Explanatory Memorandum to COM(2008)852 - European rail network for competitive freight - Main contents
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This page contains a limited version of this dossier in the EU Monitor.
| dossier | COM(2008)852 - European rail network for competitive freight. |
|---|---|
| source | COM(2008)852  |
| date | 11-12-2008 |
1.1. The construction of a sustainable system of transport: a major objective for the Community.
The need for the Community to meet its commitments in terms of reducing greenhouse gases, improving the environmental performance of its economy and the constraints weighing more and more heavily on energy resources are very important features of Community transport policy.
The Community would therefore like to create a transport system for the benefit of its citizens and undertakings which is the cleanest and most efficient possible. In order to achieve this, the Commission, in its mid-term review of the White Paper on Transport i, proposed concentrating on the development of 'co-modality', that is the optimal use of all modes of transport, combined or otherwise.
This development is based in particular on creating a true internal European transport market. Much progress in this direction has already been made in the aviation and road transport sectors. However, rail transport still has some way to go in this respect.
Contents
- 1.2. Issues regarding rail transport
- 2. IMPROVING THE QUALITY OF THE SERVICE PROVIDED BY INFRASTRUCTURE TO THE FREIGHT UNDERTAKINGS ON A SPECIFIC NETWORK
- 2.1. Details of measures already taken
- 2.2. Problems persist
- 3. NEW INITIATIVES SEEM NECESSARY
- 3.1. All stakeholders would like Community action on this matter
- 3.2. A regulation concerning the European rail network for competitive freight and additional initiatives
- 4. THE GENERAL PRINCIPLES OF THE PROPOSAL FOR A REGULATION
- 4.1. Concerning the definition and governance of the European rail network for competitive freight
- 4.2. Concerning investment
- 4.3. Concerning the operation of a freight corridor
Rail freight services have been opened up to competition since 1 January 2007. Existing undertakings have restructured themselves or are in the process of doing so. New stakeholders are also appearing. The quality of services provided by the infrastructure managers to the undertakings remains low in many Member States and must be improved. However, the demand for rail transport could significantly increase in the years to come in many regions of the Union.
Indeed the rail freight market, approximately half of which is accounted for by international services, will not be able to develop properly if railway infrastructure does not offer a better service to freight undertakings. Several difficulties must be surmounted for this to happen: much more attention is paid to passenger trains than to freight trains, both in terms of investment choices and in terms of managing capacity and traffic, which greatly penalises freight transported by rail in the majority of Member States; national infrastructure managers who continue to act in a too disjointed manner, and inefficient or restricted connections between railway infrastructure and other modes of transport.
Infrastructure managers must therefore cooperate more. The balance of traffic between passenger trains and freight trains must be managed differently, at least on significant routes for freight. Lastly, providing freight undertakings with a sufficient number of intermodal installations capable of providing quality services is a very important factor in the development of combined traffic, which constitutes a strategic segment of the modern rail freight market.
Without this, rail freight will not be able to develop properly and fully play its role in the construction of 'co-modality' in Europe.
2. IMPROVING THE QUALITY OF THE SERVICE PROVIDED BY INFRASTRUCTURE TO THE FREIGHT UNDERTAKINGS ON A SPECIFIC NETWORK
Many initiatives have already been taken in recent years, both at national and Community level, to ensure that the service provided by the infrastructure managers becomes more efficient. Progress is being made on rationalising investment, the use of new technologies, and adopting management rules for increasingly sophisticated infrastructures.
More particularly, at European level successive railway packages have set the Member States on the path to modernising their railways and to integrating national systems. With provisions relating to access and the levying of charges for infrastructure, managing its capacities and traffic, railway safety and the development of interoperability, the directives making up the first, second, and third railway packages represent a European legislative and policy framework which encourages the modernisation of rail transport.
Furthermore, the Transeuropean Transport Network (TEN-T) programme, the development and the deployment of the European Rail Traffic Management System (ERTMS), and the technical specification relating to telematics applications relating to freight (TAF-TSI) contribute to the development of interoperability and better-integrated management of the railway infrastructure in Europe. Within the framework of the deployment of ERTMS, for example, international freight-oriented corridors have been defined. Their creation gives rise to active cooperation between infrastructure managers. The latter have also taken the initiative of uniting in the form of a body named RailNetEurope, which provides a number of services to international freight undertakings and encourages cooperation between infrastructure managers in terms of managing capacities.
