ALLRAIL, together with the Community of the European Railways and Infrastructure Companies (CER), the European Rail Infrastructure Managers (EIM), the European Rail Freight Association (ERFA), the International Union of Wagon Keepers (UIP) and the European Rail Supply Industry (UNIFE), issued recommendations to the European Commission regarding its proposal for amending the Taxonomy Climate Delegated Act and the Taxonomy Disclosures Delegated Act.

We, the European rail sector, reaffirm our readiness to work with EU Institutions to make the EU Taxonomy successful.

L’Association des loueurs européens de matériel roulant ferroviaire AERRL et l’association des opérateurs indépendants ALLRAIL se sont concertés au sujet de la problématique de fourniture de véhicules pour faciliter le lancement de nouveaux services de transport de passagers. Cela ne concerne que les projets en open access, et non les contrats de service publics, pour lesquels on opte pratiquement toujours pour du matériel neuf.

A meeting between lessors in AERRL and independent railway operators in ALLRAIL leads to a new PLEDGE to actively contribute to help launch new commercial rail offers for passengers through maximum availability of passenger rolling stock.  At the end of the discussion, it appears that the market forces must remember the essential conditions necessary for the good development of the offer and thus of the market share of rail.

On the 1^st December 2022, ALLRAIL held the first event in its new office: the State of Market Opening reception.

With the European market increasingly opening up to private operators and with the comeback of night trains well underway, the availability of rolling stock has become a large obstacle, especially for open-access train operators. 

According to Nick Brooks, secretary general of ALLRAIL, the rail market is being opened up but possible competitors are hindered by the unavailability of affordable rolling stock. This slows the natural growth of the rail market to grow the changes to increase its competitiveness, which can  lead to unnecessary public service obligations, “meaning taxpayers pay for one operator to run trains, while that money could have been spent on better track infrastructure, for example”.

If regulations in order to increase the availability of second hand rail material are not put in place, little advantages can be achieved with a liberalised market. “The ultimate goal is for an operator, regardless where it’s from in the EU, to be able to operate across a border on its own without having to tackle a lot of regulations as soon as a train crosses a border. Then it won’t be necessary to tie up with another operator that has the expertise in another country.”.