The European rail freight sector has been watching the escalating wage dispute between the GDL and Deutsche Bahn (DB) with bewilderment. After 2-3 days of strikes in December and at the beginning of January, the GDL has now announced a 6-day strike from today (23 January), which in our view is completely disproportionate and will in turn have a significant impact on rail freight transport. This comes at a time when rail freight transport is already in a very critical situation due to the major infrastructure problems in Germany.

As the EU institutions are debating the European Commission's proposal to amend the Directive governing the Weights and Dimensions of commercial road vehicles (96/53), CER, ERFA, UIC, UIP and UIRR presented today a joint study, carried out by the consultants d-fine GmbH, on the impacts of the Commission's proposal. The study confirms the concerns of the rail freight industry. Should the Commission's proposal be enacted without substantial changes, the proposed measures would have disastrous consequences from a socio-economic and sustainability perspectives.

Trans-Alpine rail freight traffic is facing serious difficulties. Two of the tunnels which rail freight is reliant on, namely the Frejus and Gotthard Base Tunnel, remain totally or partially closed. Frejus tunnel will remain closed until the end of 2024 due to a landslide which occurred in August, whilst the Gotthard base Tunnel (GBT) will remain partially closed until September 2024 due to a derailment which occurred during the same month. Strategic support measures are required to ensure these temporary restrictions in capacity will not have a severe negative impact on rail freight operators and the sector.

On 17 November, the rapporteur for the Railway Capacity Regulation, Ms. Tilly Metz, presented her draft report. The draft report represents a significant improvement on the Commission proposal and forms a good basis for establishing a European Parliament position on the Regulation. Of note, the Regulation strengthens the role of infrastructure users, introduces a clearer governance structure and a more ambitious implementation plan.

During the ERFA Board of Directors meeting held on 16 November 2023 in Milan (I), the decision was taken to re-elect Dirk Stahl as ERFA President and Maciej Gladyga as ERFA-Vice President. Both mandates are for a two-year period up until November 2025. This period will involve a lot of change within the European Institutions, with European elections in May 2024, and with it a new European Commission and Parliament. In the short term, it will also involve closing strategically important files such as the TEN-T and Capacity Management Regulation as well as the revision of the Combined Transport Directive and State Aid Guidelines for Railway Undertakings.

For rail freight to be able to meet the modal shift objectives of increasing rail freight volumes by 50% by 2030 and doubling volumes by 2050 , it needs to be cost competitive with other modes of transport, particularly road. This will require the implementation of Track Access Charge regimes which looks to ensure parity in cost for road and rail. Recent experiences have shown a fragmented approach to infrastructure charging throughout Europe. In several Member States, Infrastructure Managers are continuously adjusting infrastructure rates to increasingly allow rail to compete. In other cases, the opposite is being observed, where rail is becoming more expensive compared to road, undermining rail freight?s ability to compete.

The proposal for a revision of the Weights and Dimensions Directive should be used, in conjunction with the Combined Transport Directive, to incentivise the use of rail-road intermodal transport, the greenest and most energy efficient way to transport goods on long distance. Therefore, significant amendments are required to ensure this aim is reached as the text currently favours more polluting and energy consuming road only traffic, threatens rail-road interoperability, will generate other negative externalities and a substantial reverse modal shift.

ERFA welcomes the inclusion of the new CountEmissions EU Regulation inside the Greening Freight Transport Package. Allowing economic actors to know how much CO2 emissions are generated by transport services is indeed a key element to decarbonise freight transport as the less polluting modes and services will be better highlighted. However, carbon reporting should be made mandatory and co-legislators should introduce a carbon labelling to communicate the data to shippers in a uniform way and maximise the effect of the Regulation.

International railway transportation experiences significant operational barriers compared to road and aviation through stringent language requirements which hinder the development of international travel. Whilst it is not appropriate to make like for like comparisons with other modes, or call for a copy and paste of systems, significant changes to existing requirements are needed to facilitate the growth of international rail transportation.

CER, ERFA and UIRR call on the European Parliament and the European Council to maintain the package approach when considering the legislative proposals in the "Greening Freight Transport Package" (GFTP) tabled by the European Commission on 11 July. The amendment of the Weights and Dimensions Directive (WDD) should not be considered on its own merit without seeing the Combined Transport Directive (CTD) amendment proposal. The new CountEmissionEU Regulation is a similarly closely linked part of the GFTP.

On 11 July, the European Commission presented its proposal for a Regulation on Railway Infrastructure Capacity in the Single European Railway Area (SERA). ERFA appreciates the general objectives of the Regulation but believes significant improvements are needed if the Regulation is to have a real and tangible impact on growing rail freight volumes. The proposal as tabled by the European Commission will most likely only lead to minor improvements in rail freight services and not before 2030.

On 11 July, the European Commission unveiled its long awaiting Greening Transport Package. With less than one year to go before European elections, it is essential that the European Parliament and Council work on this package as a matter of urgency. The adoption of these proposals, in a way that meets the needs of rail freight, will have a major bearing on Europe?s ability to increase rail freight volumes by 50% by 2030 and doubling volumes by 2050 - a goal set out in the European Sustainable and Smart Mobility Strategy - and Europe's subsequent ability to reduce freight transport emissions.