Proposal for regulation(s) revising Regulation (EU) 913/2010 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 22 September 2010 concerning a European rail network for competitive freight and introducing measures to better manage and coordinate international rail traffic, including through new rules for capacity allocation in the rail sector
Date: 2022-03-07
Institutions: Directorate-General for Mobility and Transport, European Commission
Subjects: common transport policy



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CALL FOR EVIDENCE


FOR AN IMPACT ASSESSMENT






This document aims to inform the public and stakeholders on the Commission's future legislative work so they can provide feedback on the Commission's understanding of the problem and possible solutions, and give us any relevant information that they may have, including on possible impacts of the different options.






Title of the initiative




Cross-border rail traffic – better management and coordination 






Lead DG (responsible unit) 




DG Mobility and Transport, Unit Single European Rail Area






Likely type of initiative




Legislative proposal






Indicative timetable




Q4 2022






Additional information




https://transport.ec.europa.eu/transport-modes/rail_en 






This document is for information purposes only. It does not prejudge the final decision of the Commission on whether this initiative will be pursued or on its final content. All elements of the initiative described, including its timing, are subject to change.









A. Political context, problem definition and subsidiarity check






Political context 






Rail transport is an energy efficient and environmentally friendly mode of transport. However, cross-border freight and passenger services continue to face barriers limiting their competitiveness and attractiveness. Rail and multimodal transport services, including rail, rely on rail infrastructure capacity services and therefore on all the processes required to deliver them, including capacity planning and allocation and traffic management.


Regulation (EU) 913/2010 introduced cooperation mechanisms to ensure sufficient, flexible and high-quality infrastructure capacity along EU rail corridors for rail freight operators. However, the evaluation of the Regulation showed that the existing measures have not been sufficient to increase cross-border rail freight. In this light, the Regulation has not been sufficient to support the EU’s ambitious policies in the fields of transport, climate change, energy and the environment. 


Cross-border rail passenger traffic is on the rise, but it is still only around 10% of total traffic. In line with the European Green Deal objectives, more competitive cross-border rail services would help fight climate change, reduce local air pollution and congestion, increase safety and the energy efficiency of transport. The sustainable and smart mobility strategy envisages measures for better management and coordination of cross-border rail traffic. 


Implementation of this objective started with the proposal for the revision of the TEN-T Guidelines; the current initiative will introduce further measures to improve the management and coordination of cross-border rail traffic.






Problem the initiative aims to tackle






Cross-border rail transport, in particular for freight, is struggling to attract customers and to improve competitiveness and increase traffic volumes. The main problems facing rail transport, and multimodal transport involving rail, are:


§insufficient competitiveness of rail transport services and intermodal transport services involving rail;


§limited growth potential of rail services, in particular freight, due to a lack of or inefficient use of infrastructure capacity.


The drivers of these problems include:


§ineffective management of capacity on the existing network, resulting in inefficient use of resources and problems of reliability, thereby hampering the development of cross-border rail (freight) traffic, in particular on congested lines used by both passenger and freight traffic; 


§deficiencies in cross-border coordination in the management of infrastructure capacity and traffic under normal or disruptive situations;


§insufficient deployment and use of digital tools – where digital tools exist, they are often based on national approaches and lack interoperability across borders or between different stakeholders;


§insufficient cooperation between operational stakeholders involved in rail freight transport, in particular in the organisation of multimodal transport chains at the interface with other modes, e.g. in terminals. 


§insufficient transparency about the performance of infrastructure services and freight transport services, which hinders a comprehensive analysis of persisting barriers and possible remedies and limits competition in the provision of rail transport services;


§insufficient levels of competition, especially in long-distance passenger rail.


Other drivers are outside the scope of this initiative but are addressed in related initiatives. These include:


§insufficient internalisation of the external costs of transport across modes;


§insufficient or poorly maintained rail infrastructure, in particular for cross-border rail freight traffic, which often comes second to passenger traffic in investment planning and is hampered by a lack of cross-border coordination;


§the lack of technical and operational interoperability of national rail systems in the EU.






