Despite the significant development of the “community acquis” on establishing a domestic market for railway transport services, the modal share of railway transport within the Union stands at 6%, more or less constant since 2000.
This relatively poor railway transport performance reflects a low level of efficiency and quality of railway ser-vices compared to other transport modes. According to the latest studies available, this situation could be assigned to the presence of several barriers which hinder market access and the expansion of services suppliers thus obstructing the domestic railway market.
In this context, the main objective of the Fourth Railway Package consists in improving the quality and efficiency of railway transport services by removing the existing barriers and thus encouraging the performance of the railway sector, as well as economic competitiveness and growth. The adoption of the Fourth Railway Package is scheduled for December 2012.
These hindrances can be grouped into four categories, technical, administrative, institutional and legislative barriers; the fourth ca-tegories of obstacles can be approached with the initiatives which compose the proposal for the launch of the Fourth Railway Package. Initiatives refer to the institutional organization of the railway market, to the approach of legal barriers concerning the domestic passenger transport market, as well as the initiatives regarding the European Railway Agency (ERA), to interoperability and safety.
At the opening of the 2012 edition of the International Railway Technology Fair InnoTrans, Siim Kallas, the European Commissioner for Transport, talked about the “necessity of fair conditions for all those providing railway transport services in all Member States. At the present time, newcomers frequently experience difficulties in gaining access and open competition still only exists in a few countries. It is important to have a mix of public invitations to tender and open access. We have obtained the recast of the First Railway Package, we will improve the financial architecture of the financial railway infrastructure, access conditions and the role of regulatory bodies, we are thus close to achieving the Single European Railway Area. There are still many things to be done if we want to improve the role of railways and to have a seamless railway transport. As you know, we will have a new legislation for the improvement of the railway transport role in a few months. We are talking about the Fourth Railway Package”.
Jean-Eric Paquet, the Director on European Mobility Network at DG Move, highlighted the potential positive impact of the recast of the 1st Railway Package and the revision of the TEN-T guidelines on rail freight operations during the Rail Europe Forum in June this year. Furthermore, “the implementation of the Regulation on the European Rail Network for Competitive Freight will help operators getting cross-border slots and by means of increased interoperability” he said. Additional boost to the sector will come from a “systematic development of ERTMS” and a pragmatic approach to the upcoming 4th Railway Package, in particular by shortening the procedures for cross-border vehicle authorisation.
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