In order to be more competitive compared to other modes of transport, the international and national rail freight transport services opened for competition in January 2007 should benefit from a high-quality and well funded railway infrastructure, one that allows these services to be provided in good commercial speed timetable conditions and to be reliable, which would mean that the service provided corresponds to the contractual terms agreed upon by railway operators.
To that end, in October 2010, the European Parliament published a new regulation for a competitive rail freight transport network. The European Union wants to revitalize rail freight transport, which was severely affected by the economic recession, even in developed countries such as Germany and France. Rail freight transport should benefit from more attention from EU’s competent institutions and especially from the national EU-27 governments. Identifying and establishing a number of international freight corridors means more competitiveness for rail freight transport, as well as economic competitiveness for the entire Union, due to the economic advantages brought by this type of transport. To that end, it is necessary to coordinate the development of railway networks and especially the integration of international freight corridors in the existing TEN-T and ERTMS network. Moreover, the European Union should harmonize the regulations related to noise pollution reduction in railway transport. If necessary, the development of these corridors should be financed through TEN-T, various research programs, Marco Polo and other European policies and funds, such as the European Regional Development Fund, the Cohesion Fund and the European Investment Bank.
Coordinated investments for EU member states
The European Parliament notes that, in order to ensure the coherence and continuity of the infrastructure capacities along a freight corridor, the investments allocated for the respective corridor should be coordinated between the EU member states and the respective infrastructure managers, as well as between the member states and other European third countries. These investments should also be planned according to a logic that can best meet the needs of the respective freight corridor, within the limits of economic viability. The investment program should be published in order to ensure a proper communication between those who will operate on the respective corridor. The investments should also include projects for the development of interoperable systems and for train capacity increase. It is also necessary to introduce fair regulations related to investment coordination and traffic management, founded on the cooperation between the infrastructure managers who have to supply a quality service for the freight transport companies along an international railway corridor. The amendments brought to the current legislation were based on the report entitled “A European railway network for a competitive freight transport”, proposed in May 2010 by Romanian rapporteur Marian-Jean Marinescu and adopted in June by the European Parliament. “The development of freight corridors is based on several criteria, the most important of which being economic efficiency. Every corridor will be monitored by an executive board and a management board. These two will coordinate the implementation of the investments, the elaboration of a timeframe, the development of terminals and the harmonization of current regulations”, said Romanian rapporteur Marian-Jean Marinescu. “These corridors link the main industrial regions of Europe, where the most substantive flow of goods originates and terminates along the main international axes. The legislative proposal includes cooperation between rail infrastructure managers, reliability of infrastructure capacities allocated to the corridors, good coordination between rail infrastructure management and goods terminal management, and non-discriminatory access to these corridors for all operators”, Viviane Reding, Vice-President of the Commission said. The regulation published in October 2010 includes a list of nine initial corridors approved, with some modifications (n.r. the complete list was presented in the November issue of Railway Pro). Member States concerned will have six months to draw up implementation plans for these corridors, starting with November 9. 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. 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.
by Elena Ilie
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