COMMISSION STAFF WORKING DOCUMENT EXECUTIVE SUMMARY OF THE EVALUATION of Regulation (EU) No 913/2010 concerning a European rail network for competitive freight
Date: 2021-06-02
Institutions: Directorate-General for Mobility and Transport, European Commission
Subjects: carriage of goods, common transport policy, competitiveness, intra-EU transport, rail network, sustainable mobility, trans-European network, transport market, transport network

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   EUROPEAN COMMISSION  Brussels, 2.6.2021  SWD(2021) 135 final  COMMISSION STAFF WORKING DOCUMENT  EXECUTIVE SUMMARY OF THE EVALUATION  of Regulation (EU) No 913/2010 concerning a European rail network for competitive freight {SWD(2021) 134 final}  
 
 
Evaluation of the rail freight corridors 

In 2010, the co-legislators introduced a new and innovative legal instrument to improve the 
operation of the main international railway lines used for the transport of goods across the EU 
and with European third countries. 

The Regulation on rail freight corridors came into effect after 20 years of legislative efforts to 
open  national  markets  to  competition  through  a  series  of  eight  directives  adopted  in  three 
packages. These efforts addressed the execution of legal measures covering national networks 
and revealed themselves insufficient to support the development of  cross-border rail freight 
traffic, which accounts for 52% of traffic. 

The Regulation aimed to break down the silos of national structures that govern and operate 
the  rail  infrastructure.  It  led  the  whole  rail  community  to  cooperate  to  pursue  a  more 
integrated rail network for freight. It rightly focused on the need to provide international rail 
freight  services  with  sufficient,  flexible  and  first-rate  infrastructure  capacity  (train  paths) 
along  eleven  rail  corridors,  and  consequently  improve  their  performance  in  terms  of 
reliability, punctuality  and speed.  It  also  correctly  targeted the main  players responsible for 
the  design,  schedule  and  release  of  that  cross-border  capacity:  Member  States  and 
infrastructure managers. These two players have combined their efforts in two distinct bodies 
at strategic (executive bodies) and operational (management bodies) levels. 

The  evaluation  confirms  that  while  the  legislation  clearly  requires  Member  States  and 
infrastructure  managers  to  deliver  results,  it  gives  them  plenty  of  freedom  as  to  how  to 
achieve  that  result.  To  cover  the  international  range  of  rail  corridors,  stakeholders  mainly 
relied,  to  varying  degrees  in  various  corridors,  on  processes  and  tools  already  in  use  at 
national level. By contrast, the Regulation introduced two specific  products, one to respond 
to  requests  for  international  infrastructure  capacity  (one-stop  shop)  and  one  to  reserve 
capacity for the exclusive use of rail freight operators (pre-arranged train paths). 

Costs  for  implementing  the  legal  measures,  in  particular  its  governance,  have  not  been 
excessive  (EUR 55 million)  and  have  primarily  been  covered  by  the  Union  budget 
(EUR 35 million). 

The new legal instrument prompted all players active in the freight supply chain to strengthen 
their cooperation and become increasingly aware of the barriers that rail freight faces along 
international routes. Rail freight corridors also provided a fertile ground for the development 
of new promising initiatives targeting the  removal  of technical  and operational bottlenecks, 
the modernisation of timetabling, and the prediction of train arrival times. 

In  general,  the  Regulation  contributed  to  the  objective  of  improved  cooperation,  and  also  - 
but  to  a  lesser  extent  -  the  objective  of  increasing  the  competitiveness  of  rail  freight  in  the 
multimodal transport system. 

Its  results  are  far  from  significant  for  growth  in  traffic  volumes  (modal  shift)  and 
improvement in performance (reliability, punctuality and speed) where benefits are difficult 
to  identify  and  quantify.  The  lack  of  tangible  results  is  in  part  due  to  incomplete 
implementation, failure to conform to the spirit of the legal act and the prevalence of national 
attitudes  over  common  international  practices.  Another  contributing  factor  has  been  the 
Regulation’s  high-level  nature  with  respect  to  the  definition  of  instruments  and  means  of 
compliance. 

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The  use  of  the  specific  products  introduced  by  the  Regulation  (one-stop  shops  and  pre-
arranged  train  paths)  has  been  lower  than  expected.  The  contribution  of  the  Regulation  to 
coordinating  cross-border  investments  has  been  limited  and  the  main  players  failed  to 
thoroughly  monitor  the  performance  of  rail  freight  services  with  a  view  to  developing  and 
implementing  effective  plans  to  improve  performance.  Moreover,  implementation  did  not 
include an effective network approach for harmonising processes and tools. The resilience of 
rail  freight  corridors  was  put  to  the  test  by  major  accidents.  These  accidents  caused 
unprecedented disruption to freight logistics chains throughout Europe. They highlighted that 
management  based  on  national  attitudes  had  a  low  level  of  preparedness  for  reacting  to 
disruptive events. 

The Regulation would benefit from a better alignment with two relevant legal acts that were 
subsequently adopted: the 2013 TEN-T Guidelines1 for geographical and investment aspects, 
and the 2012 Directive establishing a single European railway area2 for capacity issues. 

In spite of these negative results, the concept  of  safeguarding  capacity  for cross-border rail 
freight on the basis of harmonised EU rules has shown its full validity during the COVID-19 
pandemic.  The  performance  of  rail  freight  services  drastically  improved  following  the 
reduction in rail passenger services.  It is evident that one of the key success factors for rail 
freight remains the availability of good quality rail infrastructure capacity in ample quantity. 

These good results need to be made permanent. Several key factors relating to the provision 
and  management  of  rail  infrastructure  are  crucial  for  unleashing  the  full  potential  of  rail 
freight  in  the  multimodal  transport  of  goods.  Providers  of  international  rail  freight  services 
are still unduly inhibited by the inconsistent planning of national investments across borders, 
the lack of priority given to rail freight in operation, uneven national rules (both technical and 
operational), and the lack of adequate infrastructure in terminals. 

Unless  these  problems  can  be  resolved  by  means  of  a  more  holistic  and  network-centric 
approach, it is unlikely that the European Green Deal objective to shift a substantial part of 
freight from road to rail in the next decade will be met. In line with the sustainable and smart 
mobility strategy, the Commission will therefore undertake an impact assessment to analyse 
complementary  or  alternative  measures  to  overcome  the  problems  and  achieve  the 
Regulation’s objectives. 

1   Regulation (EU) No 1315/2013 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 11 December 2013 on 
Union guidelines for the development of the trans-European transport network and repealing Decision 
No 661/2010/EU (OJ L 348, 20.12.2013, p. 1). 

2   Directive 2012/34/EU of the European Parliament and of the Council of 21 November 2012 establishing a 

single European railway area (OJ L 343, 14.12.2012, p. 32). 

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