Railway Organisations

The International Rail Transport Committee is an organisation of 200 railway undertakings which provide international transport of passengers and/or freight. It is an association under Swiss law with its headquarters in Bern and its task is to provide all necessary juridical documents and instruments for international traffic at railroad level.

The CIT helps railways implement international rail transport law, standardises the contractual relationships between the various players (customers, carriers, infrastructure managers, wagon keepers, customs authorities) and represents the interests of carriers by rail vis-à-vis legislators and authorities. In addition, it provides regular briefings for its members and provides members with training courses and legal advice.

The European Association for Forwarding, Transport, Logistics and Custom Services represents the interests of 22 national organisations of European freight related service providers.

CLECAT promotes the activity and defends the interests of its members in connection with a large number of institutional and non-institutional counterparts in the intent of securing a uniform and seamless environment, where cargo can move freely and securely for the benefit of the whole international trade

The European Rail Infrastructure Managers consists of infrastructure managers from ten Member States in the European Union and one in EFTA.

EIM represents the particular interests of the rail infrastructure management sector in relation to EU legislative developments affecting the rail industry.

The mission of the European Rail Circle is to act as an intermediary which brings together key stakeholders in the railways industry. Its ultimate objective is to stimulate the exchange of ideas and experience, to promote the role of railway transport in the development of the European economy, and to help develop a sound rail transport policy from which a more effective and improved railway industry can emerge.

In order to accomplish these objectives, ERC offers a permanent neutral platform for identifying emerging trends and critical developments, exchanging information, and having constructive dialogues in order to come up with solutions to the existing problems and to promote rail within an integrated transport system. ERC operates at the highest level of the European Community institutions/Member State Governments and all sectors of the rail industry.

The European Rail Freight Association is the association of new operators to the rail freight market across Europe, mostly private and independent companies.

The aim of ERFA is to remove material or legal hinderances and obstacles that prevent carriers from rapidly establishing international rail freight services, using all the rail infrastructure regardless of who manages them, and to encourage all developments likely to enable all rail companies to flourish in the rail freight market irrespective of their size or age.

The European Rail Freight Customers? Platform is an initiative of European and national associations of industries and groupings. The aim of the platform is the realisation of a single, customer-oriented rail freight market in Europe.

The European Rail Research Advisory Council (ERRAC)was set up by, and is responsible to, the Commission. It was established in 2001 to help create a single European body with both the competence and capability to help revitalise the European rail sector and make it more competitive, by fostering increased innovation and guiding research efforts at European level.

The European Transport Workers Federation is a new pan-European trade union organisation which embraces transport trade unions from the European Union, the European Economic Area and Central and Eastern European countries.

Bi-monthly magazine for the European railway industry. Published six times a year, European Railway Review is designed to address new technologies and developments within the railway industry.

Forum Train Europe is a pan-European forum for international production, planning, timetable coordination and harmonisation of train paths for allocation in European rail traffic.

This website gives customer information on the CER UIC CIT Passenger Charter and related customer service issues.

RailNetEurope is an association set up by a majority of European rail Infrastructure Managers to enable fast, easy access to European rail, as well as to increase the quality and efficiency of international rail traffic. Together, the current 34 members of RailNetEurope are harmonising conditions and procedures in the field of international rail infrastructure management for the benefit of the entire rail industry.

The European Federation for Transport and Environment is a European umbrella for non-governmental organisations working in the field of transport and the environment, promoting sustainable transport in Europe;

The European rail industry has started to produce a ?Strategic European Deployment Plan? (SEDP) for the Technical Standard for Interoperability (TSI) for Telematics Application for Freight (TAF). The SEDP is a requirement of the TAF TSI Regulation, which applies to the European rail freight industry.
When delivered to the European
Commission in July 2006, the SEDP will identify when each Railway Undertaking
and Infrastructure Manager will comply with the TAF
TSI.

The International Union of Railways promotes cooperation between railways at world level and carries out activities to develop international transport by rail.

The International Union of Private Wagons International Union of Private Wagons
The International Union of Private Wagons encompasses 16 European associations from 16 European countries. The associations and the UIP represent owners, loaders, users and other parties interested in about 180.000 private rail freight wagons running in Europe.

The International Union of combined Road-Rail transport companies counts 19 members (18 active and 1 associated) in 14 different countries. The active members are all private operators and the majority of their capital is detained by road hauliers, shippers or their associations.

The International Association of Public Transport (UITP) is the international network for public transport authorities and operators, policy decision-makers, scientific institutes and the public transport supply and service industry.

The Union of the European Railway Industries represents nearly 100 leading European companies responsible for the design, manufacture, maintenance and refurbishment of guided land transport systems, subsystems and related equipments.