All of these initiatives help to improve infrastructure management. They must be increased and their pace accelerated to ensure that the progress necessary for integrating rail transport and developing freight becomes a reality. In the first place this means improving or increasing:
- cooperation between infrastructure managers in order to eliminate border effects for freight traffic and optimising their investment and the use of their capacities at an international level, initially on the most important routes;
- development and management of the intermodal terminals used for the railways;
- the quality and reliability of the infrastructure capacities allocated to freight.
Within the framework of the ERTMS corridors already created, cooperation between Member States and infrastructure managers basically relates to investment and varies noticeably in terms of intensity between corridors. Moreover, creating a better balance, in terms of the use of the railway network, between the different types of traffic has not been the subject of significant action at this stage, although this represents a primordial factor in the improvement of the quality of rail freight services in Europe (see Communication COM(2008)536 on the quality of rail freight services).
The Commission undertook, in its Communication of 18 October 2007 Towards a rail network giving priority to freight, to present in 2008 proposals for the creation, in a coordinated manner, of international rail corridors giving priority to freight. This option was favoured over the creation of rail corridors dedicated to freight, which was deemed too one-sided, expensive and slow to implement. Further to making this commitment, the Commission carried out a large-scale consultation of all of the stakeholders concerned.
Initially, fifteen experts in the sector, together with Commission departments, pinpointed rail freight problems linked to infrastructure and identified possible ways forward. The conclusions of the group, included in a report listing recommendations by area of intervention, formed the main basis for the work on this proposal.
Subsequently, a public consultation procedure was launched. It offered the opportunity for many stakeholders, Member States, railway undertakings, infrastructure managers, industrialists, associations and freight-service users, to express their opinions on this matter and to give their opinion on the Commission's proposals.
The main conclusion drawn from these two exercises is that the short-term creation of international rail corridors for competitive freight would contribute substantially to improving the competitiveness of rail transport.
Moreover, the Council of Ministers meeting on 7 and 8 April 2008 invited the Commission to 'devise measures for achieving the efficient operation of international rail freight services through reinforcement of the cooperation between infrastructure managers in the fields of operations and investment and through identification of those cross-border corridors, including co-modal sections, along which the efficient flow of international rail freight traffic should be ensured, in terms of capacity and investment planning and in terms of reliable and sufficient train paths'. The European Parliament, which has adopted a report on this subject, the European Economic and Social Committee and the Committee of the Regions, have also expressed their wish for progress to be made on this matter as soon as possible.
3.2. A regulation concerning the European rail network for competitive freight and additional initiatives
Taking into account all of these elements, the Commission has examined three options (not undertaking any new measure; enhancing measures which have already been implemented and, where necessary, undertaking new policy initiatives; proposing new legislative measures) which could lead to the creation of a European rail network for competitive freight consisting of international corridors. It has carried out an analysis of the qualitative and quantitative impact of these options i.
According to this analysis, the third option would offer the most positive effects, and provide a number of guarantees to both the Community and the Member States themselves concerning collective involvement in the objective being pursued. The main uncertainty regarding this option concerns the deadline for the adoption and entry into force of the new legislative measures.
These conclusions, the need to make rapid progress in terms of integrating the national railway infrastructure networks to ensure that the integration of rail transport is similar to that of other modes of transport, and the need, to that end, to specifically harmonise the rules for managing infrastructure along a freight corridor, lead the Commission to propose to the Parliament and the Council that they adopt a regulation concerning the creation of a European rail network for competitive freight.
The Commission proposal for a Regulation relates in particular to the procedures for the selection of corridors, together with the governance of all the corridors, and to the characteristics that these corridors must have. It is based on the continuance of the initiatives and provisions quoted above, such as the TEN-T programme, the ERTMS corridors and current Community legislation relating to rail transport.
To meet the need to act rapidly and to stimulate and guide current measures having the same objectives as this initiative, the Commission also proposes supplementing its proposal for a regulation with other initiatives. It will encourage the creation of associations between Member States for the creation of corridors and joint investment planning. It will regularly bring together all the railway infrastructure managers in the Union to encourage the exchange of good practices and raise subjects of common interest.
Furthermore, the review of the TEN-T policy which is currently underway will offer an opportunity to coordinate this initiative with the TEN-T policy, which should lead to a significant amount of synergy, both in terms of measures to be implemented to obtain greater efficiency in construction and the use of infrastructure in the European interest, and in terms of investment.
