Parliament voted in favour of flexible European rail freight network

The Transport and Tourism Committee of the European Parliament voted today in favour of establishing a European rail network for competitive freight. Supporting the rapporteur’s compromise amendments, MEPs decided to reduce the bureaucratic hurdles of the proposed regulation. The Community of European Railway and Infrastructure Companies (CER) appreciates that parliamentarians have recognised the need for a more flexible approach towards establishing rail freight corridors. MEPs also demanded the inclusion of railway operators in the governance bodies, which is essential to ensure a market-orientated development of corridors.

The European Commission published its regulation proposal concerning a European rail network for competitive freight on 10 December 2008. With the regulation the European Commission hopes to increase the commercial speed and capacity of rail freight as well as to improve its reliability through developing international rail freight corridors – resulting ultimately in reduced costs and increased competitiveness of the sector.

In today’s vote, parliamentarians largely supported three compromise amendments on the regulation proposal, worked out by rapporteur Petr Duchoň (EPP-ED). MEPs agreed to allow more flexibility for the corridor governance bodies, in particular with regard to giving priority to freight trains and the reservation of train paths for freight transport. Sufficient flexibility for the governance bodies is important because the situation of rail freight transport varies from corridor to corridor and needs to be analysed and resolved individually. Commenting on the decision to involve railway undertakings in the governance bodies, CER Executive Director Johannes Ludewig said: “The integration of railway operators in the decision-making process will allow an efficient development of corridors according to market needs. This has always been an important point for all CER members, including both rail freight operators and rail infrastructure managers.

The proposed rail freight network regulation must still be voted on in the plenary of the European Parliament in April and needs to be approved by national governments in the European Council before it enters into force.

The committee also voted on another important transport infrastructure issue today. Regarding the own-initiative report on the Green Paper on the revision of the trans-European transport network (TEN-T), MEPs were clearly in favour of focussing European funding of transport infrastructure on sustainability. Priority should be given to environmentally friendly forms of transport, they demanded. “With almost 30% of CO2 emissions in the European Union stemming from transport, prioritising investments in rail and combined transport infrastructure is certainly needed,” said Johannes Ludewig. Considering the strategy options of a future TEN-T policy, CER welcomes the parliamentarians’ approval of the Green Paper’s core network approach, allowing for a flexible integration of promising projects into the TEN-T network at any time.

 

Source: Transportweekly