REPORT FROM THE COMMISSION TO THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT AND THE COUNCIL on the application of Regulation (EU) 913/2010, in accordance to its Article 23
Date: 2018-04-16
Institutions: Directorate-General for Mobility and Transport, European Commission
Subjects: carriage of goods, common transport policy, competitiveness, rail network, trans-European network, transport market, transport network

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  EN 

   EUROPEAN COMMISSION  Brussels, 16.4.2018 COM(2018) 189 final  REPORT FROM THE COMMISSION TO THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT AND THE COUNCIL on the application of Regulation (EU) 913/2010, in accordance to its Article 23 {SWD(2018) 101 final}  
 
 
REPORT FROM THE COMMISSION TO THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT AND 
THE COUNCIL 

on the application of Regulation (EU) 913/2010, in accordance to its Article 23 

Regulation  (EU)  913/2010  of  the  European  Parliament  and  of  the  Council  of  22  September 
2010 concerning a European rail network for competitive freight1 ("the Regulation") entered 
into force in November 2010.  

Its adoption has to be set in the broader context of the long-term policy of the European Union 
to  make  transport  more  sustainable,  in  particular  through  cutting  greenhouse  gas  emissions 
and decarbonising the sector. Rail freight has indeed a key role to play in the transport model 
of  the  future.  It  has  a  new  momentum  with  the  Rotterdam  Ministerial  Declaration2  and  the 
Rotterdam Sector Statement3 endorsed in 2016.  

The  Regulation  lays  down  rules  for  the  establishment  and  organization  of  international  rail 
corridors  (the  Rail  Freight  Corridors  -  RFCs)  with  the  objective  to  develop  a  European  rail 
network for competitive freight. The Regulation fosters cooperation between key stakeholders 
for rail freight (primarily the authorities of the Member States in charge of rail transport and 
the railway infrastructure managers, but also the railway undertakings and terminal operators). 
It  fosters  in  particular  coordination  in  terms  of  capacity  offer,  traffic  management, 
infrastructure works and investment planning. 

The nine initial RFCs defined in the Regulation are established (six RFCs were established in 
November  2013  and  the  last  three  in  November  2015)  and  are  now  fully  operational.  One 
additional ("further") RFC is under establishment and another one has been proposed by the 
Member States concerned and by Serbia.  

According  to  Article  23  of  the  Regulation,  the  Commission  shall  periodically  examine  the 
application  of  this  Regulation.  It  shall  submit  a  report  to  the  European  Parliament  and  the 
Council,  for  the  first  time  by  10  November  2015,  and  every  three  years  thereafter.  The 
Commission  hereby  submits  its  first  report  to  the  Parliament  and  Council.  This  report  is 
submitted with some delay as the Commission wanted to fully reflect the feedback received 
from those RFCs only established at the end of 2015 and because it was decided to launch a 
large stakeholder  consultation (call for  position papers and open public consultation)  on the 
RFCs in 2016.  This consultation had a very encouraging response rate, raising strong interest 
and  providing  key  feedback  on  the  application  of  the  Regulation  and  certain  considerations 
are reflected here. 

This report presents the main conclusions regarding the implementation of the Regulation so 
far.  It  aims  at  highlighting  both  the  main  positive  effects  stemming  from  the  Regulation  as 
well as the main challenges and issues. A more detailed analysis of the RFC implementation 
is set out in the Commission staff working document accompanying this report. Both are also 
based  on  the  direct  feedback  gathered  by  the  Commission  services,  notably  from  their 
participation in RFC meetings, but also on the various documents and reports of the RFCs, as 

1   OJ L 276, 20.10.2010, p. 22. 
2   Ministerial Declaration 'Rail Freight Corridors to boost international rail freight': 

https://ec.europa.eu/transport/sites/transport/files/themes/infrastructure/news/doc/2016-06-20-ten-t-days-2016/rfc-
declaration.pdf 

3  Sector Statement 'Boosting International Rail Freight': 

https://ec.europa.eu/transport/sites/transport/files/themes/infrastructure/news/doc/2016-06-20-ten-t-days-2016/corridor-
sector-statement.pdf 

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well  as  on  the  discussions  in  the  biannual  meetings  of  the  Single  European  Rail  Area 
Committee Working Group on RFCs.  

Overall,  the  implementation  of  the  RFCs  has  contributed  to  enhanced  cooperation  across 
borders,  which  the  rail  freight  sector  was  missing  before  the  entry  into  force  of  the 
Regulation,  in  particular  as  regards  operational  infrastructure  management.  The  adoption  of 
the Regulation represented an ambitious step to overcome gaps in cross-border coordination. 
Indirect  effects  from  the  cooperation  mechanisms  stemming  from  the  Regulation  have  been 
noted too – e.g. facilitation of operational contacts at international level, even for issues not 
concerning  rail  freight,  or  incentivising  the  development  of  coordination  processes  and  IT-
tools, e.g. within RailNetEurope4. This is a significant success. 

However there are mixed or modest results in some areas, for instance as regards dedicated 
RFC  capacity,  coordination  of  works  or  coordination  of  traffic  management.  These  are  key 
areas where progress is needed for the quality and reliability of the cross-border rail  freight 
services to improve, which is a pre-requisite for rail freight to become more competitive and 
ultimately for modal shift to happen. 

In  practice  a  train  often  passes  not  only  onto  and  off  a  corridor  but  also  from  one  RFC  to 
another. As a consequence, cooperation between corridors has been initiated at various levels 
(Member  States,  infrastructure  managers,  railway  undertakings)  within  the  existing  legal 
framework.  This  shows  that  there  is  a  tendency  to  strengthen  the  network  approach  for 
competitive freight. 

