Jul 31 2020
Joint call for reform on Europe’s Rail Freight Corridors
Two representative bodies, the Community of European Railway and Infrastructure Companies (CER), and the European Rail Infrastructure Managers (EIM) have put their joint weight behind a qualified endorsement of Europe’s Rail Freight Corridors. They agree on the relatively successful implementation, and now they are lobbying for a supportive programme of flexible and enhanced European legislation to help realise the full potential of the RFCs.
The ten-year old establishment of Rail Freight Corridors (RFC) has been broadly endorsed as a success by two Brussels based organisations, who jointly represent a wide membership among rail interests in Continental Europe and the UK.
The sector’s views
The RFCs are a defined set of routes, over which EU member states are required to facilitate international rail freight, primarily by maintaining infrastructure to agreed standards. The framework was agreed in 2010 under EU Rail Freight Regulation 913/2010, commonly known simply as ‘The Regulation’.
The positioning paper, entitled ‘The sector’s views on Rail Freight Corridors’, is published by CER, which claims membership of three-quarters of all rail freight businesses in the EU, EFTA and EU accession countries. It is partnered by the younger EIM, which promotes the interests and views of independent infrastructure managers in Europe, and includes four prominent UK members.
Freight must be shifted to rail
In a joint statement, issued with the paper, both bodies say that the regulation of RFCs has brought a host of positive developments for European rail freight transport, especially for implementing European interoperability. “The RFCs have helped in interconnecting railway infrastructure and implementing a centralised platform for all stakeholders”, they say. The representative bodies further note that by creating a platform for cross-border harmonisation, the RFCs have strengthened the focus on international traffic flows, and helped facilitate a host of other improvements and pilot projects.
However, the joint paper says that there is still fundamental room for improvement. The CEO of Austrian Federal Railways (ÖBB) Andreas Matthä, and the current Chair of CER, was recently quoted expressing his concerns over the ability of RFCs to fulfil their potential, and help meet ambitious Europe-wide targets to shift thirty per cent of all freight to rail by 2030 – a proportion that is higher than even the most successful markets today. “The key to climate protection lies above all in freight transport”, Matthä said. “Freight must be shifted significantly from road to rail in the future.” Read more
Source: RAILFREIGHT.COM