Changes from adopted text to adopted text

RemovedTEXTS ADOPTED

AddedP10_TA(2026)0169

RemovedP9_TA(2024)0127

AddedSingle European railway area: use of railway infrastructure capacity

RemovedUse of railway infrastructure capacity in the single European railway area, amending Directive 2012/34/EU and repealing Regulation (EU) No 913/2010

Committee on Transport and Tourism

RemovedPE752.954

AddedPE787.893

ChangedEuropean Parliament legislative resolution of 1219 MarchMay 20242026 on the proposalCouncil forposition at first reading with a view to the adoption of a regulation of the European Parliament and of the Council on the use of railway infrastructure capacity in the single European railway area, amending Directive 2012/34/EU and repealing Regulation (EU) No 913/2010 (COM(2023)0443(16833/1/2025 – C9-0304/2023C10-0104/2026 – 2023/0271(COD))

Changed(Ordinary legislative procedure: firstsecond reading)

The European Parliament,

Changed– having regard to the CommissionCouncil proposalposition toat Parliamentfirst andreading the(16833/1/2025 Council– (COM(2023)0443),C100104/2026),

Removed– having regard to Article 294(2) and Article 91 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union, pursuant to which the Commission submitted the proposal to Parliament (C90304/2023),

Removed– having regard to Article 294(3) of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union,

– having regard to the opinion of the European Economic and Social Committee of 25 October 2023,

– having regard to the opinion of the Committee of the Regions of 1 February 2024,

Removed– having regard to Rule 59 of its Rules of Procedure,

Added– having regard to its position at first reading on the Commission proposal to Parliament and the Council (COM(2023)0443),

Changed– having regard to theArticle report294(7) of the CommitteeTreaty on Transportthe andFunctioning Tourismof (A9-0069/2024),the European Union,

Change 1

Removed1. Adopts its position at first reading hereinafter set out;

Added– having regard to the provisional agreement approved by the committee responsible under Rule 75(4) of its Rules of Procedure,

Removed2. Calls on the Commission to refer the matter to Parliament again if it replaces, substantially amends or intends to substantially amend its proposal;

Added– having regard to Rule 68 of its Rules of Procedure,

Added– having regard to the recommendation for second reading of the Committee on Transport and Tourism (A10-0126/2026),

Added1. Approves the Council position at first reading;

Added2. Notes that the act is adopted in accordance with the Council position;

Added3. Instructs its President to sign the act with the President of the Council, in accordance with Article 297(1) of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union;

Added4. Instructs its Secretary-General to sign the act, once it has been verified that all the procedures have been duly completed, and, in agreement with the Secretary-General of the Council, to arrange for its publication in the Official Journal of the European Union;

5. Instructs its President to forward its position to the Council, the Commission and the national parliaments.

Change 2

RemovedP9_TC1-COD(2023)0271

RemovedPosition of the European Parliament adopted at first reading on 12 March 2024 with a view to the adoption of Regulation (EU) 2024/… of the European Parliament and of the Council on the use of railway infrastructure capacity in the single European railway area, amending Directive 2012/34/EU and repealing Regulation (EU) No 913/2010

Removed(Text with EEA relevance)

RemovedTHE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT AND THE COUNCIL OF THE EUROPEAN UNION,

RemovedHaving regard to the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union, and in particular Article 91 thereof,

RemovedHaving regard to the proposal from the European Commission,

RemovedAfter transmission of the draft legislative act to the national parliaments,

RemovedHaving regard to the opinion of the European Economic and Social Committee,

RemovedHaving regard to the opinion of the Committee of the Regions,

RemovedActing in accordance with the ordinary legislative procedure,

RemovedWhereas:

Removed(1) The Commission Communication ‘The European Green Deal’ sets a climate neutrality objective to be achieved by the Union by 2050 as well as a clear objective to reduce net greenhouse gas emissions by at least 55% by 2030, compared to 1990 levels. It calls for a 90% reduction in greenhouse gas emissions from transport, while working towards the zero-pollution ambition to reduce the health impacts of air pollutant emissions by more than 55% and the share of people chronically disturbed by transport noise by 30% by 2030. Transport represents around 25% of the Union’s total greenhouse gas emissions, and these have increased over recent years. The European Green Deal prioritises the shift onto rail and inland waterways of a substantial part of the 75% of inland freight carried today by road. Rail being a largely electrified and energy efficient mode of transport, greater use of rail services should contribute to reducing transport’s emissions and energy consumption.

