The Official Journal of the European Union published on 20 October the Regulation Nº 913/2010  of 22 September 2010 concerning a European rail network for competitive freight. This new legislation aims to boost rail freight in Europe fostering the development of a high-quality rail infrastructure management at international level.

The new legislation makes it mandatory to create a European rail network for competitive freight based on nine international rail freight corridors linking the main industrial regions of Europe. This will help to reinforce cooperation between infrastructure managers and make rail freight services become more competitive and attractive.

Following Parliament's amendments and Commission revision to the regulation on rail freight, these rules will finally enter into force on 9 November 2010, allowing better cooperation in areas such as coordination of investments and works, capacity allocation and traffic management with due guarantee given to rail freight in terms of performance, reinforced cooperation with terminals, centralised publication of conditions for access and accrued powers for regulatory bodies to monitor non-discriminatory access. To this end, infrastructure managers will have to put in place a suitable governance structure for each corridor.

Shippers, forwarders and combined transport operators will be allowed to request capacity over these corridors to meet their logistic needs under the best conditions through dedicated one-stop shops. The levels of quality of the supply of rail infrastructure services along freight corridors will be constantly reviewed and published.

The need for international rail freight regulation

International rail freight transport has suffered in recent years from the lack of sufficient cooperation and voluntary coordination between infrastructure managers which prevented the level of services from being raised. This regulation will boost cross-border cooperation and coordination to give fresh impetus to the rail freight sector along major international rail corridors while taking full advantage of existing initiatives to modernise rail infrastructure under the TEN-T and cohesion policy and to deploy the European Rail Traffic Management System (ERTMS).

Having these rail corridors fully operational will lead to more capacity for freight on these routes, while enabling operators to offer a better service, in terms of increased punctuality and shorter journey times. This will help rail freight to better compete with other transport modes.