Rail freight: MEPs want flexibility and optimum efficiency for international "corridors"

Rail is currently the least integrated transport mode at EU level, leading to delays, extra costs and insufficient use of the potential of rail freight. The liberalisation of the European rail freight market in 2007, which resulted in an increased number of network users, means international coordination for optimum use of the network is now urgently necessary.
 
EU freight corridors would link at least two Member States and would be part of the TEN-T (Trans-European Network for Transport) programme and hence eligible for EU funding. 
 
Independent managing authority
 
Freight traffic along each corridor would be managed by a board made up of the infrastructure managers of that corridor. Despite the reluctance of Member States, MEPs insisted that this management board should be an independent legal entity, fully responsible for determining priority rules in cases of traffic disruption and congestion, as well as investment plans for the network.

 

 

A single competent body for each freight corridor, designated by the management board, should be responsible for receiving and answering operators' requests for the use of train paths crossing at least one border. This "one-stop shop" would consult closely with its corridor's infrastructure managers before reaching its decision on the granting of slots. MEPs insisted - against the initial unwillingness of transport ministers, who were reluctant to submit such commercially-sensitive decisions to a supra-national body - that the one-stop shop should have the final say on the allocation of paths, in order to ensure fair competition and unbiased decisions.  

 

Balance between freight transport and passenger transport
 
MEPs are adamant that granting too high a level of priority to freight transport to the detriment of passenger transport would be unwise. They agree that reserved train paths guaranteeing punctuality should be allocated to time-sensitive goods ("facilitated freight"), but they reject the Commission's and Council's definition of "priority freight", arguing that it does not allow for the necessary flexibility.

 

MEPs also want the infrastructure managers to take into account previous levels of utilisation and estimated market needs before allocating train paths and deciding timetables. 

 

When will the corridors be set up?
 
A list of nine initial corridors was approved, with some modifications. Member States concerned will have six months to draw up implementation plans for these corridors.

 

MEPs insisted that the decision to create more corridors should be left to the Member States, on the basis of market needs. Within two years, however, Member States with at least two direct rail links to other Member States would have to allow at least one freight corridor, unless they could prove that they would not benefit economically from the project.

 

Finally, MEPs amended the legislation to better promote links with sea and inland waterway ports, in order to stimulate intermodal freight transport and thus lighten the traffic of heavy-goods vehicles on European roads.  Accordingly, they included a number of port cities - such as Le Havre, Bilbao and Naples - in the itineraries of the corridors.