Removed(2) The Communication on Sustainable and Smart Mobility Strategy sets out milestones to show the Union transport system’s path towards achieving the objectives of a sustainable, smart and resilient mobility. It envisages that rail freight traffic should increase by 50% by 2030 and double by 2050; traffic on high-speed rail should double by 2030 and triple by 2050 and scheduled collective travel under 500 km should be carbon-neutral by 2030 within the Union. To achieve these goals, rail transport must become more attractive in terms of affordability, reliability and accessibility, and services must be better adapted to the needs of travellers and freight shippers. [Am. 1]

Removed(2a) The underlying aim of this Regulation is to increase the utilisation of the rail infrastructure and thereby increase the modal share of rail. However, this Regulation alone cannot address Union's decarbonisation and modal shift targets by. Both Member States and the Commission should continue to work on numerous other elements that can help to further increase both rail infrastructure capacity and transport capacity, such as the bundling of train paths, speed harmonisation, efficient passenger changeover, the use of longer trains with increased axle load, the roll-out of harmonised ERTMS across Europe, as well as automated trains operation. [Am. 2]

Removed(2b) Tackling the efficiency of rail in order to increase the multi-modal competitive aspect between different transport modes is important to facilitate a substantial modal shift and to reach the targets set in the Sustainable and Smart Mobility Strategy. Therefore, further measures to increase the competitiveness by rail, such as lower track access charges, should also be considered. With an increased demand for rail capacity by both passenger and freight services, investments will also be needed to realise those capacity enhancing measures. [Am. 3]

Removed(2c) Shift-to-rail objectives on EU level require national targets based on concrete national plans developed by Member States following bottom-up approach. [Am. 4]

Removed(3) Directive 2012/34/EU of the European Parliament and of the Council lays down the rules applicable to the management and operation of railway infrastructure and the principles and procedures applicable to the allocation of railway infrastructure capacity for domestic and international rail services.

Removed(4) Regulation (EU) No 913/2010 of the European Parliament and of the Council provides for the establishment of rail freight corridors and one-stop shops to facilitate requests for infrastructure capacities for international rail freight services.

Removed(5) Rail infrastructure capacity management and rail traffic management are crucial to the well-functioning of the rail sector. The operation of rail transport services needs to be carefully planned and coordinated to allow trains with very different characteristics, such as speed and braking distance, to share safely the same tracks. Optimal management of capacity creates more opportunities for, and increases reliability of, rail services, which is a particularly important requirement for the increasing market of night trains as well as the ambitions to shift goods to rail freight. Regulation should provide infrastructure managers with sufficient flexibility for effective management of capacity while making sure that all railway undertakings are treated without discrimination in their access to the network. [Am. 5]

Removed(6) Directive 2012/34/EU recognises the right of Member States not to apply the rules on rail infrastructure capacity allocation to certain parts of the rail network or to certain rail services, where such an exclusion from the scope of Union law would not affect the functioning of the single European railway area. These exclusions, while being strictly limited, should continue to apply and Member States should retain the right to request such exclusions in the future also in relation to this Regulation. [Am. 6]

Removed(7) The rules and procedures on the management of rail infrastructure capacity should reflect betterconsider and satisfy the needs of all rail market segments in a non-discriminatory way. They should in particular take into account the necessity of long-term stability of available capacity for passenger services and of short-term flexibility for freight traffic to respond to market demand. Therefore, the process of managing capacity should no longer have a predominantly annual focus, but be arranged in three subsequent phases of strategic capacity planning; rail service scheduling and capacity allocation; and adaptation and rescheduling of capacity. The introduction of better defined and structured phases that provide for the possibility of long-term planning and short-term adaptation in capacity management, would particularly benefit services that are less easy to plan in advance or are more complex to arrange, such as freight trains and cross-border passenger trains, including night trains. [Am. 7]