The proposal is in accordance with the principle of subsidiarity. It contains provisions regarding the transnational management of railway infrastructure which could not be implemented individually by each Member State. It is also in accordance with the principle of proportionality. It sets objectives and joint procedures for the Member States and the railway infrastructure managers. Finally, the proposal supplements and is based on existing rail legislation. This makes its interpretation easier and thereby contributes towards the simplification of legislation which has been decided at Community level.
The proposal is organised into five chapters, of which three relate to: the design and governance of the European rail network for competitive freight; investment in the infrastructure, the terminals and their equipment; and finally, the operation of freight corridors. Chapter 1 relates to general provisions and Chapter 5 relates to final provisions.
For each freight corridor, the measure proposed is based on a regular analysis of the market and regular consultation of customers, the definition of an implementation plan containing measures intended to meet their needs and to guarantee compliance with provisions in the proposal for a regulation. The infrastructure and terminal managers are responsible for carrying this out, with the support and at the instigation of the Member States involved in the creation of the freight corridor in question.
4.1. Concerning the definition and governance of the European rail network for competitive freight
Chapter 2 first of all stipulates the obligations of the Member States in terms of creating international rail corridors for competitive freight and the procedure for selecting these corridors. These provisions must guarantee both the quality of the proposed corridors and consistency between the different corridors proposed. They also provide for all of the Member States which do not have specific geographical features incompatible with this objective to participate in the creation of the European rail network for competitive freight.
The proposed method is as follows: the legislation lays down a general obligation for the Member States to create freight corridors within the TEN-T; the Member States together define the corridors that they would like to create; this choice is validated at Community level, in the comitology procedure, after examining the relevance of the proposed corridor and the consistency between all of the freight corridors proposed.
This chapter also contains the essential characteristics of the governance body for each freight corridor. The Commission brought the experience that it has gained, in particular within the framework of ERTMS corridors and corridors implemented by RailNetEurope, to bear on the issues brought up by the group of experts, and the results of the public consultation to define these essential characteristics. In general, it appeared that putting in place an international structure capable of encouraging coordination between Member States and infrastructure managers along a corridor is a vital element in the success of this exercise.
Chapter 3 specifies the obligations to be complied with regarding a freight corridor in terms of coordinating and programming investment and developing interoperability between the different networks covered and improving the capacity for the trains. Developing interoperability will enable significant gains to be made in terms of journey times, capacity and the productivity of rail freight. Increasing train capacity, for example by increasing the maximum length of the trains which can run along the whole corridor, will also efficiently improve the productivity of rail freight.
In this chapter, the Commission also proposes defining a network of strategic terminals for each corridor. The good connection of each freight corridor to the rest of the network and to other modes of transport, at maritime ports or inland, will indeed play a fundamental role in the success of this initiative. Each corridor must therefore have an effective strategy regarding the development of intermodal terminals in particular, and also the adequacy of their capacity in terms of the needs of freight running along the corridor.
Chapter 4 concerns seven essential points: the development of interoperable procedures; improving coordination of traffic operations between infrastructure managers on the one hand, and infrastructure and terminal managers on the other hand; enhancing access to infrastructure and terminals; preferential treatment of freight trains in terms of allocating train paths and managing traffic; monitoring the quality of the service along a freight corridor; cooperation between regulatory bodies.
Better coordination of the operation of the freight corridor should lead to the improved performance of international freight transport along the corridor for a limited cost. For example, it involves applicants being provided with a one-stop shop for all requests for train paths across several networks. Furthermore, the impact assessment has shown that efficient coordination of the operation of terminals and the main infrastructure would very significantly improve the performance of rail freight. It would lead in particular to a reduction in waiting times for trains accessing the terminals or the main infrastructure from the terminals.
The quality of information about conditions and means of access to all of the services necessary for the efficient running of a freight train will also allow non-discriminatory access to all of the services provided by the infrastructure of the freight corridor.
With regard to the balance between freight trains and passenger trains, the objective is to ensure that freight trains have access to good-quality, reliable train paths and that, for international train paths, national train paths are consistent amongst themselves. Better treatment of freight trains in terms of traffic operation is also included in this chapter. The issue here is to give guarantees to rail freight as to the reliability and the quality of the service it is being provided by infrastructure managers. These guarantees, which in general rail freight does not have, should have a moderate impact on the performance of passenger traffic. Furthermore, they must not constitute an excessive restraint which is likely to harm improved infrastructure management.
All of the above measures must produce positive effects on the performance of freight rail transport which must be measured and regularly analysed. It is for that reason that Chapter 4 stipulates that each corridor must define performance indicators which are regularly updated.