The services and capacity products offered by the RFCs are within the spirit of the Regulation 
but feedback or a limited uptake by the market suggest that they are not sufficiently adapted 
to the needs of the rail freight customers. Moreover, in general nationally oriented rules and 
processes continue to hamper more efficient and seamless international freight traffic. 

Many  sector  initiatives  are  going  in  the  right  direction  and  many  interesting  pro-active 
approaches  are  currently  being  trialled,  such  as  pilot  capacity  products  for  ad  hoc  traffic  or 
greater involvement of end-customers through strategy meetings. The momentum created for 
rail  freight  both  by  the  Rotterdam  Ministerial  Declaration,  to  the  elaboration  of  which  the 
Commission  has  been  closely  associated,  and  the  Rotterdam  Sector  Statement,  endorsed 
during the TEN-T Days 2016, has certainly contributed to this. 

More  experience  has  certainly  to  be  gained  on  issues,  such  as  coordination  of  works  and 
capacity  management  across  borders.  Processes  and  tools  in  these  areas  are  still  in 
development or planning phase. The RFCs are indeed still in a nascent, learning-by-doing and 
in a trial-and-error phase. 

It is also important to take into account regional diversities as regards e.g. market expectations 
or  availability  of  infrastructure  capacity.  Therefore  no  generalisation  can  be  made  and  no 
"one-size-fits-all" approach can be applied for an ambitious implementation of the RFCs. In 
addition,  many  effects  are  intangible  and  therefore  difficult  to  quantify  (e.g.  change  of  a 
nationally oriented to a more European mind-set, or enhanced communication).  

There is a general tendency by the involved parties to comply with the Regulation only to the 
extent  formally  required  and  to  remain  within  its  strict  scope.  There  are  different  ways  of 
implementing the different provisions of the Regulation - more or less ambitious - which has 
an  impact  on  the  attainment  of  the  Regulation's  overall  objectives.  At  the  same  time,  some 

4   RailNetEurope (RNE) is an association set up by the majority of the European rail infrastructure managers and allocation 

bodies with the aim of facilitating international traffic on the European rail infrastructure; http://www.rne.eu/ 

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examples  of  extensions  of  RFCs  and  the  establishment  of  two  further  RFCs,  have 
demonstrated a strong interest and general support of RFC implementation. 

The  Regulation  provides  for  a  specific  governance  structure,  whereby  the  involved  parties 
have the possibility to go beyond its minimum tasks and competences. In practice, an RFC is 
an  integrated  operational  structure  and  can  be  used  for  different,  often  complementary 
purposes.  As a "market tool" an RFC can offer quality and competitive services to direct and 
end  customers.  As  a  "policy/cooperation  tool"  their  role  is  to  improve  the  operational 
conditions  along  the  corridor,  including  coordination/harmonisation  of  national  practices  in 
many  areas,  but  also  tackling  a  wide  range  of  issues  of  different  nature  which  hamper  rail 
freight,  like  cross-border  and  interoperability  issues.  The  degree  to  which  one  or  the  other 
approach is used varies between RFCs. 

The  RFCs  are  based  on  intergovernmental  and  sectoral  cooperation.  Experience  so  far  has 
shown  that  their  success  primarily  depends  on  the  degree  of  ambition  of  the  Member  State 
authorities  (Executive  Boards)  and  infrastructure  managers  (Management  Boards),  in 
particular  at  high  level.  Moreover,  in  some  RFCs  the  Regulation  has  been  considered  as  a 
minimum requirement and only in going beyond that minimum the parties involved got closer 
to achieving the Regulation's objective: more competitive rail freight.  

In a nutshell, the assessment of the Commission at this stage is that the RFCs have achieved 
some  important  successes,  e.g.  in  terms  of  establishment  of  cooperation  mechanisms,  and 
have a huge potential. However, the full potential can only be untapped if there is strong high-
level  commitment  from  the  different  involved  parties,  with  the  clear  aim  to  make  changes 
happen, in particular through changes in mind-set and in nationally oriented processes. 

It  is  important  to  note  that  although  the  RFCs  remain  a  key  element  of  the  Commission's 
policy to boost rail freight, the RFCs alone will not solve all the issues hampering rail freight. 
The  work  of  the  rail  freight  corridors  is  complementary  particularly  with  the  Commission's 
long-standing  policy  to  achieve  interoperability  and  market  opening,  and  notably  the 
implementation  of  both  the  technical  and  market  pillars  of  the  4th  Railway  Package, 
infrastructure  development  through the  TEN-T  and  CEF  policies,  as  well  as  innovation  and 
digitalisation  under  the  Shift2Rail-initiative  and  efforts  in  related  policy  fields  to  redress 
intermodal competitive advantages.  

Last but not least, rail freight competitiveness is also influenced by exogenous factors such as 
the wider economy, industry patterns, the state of the infrastructure and related investments, 
the degree of fair competition between transport modes, the degree of ambition of national rail 
freight policies, etc.  

In conclusion, the implementation of the Regulation has clearly created a momentum for the 
development of international rail freight. The effectiveness of the RFC concept depends to a 
large  extent  on  the  commitment  of  the  participating  parties  to  its  effective  implementation, 
where  needed  on  the  basis  of  high-level  support.  The  situation  of  rail  freight  in  Europe 
remains  at  risk.  A  formal  Commission  evaluation  of  the  Regulation  will  be  conducted  in 
2019,  fully  taking  into  account  the  latest  developments  and  ongoing  sector  initiatives 
undertaken to implement the Rotterdam Sector Statement. 

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