Luxembourg, 11/06/2009 (Agence Europe) - Meeting in Council on Thursday 11 June in Luxembourg, EU transport ministers looked at length at the draft regulation on the rail freight network. They did, however, manage to reach a political agreement on this by confirming the rules of priority that would be granted to international trains carrying freight along freight corridors established by the same regulation. By way of the agreement found, such a priority should be justified by market needs and take into account the needs of other modes of transport, including passenger traffic.
The agreement was the result of a compromise between states which (like Sweden, the Netherlands, the United Kingdom and France) preferred an ambitious text on the subject, and countries like Germany (supported among others by Slovenia and Austria) which were a little more sceptical about the idea of opening up their rail market. It provides for the establishment of nine corridors (see below) that guarantee more harmonious conditions of traffic for goods trains. Each of the nine corridors will have its own structure of governance responsible for the management and organisation of traffic along the corridor, and the member states will have between three and five years to set up the corridors. International trains (that cross at least one border) carrying freight would benefit from access to slots pre-defined by infrastructure managers for each of the corridors. Except in the case of unforeseeable circumstances, the slot allocated to a goods train may not be cancelled without at least one month's notice and, if such is the case, the infrastructure manager should suggest a slot of equivalent quality and reliability. A one-stop shop, set up by the corridor authorities, would allow candidates to request at a single place and in just one time the necessary infrastructure capacities for transport along the corridor.
Governance. The compromise reached by the Council also provides for each corridor having its executive committee made up of representatives of member states and an administrative council, which, in turn, would, as a consultative body, be made up of infrastructure managers and terminus owners. The Council, however, rejected the Commission's initial proposal that would have given access rights to goods transport slots to candidates other than rail companies (“authorised candidates”).
List of main routes. The Council, at the request of the Slovakian delegation, added a new freight corridor to the list of the eight already decided. This corridor will link Prague and the border between Slovakia and Ukraine. Member states included on the list of routes will have three years from the time the regulation comes into force to put in place the structures required for the corridor. The timescale has been extended to five years for corridors 3 (Sweden/Denmark, Germany, Austria, Italy), 5 (Poland, Czech Republic, Slovakia, Austria, Italy, Slovenia, Hungary) and 8 (Germany, Netherlands, Belgium, Poland, Lithuania). (A.By./transl.jl)