On Friday 19 June, the European Commission published a proposal for a regulation aimed at "responding to the urgent needs of the railway sector", which has been severely affected by the Covid-19 pandemic, and at supporting the various players involved.
The Commission points out that European railways carry almost 1.6 billion tonnes of freight and 9 billion passengers every year. Passenger and freight demand for the whole of 2020 is expected to be "considerably below 2019 levels", according to the Commission.
The proposed measures essentially consist of a series of derogations from Directive 2012/34/EU establishing a Single European Railway Area. They would cover a reference period from 1 March 2020 to 31 December 2020.
This would mean, for example, authorising Member States to derogate from the provision according to which infrastructure charges payable by undertakings in the sector may not be less than "the cost that is directly incurred as a result of operating the train service" (Article 31(3)).
Another proposal concerns capacity reservation charges (Article 36). The Directive provides for reservation fees to avoid railway undertakings cancelling reserved train paths at short notice.
The levying of these fees is made compulsory for companies that regularly default on their commitments. The Commission considers on this point that, given the consequences of the Covid-19 pandemic for the sector, Member States should be allowed to lift this obligation temporarily.
The Commission notes, however, that the reductions in charges which it intends to authorise for the States will result in loss of income for the infrastructure manager and points out that the national authorities are in fact required to ensure that the accounts of the infrastructure managers "remain balanced over a period of 5 years under normal business conditions".
It also suggests that infrastructure managers should be able to be reimbursed - in the event of postponement or suspension of fees - within a shorter period of time than initially foreseen.
To view the full proposal: https://bit.ly/2Yujp1D (Original version in French by Agathe Cherki)