Rail Freight coalition publishes Contingency Management handbook to avoid a second Rastatt

Rail Freight coalition publishes Contingency Management handbook to avoid a second Rastatt

In its vision paper "30 by 2030" the Rail Freight Forward coalition (RFF) committed to adopt and implement a contingency management handbook. This Handbook outlines harmonized international contingency measures whenever major disruptions happen on the European Railway network. The handbook was developed by the UIC ECCO group, which unites Railway Advisory Group Speakers and the ERFA representative of the European Rail Freight Corridor Network.


The Handbook describes how RUs should cooperate with each other and with Infrastructure Managers. It closely aligns with the Contingency Management Handbook of Infrastructure Managers. Furthermore, the Handbook outlines scenarios of resource pooling between RUs in order to best manage large incidents, and the regulatory mitigation measures that would be needed to make that possible.  These measures will allow the rail sector to maximise use of infrastructure capacity during a major international disruption. Such an incident can, both in duration and scale, jeopardise major trade flows and risk undermining customer confidence in rail’s resilience as a transport mode.


The Handbook has been endorsed by BLS Cargo, CFL Cargo, DB Cargo AG, the ERFA Board -representing it´s 30 members, Fret SNCF, Lineas, RCG and SBB Cargo. All other RUs have been invited to join this effort to improve the resilience of European Rail Freight. The first RUs will start implementation in 2020.



Linked documents

20191219 PR Railway Undertaking s Handbook for International Contingency Management ( 20191219 Press Release RU ICM Handbook publication-1576766106.pdf )

20191219 Railway Undertaking s Handbook for International Contingency Management ( railway_undertaking_s_handbook_for_international_contingency_management_1.0-1576766872.pdf )