ESC welcomes Recast First Railway Package

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17 September 2010

The European Shippers' Council has welcomed Commission proposals to encourage competition in the railway industry especially through more transparent market access conditions. ESC has for many years complained about discriminatory practices in the rail freight sector and has urged the Commission to take action in order to improve access or to guarantee access to rail-related services such as maintenance facilities and terminals.

Nicolette van der Jagt, Secretary General of ESC said in a first reaction to the news, "we have been eagerly awaiting the Commission's action which has taken longer than we hoped. Following the economic crisis and a slowing process of liberalization in Europe, customer choice and competition has in my view been greatly reduced in Europe."

"We need some time to study the proposed Directive and the likely impact on the industry but as a first reaction we believe that this is going in the right direction by imposing stricter independence criteria for the provision of rail-related services. We are nevertheless disappointed by the fact that the Commission seems to be less forceful in bringing about the genuine separation of infrastructure from operations.

ESC has long advocated and supported the Commission's Railway packages which have created the legal framework against which liberalisation can take place; this required the separation of the operation of rail freight services from the infrastructure management and ownership. Too many member states have been dragging their heels over the implementation of the first railways package, despite Commission pressure through referring them – 13 Member States in total – to the European Court of Justice. Therefore new action is clearly required to reduce administrative and technical barriers to freight operations and enable more new infrastructure to be developed.

There appears now to be a new process ahead of us and we will definitively defend the need for liberalization and for improved services and infrastructure. Nevertheless I will discuss this with ESC's Rail freight Council and look more closely at the detail before commenting any further."

For further information contact: Nicolette van der Jagt, Secretary General of the ESC - Brussels 00 322 230 2113

News Source : ESC welcomes Recast First Railway Package