Rail Sector welcomes Parliament vote on rail capacity management proposal

The Community of European Railway & Infrastructure Companies (CER) welcomes yesterday’s vote by the European Parliament Committee on Transport & Tourism (TRAN) on the Proposal for a Regulation on the use of railway infrastructure capacity. Progress on this Regulation is essential, and the rail sector acknowledges the efforts of the Rapporteur, Shadow Rapporteurs and all those Members of Parliament involved to reach this agreement. This vote is an important step towards a substantial increase of infrastructure capacity and an optimised capacity management.

This legislation is both timely and necessary and will help the sector optimise capacity and avoid capacity wastes, increase modal shift and help achieve the ambitious goals of the Green Deal and the Smart and Sustainable Mobility Strategy.

In particular, CER welcomes the proposal of a European Railway Platform with the involvement of Railway Undertakings and Applicants in the allocation process and in the development of European frameworks. CER also appreciates the inclusion of sufficient financing from the European Commission and Member States for the implementation of digitalisation of capacity and traffic management, as well as the obligation of multiannual funding provided by the Member States for at least 5 years to be included in the Regulation.

However, CER is dismayed to see the excessively high number of implementing and delegated acts foreseen in the European Parliament report. These additional secondary acts will hamper the implementation of the Regulation.

The rail sector would like to see improvements within the text concerning the following:

• the role of the European Union Agency for Railways (ERA) should remain within its current scope in Digital Capacity Management (DCM) and the European framework for performance review. The sector is in the best position to develop and coordinate DCM and the European Framework.
• In relation to the introduction of socio-economic and environmental criteria to be applied in case of scarce infrastructure capacity, further work should be undertaken to define and test the criteria.
• The role of the Regulatory Bodies (RBs) and the European Network of Rail Regulatory Bodies (ENRRB) should remain limited to an ex-post supervisory intervention, excluding ex-ante approvals that will further delay processes.

CER Executive Director Alberto Mazzola said: “This vote is an important step towards a substantial increase of infrastructure capacity by optimising the use of the existing rail infrastructure and avoiding capacity wastes through improved processes and digitalisation. CER rail infrastructure managers confirm that they will be able to deliver what is requested by the Regulation, and rail undertakings are anxious to have simplified and digital tools to demand and receive capacity. The European Parliament has improved the Commission proposal, for instance by recognising the role of railway undertakings, however CER would like to see a more streamlined use of delegated and implementing acts. The importance of this Regulation cannot be underestimated - if Europe is to achieve its ambitious Green Deal objectives, more goods and people must be moved on rail”.