Basis for EU action (legal basis and subsidiarity check)






Legal basis






The legal basis for EU intervention is Article 91 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union. Transport policy is an area of shared competence and both the EU and EU Member States are able to legislate and adopt legally binding acts. 






Practical need for EU action






Cross-border rail transport services, especially for freight, continue to suffer from fragmentation at national level. This concerns primarily services delivered by national rail infrastructure managers and allocation bodies. Moreover, fragmentation results from the divergent regulatory frameworks put in place by national authorities and, to a certain extent, from uncoordinated action by the operators of rail and multimodal transport services. Equal access to public railway transport means making passenger transport by rail more attractive across the EU.


The lack of coordination creates obstacles for the free movement of goods and for transport services, which can be overcome only on the basis of uniform principles and rules under EU law.  






B. Objectives and policy options
                              






The initiative aims to increase cross-border rail transport, mainly by optimising the use of rail infrastructure. The initiative aims to create the conditions necessary to improve rail infrastructure capacity and traffic management, covering all types of rail traffic, and to improve the multimodal integration of rail freight services. Existing initiatives of public and private stakeholders will be given due consideration when designing the policy options. These include, most notably: (i) the Timetable Redesign Project; (ii) the electronic exchange of estimated times of arrival; (iii) collaborative decision-making; and (iv) coordination between railway and terminal capacity and operations. The initiative will also take into account progress in the digitalisation of planning, operating and monitoring railway infrastructure and of rail transport services.


The initiative will consider both legislative and non-legislative measures. Legislative measures would amend rules currently laid down in Regulation (EU) 913/2010 and Directive 2012/34/EU referring to the management and operation of railway infrastructure. Non-legislative measures such as guidance, voluntary agreements or improved enforcement action could complement legislative measures.


Key areas of intervention include: 


A.Railway capacity management, covering all activities to ensure increased use of railway infrastructure in the various strategic and tactical planning phases: investment planning, asset management (resulting in capacity restrictions due to infrastructure works), timetable design and the capacity allocation process, as well as timetable changes in the phase between capacity allocation and train operation;


B.Traffic and contingency management: this essentially covers the real-time management of rail traffic in the operational phase, both in normal conditions (train dispatching) and in the management of larger disruptions (crisis or contingency management);


C.Stronger integration of rail freight transport in multimodal logistics chains: coordination and cooperation in the planning, operational and post-operational phases between rail sector stakeholders (infrastructure managers and railway undertakings) and other parties in multimodal chains such as transport organisers, transport operators of other modes, terminal operators and shippers (customers of freight transport services). Multimodal passenger services are not in the scope of this initiative.


D.Performance monitoring and management: this includes all activities undertaken to monitor and improve the performance of rail infrastructure and transport services in the post-operational phase.


E.Conditions for infrastructure use, provision of information and regulatory supervision: this covers cross-cutting principles and rules applying to several of the above-mentioned intervention areas, such as economic incentives, electronic exchange of information and use of digital tools, and rules on economic and legal aspects.


In addition, the initiative will address the interplay of these intervention areas with infrastructure planning and with railway safety and interoperability. The individual measures making up the policy options will be designed in such a way as to address the problems and problem drivers referred to above. All options will address all problem drivers, but via different measures.


The following preliminary policy options have been identified and will be refined and analysed in the impact assessment, taking into account the results of the consultation activities and the analysis:


■Option 1: Refinement of the existing legal framework for rail freight and passenger traffic:


—This option maintains the key tools from the existing legislation, such as corridor-based governance and one-stop shops, but clarifies and further develops them to strengthen their effectiveness and efficiency in addressing the problem drivers outlined above. This could include, for example, a requirement to make the use of the one-stop shop mandatory for cross-border freight traffic.


—As the key tools remain in place, this option focuses on improving coherence with other tools of EU legislation, e.g. as regards railway interoperability and safety and rail’s integration into multimodal logistics.


—This option provides for a relatively stable legal framework and relies mainly on sector-driven initiatives to achieve the objectives of EU rail freight policy, accompanied where needed by non-legislative measures such as guidelines and stronger enforcement activities.


