BRUSSELS, 13 March 2024: ALLRAIL welcomes the adoption by the European Parliament of its position on the Railway Capacity Regulation. This Regulation has the potential to transition capacity allocation from an annual, manual, and national process to a flexible, digital, and European framework, thus significantly contributing to the EU’s goals in terms of modal shift to rail.

However, ALLRAIL expresses significant reservations regarding the introduction of the concept of clockface timetables, which raises concerns about its impact on the flexibility and commercial viability of long-distance passenger rail services.

ALLRAIL welcomes the establishment of the European Railway Platform (ERP), emphasising the importance of consulting rail operators in key decision-making processes related to capacity supply plans and to the three European Frameworks for capacity management, traffic management, and performance review. The creation of ERP ensures that the voices of operators –  that the infrastructure managers serve – are heard.

Furthermore, the decision to grant the European Network of Rail Regulatory Bodies (ENRRB) more responsibilities in supervising the activities of the European Network of Infrastructure Managers (ENIM) is a positive development. This includes ex-ante (before the adoption) evaluation of the three European Frameworks and the review of ENIM’s decisions, ensuring an additional layer of scrutiny and transparency.

In addition, ALLRAIL applauds the emphasis on protecting the commercial confidentiality of rail operators during the capacity allocation process, a crucial amendment for maintaining competitive integrity, especially within vertically integrated companies.

Moreover, the added responsibilities assigned to the European Agency for Railways (ERA) are a positive step towards building the Single European Railway Area (SERA). Nonetheless, ALLRAIL stresses the need for adequate resourcing of ERA to meet its existing and expanded mandates effectively.

However, ALLRAIL objects to the concept of clockface timetables for long-distance services. Such a regime restricts operational flexibility, and as we are witnessing in Spain, has led to reduced train occupancy, utilisation and profitability.

ALLRAIL’s Policy Officer Salim Benkirane says: “It is imperative that long-distance timetables are not imposed in a top-down approach by authorities or infrastructure managers, but rather they should be determined in a bottom-up approach with the rail operators.

These long-distance rail operators are best positioned to propose schedules that most accurately serve demand, ensuring efficient use of available resources without squandering taxpayer money.”