No major change in transport will be possible without the support of a proper network and without the intelligent use of this network. Overall, transport infrastructure investments have a positive impact on economic growth, create wealth and jobs, and enhance trade, geographical accessibility and the mobility of people. It has to be planned in a way that maximises positive impact on economic growth and minimises negative impact on the environment.
Currently, the transport infrastructure of the European Union is properly developed. Nevertheless, it is still divided, both geographically and by modes of transport. The main objectives of the Guidelines on the TEN-T policies is to set a comprehensive and integrated Trans-European transport network that would cover all member states and regions and that would be the foundation for the balanced development of all transport modes and for the optimal exploitation of their advantages, thus maximising the added value of the network for Europe.
“Capacity charging and allocation systems should consider the effects of the increasing saturation of infrastructure capacities, as well as scarce capacity”, shows the recast of the First Railway Package.
Apart from the need to invest in railway infrastructure and to establish infrastructure access charging systems that would stimulate infrastructure managers so that the development of proper investments would be financially viable, interoperability is also confronted with a series of technical barriers.
To visibly reduce the existence of such technical barriers the First Railway Package, as well as the Fourth Railway Package, recently submitted to attention by the Commission, define the interoperability of networks as one of the significant elements of establishing the Single European Railway Area.
Also, the two legislative packages sketch the train signalling and control systems, ETCS, which are, in turn, significant for the systematization of the interoperability of European networks. But it is not as simple to apply, as it is to say.
To support interoperability, at the end of January, the European Commission adopted a decision strengthening the certification and authorisation process of lines and trains equipped with the European Train Control System (ETCS).
As we well know, currently, there are more than 20 different signalling systems in operation in Europe and their incompatibility is a major technical barrier to international traffic. For example, adding an additional national safety system in an existing locomotive, already authorised in different countries, and obtaining again all safety authorisations may cost more than EUR 2 Million and take more than two years. ETCS will eliminate these costs.
Today, in Europe, more than 4000 km of lines are equipped with ETCS. Moreover, the equipment of more than 4000 additional kilometres has already been contracted, thus indicating that the length of ETCS equipped lines will more than double over the next two or three years. Another reason for the installation of ETCS is probably the provisions of the two above-mentioned legislative packages, according to which the trains equipped with ETCS can pay a smaller track access charge.
Moreover, from 2011 to 2014, the first priority included in the TEN-T financing refers to the testing campaign of proving the interoperability between the railways equipped with the ETCS 2.3.0d and the onboard equipments from different industry suppliers. Within this priority area, the lines and trains contracted for fitting with the ETCS before the entrance into force of the Commission’s Decision 2008/386/EC can receive TEN-T funds for their updating to ensure their compatibility with the ETCS 2.3.0d standards.
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