Brussels, 20/07/2012 (Agence Europe) - The European Road-Rail Combined Transport (UIRR) union has set out its expectations of the Fourth Railway Package due this autumn from the Commission. Martin Burkhardt, in his capacity as UIRR Director General, has said: “UIRR would like to encourage the European Commission to make rail freight quality improvements, a declared aim of the Fourth Railway Package. UIRR is confident that it is still in time to decide such a positive scope extension to this turn of European rail legislation”.
In 2011, combined transport trains accounted for one third of European rail freight tonne-kilometres, and so the UIRR is well placed to give detailed counselling in a position paper published on 19 July, setting out a “second best solution to full structural separation” if the Commission does not choose complete separation between rail operators and infrastructure managers, when dealing with the problems embodied by integrated incumbent and state-owned railway monopoly holdings.
The UIRR also underlines that it is in favour of reinforcing the European Railway Agency through the extension of its mandate to enable it to function as a fully fledged European level entity for rail safety and interoperability, to accelerate the emergence of a Single European Rail Area. Also, the combined transport sector supports a European rail regulator and has drawn up a list of what it should aim to accomplish.
Finally, the UIRR has put forward other measures to be included in the Fourth Railway Package to improve the quality of rail services, and especially for enhancing the quality of border crossing rail freight services in Europe. Inter alia, it recommends the creation of a European level rail network manager, and the guarantee of transparency to complement the infrastructure managers' performance regimes. (MD/transl.jl)