Operators’ requirements for ATO development
Today railway actors (railway undertakings, infrastructure managers, manufacturers, the Agency) agree on the compulsory need to achieve harmonised solutions for ATO over ERTMS soon.
The development of ATO must now be done in an efficient, coordinated and interoperable way on a European scale in order to:
- Capitalise on the experiences of the forerunners
- Reduce the time of development by pooling efforts together
- Benefit from economies of scale by developing standardised products
- Strengthen the interoperability of rail transport at the EU level
It is therefore important to agree now on a common ambition for European railways and on the way to achieve it.
Each actor must build its position, identify what are the major stakes and express them, in order to build a common roadmap.
In this position paper, CER stresses some high level requirements in order to ensure a fast development of ATO and to actually get the expected benefits. A robust organisational framework supporting efficiency and transparency is also a compulsory element for collective progress and should also be agreed now.