Partially driven by the desire to promote rail as a sustainable form of freight transport, the Single European Railway Area: Use of Railway Infrastructure Capacity legislation aims to address issues of efficiency and reliability. It should also enhance competitiveness by reconsidering capacity usage, improving continuity in international transport, formalizing force majeure, and mandating funding for maintenance.
The legislation includes welcome developments for those advocating for more transparency and cooperation in European railways. It encompasses a wide range of different measures, including the planned establishment of a digital management system, a body for evaluating results, and the European Railway Platform. Will this be enough to solve the problems that the sector has been facing for a long time?
The current state of rail in the EU
To understand the legislation, it is important to look at the underlying factors. To date, a lack of customer orientation – or focus on the shipper as the end user – and fragmentation in the sector have hindered initiatives to expand and improve rail freight transport in the EU.
Currently, decisions for rail transport in the EU are partially determined by international regulations to create a unified market, and partially by infrastructure and operational management at the national level. The latter has a significant impact. Railway infrastructure is heavily influenced by local investment decisions, strategic plans, and priorities for infrastructure development. Individual countries determine how the infrastructure is used and whether investments are made in any expansions.
Because national governments have the final say over their railway infrastructure, there is a lack of a universal approach to technical standards, scheduling planning, and disruption management. These – and other critical aspects – are determined by the infrastructure managers of individual countries, of which only six currently operate with the existing central European capacity booking system.
This lack of centralization hampers international freight transport. To such an extent that 80% of all planned railways change between the announcement and actual implementation. This means that shippers and carriers spend about 25% more on rail freight than necessary (source: UIRR).
Logically, this has an effect on these groups, and they want to see improvement. The focus on domestic infrastructure in all member states, the fragmented national systems, and a lack of data exchange have caused rail freight transport in the EU to decline again between 2021 and 2022 . A trend that is not in line with the EU's goal of making freight transport more sustainable by increasing the use of relatively low-carbon rail transport, as opposed to more carbon-intensive road transport.
Full steam ahead?
Fortunately, the recent amendments to EU legislation directly address a number of the aforementioned issues. In particular, the legislation paves the way for a single European Railway Platform, which will need to serve as a bridge between local infrastructure managers and other stakeholders in the railway industry. How this will look in practice is still unclear, as the launch is currently scheduled for 2029.
To achieve the goal of creating joint solutions through this platform that increase efficiency on the railways, improve decision-making, and enhance customer satisfaction, it is crucial that the platform is granted strong decision-making and legal powers and authority. Only then can the initiatives be effectively implemented. Additionally, it will need to involve more players from the public and private sectors.
It is worth noting that the recent amendments are just the starting point and that this should serve as a springboard for further reforms of current practices. Digitalization acts as the 'accelerator' and the EU will need to invest further in thoughtful actions to bridge the gap between the management of rail transport and the shippers of goods: the end customers.
Why thoughtful? Because end customers are often overlooked in the development of technological solutions. It is important to develop customer-oriented digital solutions that focus on collaboration, knowledge and data sharing, and increase visibility between end-to-end players in the supply chain.
This kind of technology already exists and will not hinder the development of an efficient platform. The challenge lies in changing the mindset of the stakeholders. Leaving aside the actual implementation, the recent amendments are a signal that the EU is ready to prioritize increasing transparency, accountability, and stakeholder input in rail freight transport - a positive sign for the entire logistics transport sector.
Author: Christopher Keating, Senior Vice President, Trimble Transportation Europe
