The poor reliability of international trains and the reduced transport speeds are only few of the problems affecting the international freight traffic. Freight trains run on many international corridors at speeds of 18 km/h, while speed on internal routes is 25 km/h. This is due to the time lost with cross-border operations, but also to the lack of cooperation between transport operators. The result is that railways cannot serve the transport of certain cargoes which then head to the faster road transport.
Regulation 913/2010 will significantly improve cooperation between the infrastructure managers and other parties interested along the railway freight transport corridors. Joint objectives will be defined for these corridors helping all the players in the market act for a common goal. An implementation plan will represent the base for establishing the new corridors (9) in three to five years since the coming into force of the Regulation.
During the Railway Days Summit, Martin Erlinger, joint Corridor Manager of RNE, talked about RailNetEurope’s activity in supporting the development of freight corridors set through Regulation 913/2010. The organisation has developed a series of IT instruments aimed to support infrastructure managers and railway freight transport operators. Thus, we can talk about Path Coordination System (PCS), a system aimed to manage the communication and coordination processes for international path demands, as well as path offers.
Moreover, RNE also operates the Train Information System (TIS), an IT system which provides real-time information and generates reports on international train traffic.
At the end of 2010, RailNetEurope received, apart from the activity it carried out, the mandate to become services supplier and specialized support supplier for the organisations of the nine freight corridors.
“A key element for access to the European railway network is the harmonisation of train schedules for international path demands”, believes Martin Erlinger.
The regulation on the set-up of the nine freight corridors of the European Union is an important milestone of the European railway policy in the development of railway freight traffic. It will help increase the railway freight transport capacity where the railway is already experiencing a comeback of transport volumes, as well as the market share, and will support the improvement of rail freight transport competitiveness as regards the quality of services and the efficiency of the countries where rail transport still needs to recover.
At present, the European railway freight transport receives a new stimulus due to the new regulations of the European Union dedicated to the promotion of a new high-quality management of international railway infrastructure – one-stop shops.
“In my opinion, in 2050, the railways will be predominantly used for freight transport over distances longer than 300 km. These freight corridors, single ticket offices and increased cooperation stipulated under the new legislation will allow rail freight transport suppliers to attract additional customers towards this eco-friendly mode of transport”, said Siim Kallas, European Commissioner responsible for transport.
An important aspect of the Regulation is the cooperation between management of terminals and that of the rail network, both in terms of traffic management and infrastructure development. Railway operators, other than railway undertakings will be able to demand the allocation of the rail capacity on these new corridors.
Regulation 913/2010 becomes a milestone in the development of European railway corridors, which in turn will boost economy and competitiveness in the European Union.
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