UIRR advocates for rail freight protections in EU Capacity Regulation
Author: Dennis van der Laan
03.10.2025 | The International Union for Road-Rail Combined Transport (UIRR) has called for a number of measures to be included in the EU’s Rail Infrastructure Capacity Management Regulation. Those should ensure a “fair operating environment” for rail freight operations.
The EU’s trilogue negotiations, where the European Commission, European Parliament and Council of the European Union aim to find a compromise on a legislative proposal, are nearing completion, according to UIRR. For that reason, the association wants to make sure that a number of measures are included. It has published a new position paper detailing what it considers necessary for combined transport (CT) to thrive.
UIRR puts forward six points. First of all, it wants the proposed European Railway Platform (ERP) to act as the advisory body to the European Network of Infrastructure Managers (ENIM). Railway Undertakings, Authorised Applicants, Terminal Managers and their associations should make up the membership of the ERP. The ERP should then review the implementation documents produced by ENIM and in doing so, fulfill the coordination of stakeholders during strategic capacity planning.
The ERP was a proposal by the European Parliament, intended to act as a counterweight to ENIM and undermine the powerful position of national infrastructure managers.
However, in 2024, the Council – representing national interests at the EU – removed it from the regulation draft. Instead, the Council opted to reduce ENIM’s role, explicitly stripping it of policy-making and regulatory powers.
Reassurance to customers
Second, UIRR wants a mandated minimum capacity for rail freight operations that “reflects the difficulty of deterring cargo carried by rail from being transferred to other transport modes.” The association adds that that is especially important when bypassing parts of railways that are impacted by infrastructure works.
In order to guarantee a certain level of reassurance to rail customers, infrastructure managers should notify of train path changes at least six months ahead of time. That should also give railway undertakings, authorised applicants and terminal managers enough time to change their plannings.
The money question
Point five and six concern money. UIRR wants penalty payments for short-notice changes or train path cancellations. Right now, there is a proposal to cap those penalty payments, but that would make changes relatively cheap for infrastructure managers. “The disincentivising impact of the penalty towards the infrastructure manager must be reinforced by removing the cap”, says UIRR.
What’s more, UIRR argues for compensations for excessive bypass routes, defined as 50 kilometres or longer. Compensation payments should depend on the length and restrictions caused by infrastructure works, as well as cover additional track access charges, traction electricity costs, locomotive and driver fees, wagon rental costs and terminal disruption charges.
Lastly, the combined transport association wants the scope of the strategic guidance and socio-economic and environmental cost-benefit analysis to be defined in an annex to the Capacity Regulation. It should explicitly list the types of instructions that an EU Member State can issue. “The Annex should contain a methodology description for the socio-economic and environmental cost-benefit analysis to be carried out in parallel. The practical rules pertaining to the two different inputs to capacity allocation should be detailed in the Regulation, primarily focusing on the issues of hierarchy, transparency and method of introduction (deadlines).”