■Option 2: Comprehensive modernisation and harmonisation of rules, processes and tools for freight and passenger traffic


—This option introduces new approaches, processes and rules, in particular for rail capacity management. Given the predominantly mixed-use nature of the EU rail network, this option addresses both freight and passenger traffic. The option would introduce new elements such as a forward-looking, multi-annual planning of capacity utilisation for different traffic segments, more flexible allocation processes, additional performance-related incentive schemes, stronger use of digital tools (‘digital per default’) and others. This will in particular take into account ongoing work by sector stakeholders on the capacity management and timetable redesign programme.


—In intervention areas other than capacity management (e.g. traffic management), this option will build on the measures included in option 1.


—As regards coordination across borders, this option mainly relies on cooperation, with decision-making powers and operational functions remaining predominantly at national level. The role of the governance structure established by Regulation (EU) 913/2010 would be aligned with the new framework established under this option.


■Option 3 – Stronger centralisation of decision-making and operational functions at European level


This option complements the new rules, processes and tools introduced in option 2 with a governance and an operational body at network level, centralising certain decision-making and operational functions. This could include: (i) the creation of dedicated entities at European level, e.g. with decision-making powers in capacity management, operational functions in traffic management or in economic market regulation and regulatory supervision; or (ii) a significant expansion of the implementing powers of the European Commission.






C.  Likely impacts






The initiative should boost rail freight transport and possibly create additional employment at freight railway undertakings and terminal operators. A possible co-benefit of intensifying intra-EU freight transport would be increased trade and economic activity, resulting in additional employment.


Depending on the policy option retained, the initiative may also have significant impacts on rail passenger transport: better capacity management across the European Union may result in additional capacities for new cross-border passenger services, thereby increasing options for sustainable cross-border travel.  


If the initiative were to result in a higher uptake of rail transport, this would contribute to lower greenhouse gas emissions, local air pollution and road congestion and help improve transport safety. Shifting transport activities to rail results in a decrease in noise pollution by other modes and a likely increase in noise pollution by rail freight traffic in some locations. From December 2024, the technical specifications for interoperability on noise forbid the use of ‘noisy’ rail freight wagons on the most intensely used rail sections in the EU, significantly contributing to mitigating the potential increase in rail noise pollution resulting from this initiative.


Achieving the impacts of the initiative requires complementary policy interventions, particularly to address the problem drivers mentioned above which do not fall within the scope of this initiative.






D. Better regulation instruments 






Impact assessment






An impact assessment will underpin any proposal to revise the legal framework in the intervention areas referred to above. It will analyse different policy options to ensure that the general and specific objectives, as mentioned above, are achieved. Building on an extensive evaluation and other available inputs, the impact assessment will start in 2022. An external support study for the impact assessment was launched in Q1-2022.






Consultation strategy






A 12-week open public consultation in all official EU languages is planned to be launched in Q1-2022, to collect data and views from the general public. The consultation will be accessible via the Commission’s central public consultations page
1
 (Have Your Say). Results will be summarised in a report that will be made available on the Commission’s website.


An extensive programme of targeted consultation activities will take place in the context of the impact assessment support study, using standard data collection tools such as surveys and interviews.






Why we are consulting?






The measures to be proposed could require implementation by several stakeholder groups (public administration, rail infrastructure managers, allocation bodies, rail regulatory bodies, railway undertakings, etc.) These groups can provide useful insights on what measures will be most cost-effective.


The measures could have a wide effect on users of rail services and other businesses (e.g. in the transport sector via the effect on multimodal transport).






Target audience






All relevant stakeholders at all levels (SMEs, large and multinational companies) will be consulted. These include: 


·railway undertakings (incumbents and new entrants); 


·infrastructure managers and allocation bodies; 


·national rail safety authorities; 


·regulatory bodies; 


·rail facility operators; 


·national, regional and local public authorities responsible for transport; 


·European and international organisations, organisations representing the interests of transport manufacturers; 


·other transport organisers and operators involved in multimodal transport; 


·trade unions and professional organisations active in the transport sector; 


·commercial and private users and their organisations (freight and passenger); 


·financial institutions, investors and environmental organisations.










(1)
 Accessible at 
https://ec.europa.eu/info/law/better-regulation/have-your-say_en
.