Optimising rail capacity management

Moving more goods and people on rail to meet EU Green Deal objectives requires a substantial increase of rail infrastructure capacity. In addition to physical and digital infrastructure, it is key to ensure optimised capacity management to avoid capacity wastes.

Among the proposals in the Greening Freight Transport Package, the Commission is seeking to address this very issue through a revision of the Regulation on the use of railway infrastructure capacity in the Single European Railway Area. With the new rules, an increase of capacity of up to 4% is expected, representing nearly 250 million train km of additional capacity.

The Proposal includes new obligations for rail Infrastructure Managers (IMs) during all phases of capacity planning, allocation, adaptation and rescheduling, as well as obligations to coordinate cross-border traffic management, disruption management and crisis management. At the same time, the new governance will have a profound impact on railway undertakings (RUs) and applicants, and it will be important to ensure proper consultation for a balanced market voice.

As the legislative process unfolds, MEP Tilly Metz, Rapporteur on the file, and CER are organising this lunch debate to discuss how best to achieve the ultimate goal of optimising rail capacity management. What impact will this Regulation have on the work of the IMs? What risks and opportunities do passenger and freight RUs see in the Regulation? What elements of the revised Regulation can be implemented before 2030?

We will explore these questions and more with our line-up of high-level speakers from the EU institutions and rail CEOs from across the sector.

Check the programme here.

A selection of pictures of the event can be found in our photo gallery.