Summary position statement
 
CER welcomes the intention of the European Commission to “ensure non-discriminatory access to rail infrastructure” in such a way as to “ensure the development of competition, continued investment and efficiency in the cost of service provision” (1). The time has come for a rational analysis of what structural forms foster the Union’s emerging Single Railway Area.
 

CSM on risk assessment
POSITION PAPER covering the results of the CER -UIC ‘Application Exercise’ concerning the RAC ‘design criteria’ values presented in ERA draft revision recommendation for regulation 352/2009

Since 1991 the European institutions have adopted a series of texts paving the way for market opening in the rail sector. Directive 91/440 ‘on the development of the Community’s railways’ laid down the foundations for market opening, which started effectively (except in some countries such as the UK, Germany, Sweden where it started approximately 10 years earlier) with the First Railway Package in 2001, followed by two other packages. The entire rail freight market (national and international) is now fully opened to competition, while international passenger traffic, including cabotage, is open to competition since 1 January 2010.
 

CER wishes to secure an important step forward towards a better functioning Single Railway Area and recommends the creation of a compulsory network of regulatory bodies formally established in the European Union along the lines of what is currently being discussed between the European Parliament and Council in the context of the recast of the first railway package.
 

One of the key targets of European transport policy is to achieve a Single European Railway Area. For this purpose four key objectives shall be pursued:
 

• Promoting the development of effective rail infrastructure;
• Establishing an attractive and genuinely open rail market;
• Removing administrative and technical barriers and developing easy and common (Member States neutral) procedures on European level;
• And ensuring a level playing field with other transport modes.

(Communication from the commission concerning the development of a Single European Railway Area (COM(2010)474 final))