UNIFE Director General Enno Wiebe calls for the adoption of measures to roll out ERTMS, a unified system that will ensure the creation of a single railway area.
This approach was endorsed at the ERTMS conference organized by the European Union Agency for Railways (ERA) in Valenciennes to rally support for a new course of action, given that implementation risks stalling.
Drastically reducing bureaucracy in the authorization process, easing project-specific requirements, and harmonizing trackside equipment are measures to unblock ERTMS and will help accelerate the system’s implementation, enabling Europe to achieve the objectives set under the TEN-T.
This comes as the European ERTMS Coordinator, Matthias Ruete, highlighted in the ERTMS Work Plan No. 3 for 2026, published earlier this year, that “implementation on the TEN-T network remains significantly behind schedule and structurally uneven across Member States.”
According to data from the end of 2024, only 17% of the TEN-T core network is equipped with ETCS (approximately 10,600–12,400 km), and about 19% of the EU’s rolling stock (approximately 8,730 vehicles) is equipped with on-board technology, meaning that policymakers and the rail sector must act urgently to get implementation back on track.
UNIFE calls for the implementation of measures
As part of this change of direction, the European rail supply industry calls for: “There is the will and momentum for ERTMS implementation. What is currently lacking is execution, coordination, and funding. These are the real bottlenecks, and resolving them is essential for completing the project. There is still too much variation, too much complexity surrounding authorization processes, and too many different technical solutions. All of this generates costs, and we need to arrive at a common approach and ensure that everything, from requirements to authorizations, is simple and clear,” explained Enno Wiebe.
- harmonizing and simplifying requirements to ensure consistent implementation across Europe and to reduce design, testing, and maintenance burdens;
- stabilizing and maturing requirements by consolidating standards and ensuring that new rules are fully tested before adoption;
- simplifying authorization processes by eliminating unnecessary steps and duplication and by promoting best practices;
- reducing risks and fragmentation by accelerating the phase-out of legacy systems, lowering the costs associated with dual operation, and supporting broader supplier participation.
Other key aspects include recognizing the need to prepare for FRMCS as a major priority and ensuring that, within the core area, priority is given to compatibility with GSM-R. It must also be recognized that ETCS products are highly complex systems that combine advanced digital components and safety-critical functionalities. Therefore, it is essential to prevent interference from high-risk third-party actors.
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