport in order to 
pursue common objectives, in particular as regards 
the creation of revenue pools and the delegation of 
powers between railway undertakings for the 
conclusion of special agreements with customers'; 
Whereas Council Decision 83/. . ./EEC of 
1983 on the commercial independence of the railways 
in the management of their international passenger 
and luggage traffic stipulates in Article 2 that Tn 
accordance with this Decision, the railway under-
(') OJ NoC 157, 22. 6. 1982, p. 1. 
O OJ No L 234, 9. 8. 1982, p. 5. takings shall enjoy commercial independence in the 
management of international passenger and luggage 
traffic. This independence shall be used in particular 
for intensifying their cooperation in order to pursue 
common objectives and shall not prejudice their 
obligations as a public service'; 
Whereas international transport is becoming increa­
singly important for the railways, and it is desirable 
that they strengthen their position on the various 
international markets; 
Whereas efforts have been made by the railways and 
structures have been established with a view to 
promoting a more effective commercial policy and it 
is important to complement these achievements by 
greater cooperation in commercial management, 
HEREBY RECOMMENDS: 
Article 1 
General objectives 
1. The strengthening of cooperation between the 
railway companies of the Community in the 
commercial management of international passenger 
and goods transport by rail should have as its 
objective the development of international rail traffic 
and an increase in the market share held by the 
railways. More particularly, cooperation should make 
it possible to overcome the fragmentation of the 
supply of railway services as a result of the co­
existence on the market of several national under­
takings, and to broaden the international dimension 
of rail traffic, in particular on the main continental 
routes. 
2. To this end, it is necessary to improve 
cooperation by adopting and implementing new instru­
ments and procedures based on the common interests 
of the railway companies, together with a strategy 
designed to ensure that the railway companies present 
16.7.83 Official Journal of the European Communities NoC191/ll 
themselves on the international transport market as a 
single carrier and assess the profitability of the 
services to be offered to their customers in relation to 
the aggregate costs and revenue in respect of the 
traffic links concerned. 
Article 2 
Marketing 
1. In order to attain the objectives referred to in 
Article 1, the railway companies should make wider 
use of joint analyses and studies of the international 
passenger and goods transport market and joint 
analysis of the specific requirements of customers, in 
qualitative and quantitative terms, with a view to 
bringing the quality of, and the various forms of, 
international rail services into line with the market 
requirements on the traffic links concerned. 
2. Similarly, the railway companies should provide 
a greater impetus towards the joint organization of 
sales forces and the joint monitoring of results. 
3. To this end, the railway companies should move 
beyond the present stage of cooperation and, where 
necessary, provide appropriate instruments in the 
form of bilateral or multilateral inter-network teams 
whose tasks would include: 
— analyzing the special features of the markets in 
question and the competitive situation of the 
railways as compared with the other modes of 
transport, 
— creating an organizational structure suitable for 
the pattern of services to be supplied, 
— progressively implementing medium-term and 
long-term business plans based on the common 
interest of the railway networks, initially by 
groups of routes on a bilateral — and sub­
sequently on a multilateral — basis, 
— developing sales strategies specifically geared to 
international traffic. 
Article 3 
Sales and transport rates 
1. More active cooperation concerning the 
exploration of the market and the selling of transport 
services should be accompanied by differentiation, 
and, if possible, simplification of the rates offered. 
As part of the independence granted by Council 
Decisions 82/529/EEC and 83/. . ./EEC, the railway 
companies should pursue and generalize their efforts with a view, in particular, to establishing bilateral or 
multilateral through tariffs separate from the domestic 
systems. 
2. The establishment, on a bilateral or multilateral 
basis, of international groups for specific markets 
should also make it possible to simplify the operations 
involved in the calculation of rates, and thus permit 
greater transparency of tariffs for customers, and faci­
litate the conclusion of special agreements taking into 
account the specific features of certain traffic flows or 
the particular situation of certain customers. 
3. In order to ensure flexibility and rapidity of 
decision-making, it is also important that the railway 
companies should strengthen and make wider use of 
the delegation of powers procedure in order to enable 
vendors of international services to negotiate and 
rapidly conclude special agreements on behalf of all 
the railway companies concerned. 
4. Inter-company cooperation on information 
should make it possible to remove the fears of 
vendors of international railway services and more 
particularly to tackle and resolve the problems facing 
consignors and consignees established in different 
countries; this could be given shape by means of 
better organization of the railway companies' general 
agencies, or the establishment at the border of joint 
marketing or technical agencies. 
5. To ensure that inter-company cooperation 
concerning tariffs produces concrete results, it is also 
important that the rules concerning the sharing-out of 
revenue between companies should be improved and 
that, where possible, revenue pools or other new 
systems of sharing out revenue should be established 
with a view to overcoming the handicap constituted 
by the differing degrees of interest which the 
companies concerned may have in certain categories 
of traffic. 
Article 4 
Exchange of information 
1. Action based on the concept of common interest 
presupposes better mutual information among 
companies concerning the priority to be given to 
certain types of traffic in view of their profitability 
and the cost situation with regard to the traffic 
concerned. 
2. Better information should help to improve 
productivity as a result of exercising greater selectivity 
in terms of the quality and quantity of services and 
concentrating on profitable services. 
No C 191/12 Official Journal of the European Communities 16.7.83 
what progress has been made following this 
recommendation in its reports on the execution of 
Decision 82/529/EEC and 83/.. ./EEC. 
Article 6 
This recommendation is addressed to the railway 
companies of the Member States, which are listed in 
the Annex hereto. 
BILAG /ANHANGIIIAPAPTHMA / ANNEX I ANNEXE IALLEGA TO IBIJLAGE 
Jernbanevirksomheder / Eisenbahnen / £i5t|poSpO(iiKd Sixtua / Railway companies / Entreprises de 
chemins de fer / Reti ferroviarie / Spoorwegen 
— Societe nationale des chemins de fer beiges (SNCB) / Nationale Maatschappij der Belgische 
Spoorwegen (NMBS) 
Rue de France 85, B-1070 Bruxelles 
Frankrijkstraat 85, B-1070 Brussel 
— Danske Statsbaner (DSB) 
Selvgade 40, DK-K0benhavn 
— Deutsche Bundesbahn (DB) 
Friedrich-Ebert-Anlage 43, D-6000 Frankfurt (Main) 
— Opyavtonoi; Ii5T|po5p6u<ov EM.&5o<; AE (OZE) 
o86g Kapoks 1, GR-A0f]vai 
— Societe nationale des chemins de fer francais (SNCF) 
Rue Saint Lazare 88, F-75436 Paris 
— Coras Iompair Eireann (CIE) 
Heuston Station, IRL-Dublin 8 
— Azienda autonoma delle ferrovie dello Stato (FS) 
Piazza della Croce Rossa, I-Roma 
— Societe nationale des chemins de fer luxembourgeois (CFL) 
Place de la Gare 9, L-Luxembourg 
— Naamloze Vennootschap Nederlandse Spoorwegen (NS) 
Moreelse park 1, NL-3500 HA Utrecht 
— British Railways Board (BRB) 
Euston Square, UK-London NW1 2DZ 
— Northern Ireland Railways Company Ltd (NIR) 
East Bridge Street, UK-Belfast BTl 3PB. 3. The joint storage of data and the establishment 
of harmonized procedures for the distribution and 
circulation of basic information are implicit in such 
action. 
Article 5 
The railway companies shall send the Commission the 
information necessary for the Commission to state