The European Union has announced the adoption of new rules regarding the use of railway infrastructure capacity.
The new Regulation aims to optimise the use of congested rail infrastructure across the EU by introducing a more harmonised approach to capacity planning.
Once fully implemented, the new framework is expected to improve both punctuality and reliability for passenger and freight services, whilst facilitating smoother cross-border rail operations.
Currently, railway capacity management is predominately organised annually, nationally, and through manual procedures – leading to inadequate support of international rail traffic, particularly rail freight, where roughly half of all traffic crosses at least one national border.
New rules seek to address these challenges by strengthening cross-border coordination and introducing multiannual planning for infrastructure capacity, with an objective to make better use of existing rail infrastructure and support growing demand for rail transport across Europe.
Passengers are expected to benefit from more frequent rail services, improved punctuality and more reliable international connections, whilst companies will see an overall reduction in bottlenecks at borders, as well as improvements in the efficiency and predictability of rail freight transport across the Single Market.
The first optimised timetable under the new system is expected to enter into effect in December 2030.
