West Europe - Area 1

Please download the Commissioner Bulc’s responses to the Rastatt open letters signed by 25 European rail freight associations.

Key messages from the EU Commissioner:

• We should use the existing EU solutions and in particular the rail freight corridors to make the European rail system more resilient, before setting up any new structures.
• The responsibility is on the sector to take better ownership of these structures and use them to solve international issues!
• The sector should work on developing simplified language solutions for rail in order to support possible future EU legislative changes.
• The  EU Commission agrees that the competences of Rail Freight Corridors for the management of cross-border operations needs to be improved, and asks the sector to develop these proposals.
• For improving international coordination of infrastructure works the EU Commission points to the existing obligations of the Rail Freight Corridors and new EU legislation aimed at strengthening coordination of Infrastructure Managers for
• EU will facilitate coordination meetings between Infrastructure Managers and Railway Undertakings, and other relevant stakeholders at European level.