Removed(8) An increasing portion of the Union rail network is either congested or close to congested and cannot accommodate the needs for rail infrastructure capacity of all applicants and support further growth in the volume of rail transport. Infrastructure development and digitalisation, in compliance with the technical specification for interoperability developed under Directive (EU) 2016/797 of the European Parliament and of the Council, in particular the European Rail Traffic Management System (‘ERTMS’), is expected to result in an increase of available capacity in the medium to long term. Nevertheless, infrastructure managers will be required to assign priorities for the use of congested sections. Without prejudice to general principles on priority set out by Member States in the framework for the allocation of infrastructure capacity, infrastructure managers should take decisions on priorities using transparent and harmonised methodologies which clarify how social, economic and environmental factors have been taken into account and affect their decision. These socio-economic and environmental criteria should be based on accepted methods and best available knowledge. Therefore, the Commission should be empowered to adopt a delegated act setting out the procedures, criteria and methodologies. When preparing that delegated act, the Commission should cooperate with European Network of Infrastructure Managers (ENIM) and European Union Agency for Railways (ERA) established by Regulation (EU) 2016/796. [Am. 8]

Removed(8a) Existing rail infrastructure capacity is not sufficient for reaching Union’s 2030 and 2050 shift-to-rail objectives. In fact, between 1990 and 2021 the railway network in the Union shrank by over 12,000 km. Achieving the Union's modal shift objectives primarily hinges on increasing rail efficiency and bolstering rail capacity, the latter necessitating investments for the maintenance, renewal and new construction of rail infrastructure. This includes leveraging national budgets, the Connecting Europe Facility (CEF) established by Regulation (EU) 2021/1153 of the European Parliament and of the Council3, and private investments to address crucial missing links and alleviate bottlenecks, as well as obtaining appropriate levels of funding for maintenance. In particular, Member States should prevent the degrading of rail infrastructure and should minimise the impact of possible capacity restrictions by ensuring adequate, stable and timely long-term funding via multiannual performance agreements that should be concluded between Member State and the infrastructure manager for the period of at least five years. [Am. 9]

Removed(9) The strategic planning of capacity should improve the utilisation of rail infrastructure by anticipating demand for rail services and taking into account planned infrastructure development, renewal and maintenance. It should ensure that rail infrastructure capacity is allocated in a way that maximises the value of rail services for society taking into account socio-economic and environmental impacts. Infrastructure managers should ensure that strategic planning provides progressively increasing level of details about available capacity and that it is the basis for the capacity allocation. Applicants, European Railway Platform (ERP), customers of rail transport services and their associations, Union and national public authorities should be consulted during the strategic planning, and they should have an opportunity to provide input on study “the Analysis of expected transport market developments as referred to in Article 15” and to offer independent comments on the findings. [Am. 10]

Removed(10) To ensure that capacity is available for allocation for different rail market segments and in particular for freight and cross-border rail services, infrastructure managers should be allowed to pre-plan the use of capacity on congested or highly utilised sections of the rail network and to extend such planning to other sections of the network if deemed necessary. This pre-planning of capacity should take into account the different methods for capacity allocation and the characteristics of different rail market segments. It should allow for better utilisation of rail infrastructure by grouping trains with similar performance characteristics in the capacity allocation phase.

Removed(11) When allocating capacity, infrastructure managers should adhere to the strategic plans for the supply of capacity and at the same time ensure that capacity is allocated in accordance with market demand in a fair and non-discriminatory way. For that purpose, some capacity requests may be offered alternative capacity or, if no other possibility exists, refused and the plan for the supply of capacity must be regularly updated to reflect the actual demand. [Am. 11]

Removed(11a) In several national rail markets, the infrastructure manager is part of a vertically integrated holding company with one or more passenger and freight transport operators. While allocating capacity to these rail undertakings, it is of the upmost importance for the proper functioning of the market that capacity is allocated in a fair, reasonable and non-discriminatory way. In particular, sensitive information shared with the infrastructure manager as part of the capacity allocation process should be considered as confidential. [Am. 12]

Removed(12) Different rail market segments have different abilities to anticipate their rail infrastructure capacity needs. Some freight service providers, in particular, may not be able to identify their capacity needs in time to be included in the working timetable, thatwhich is in the annual plan for train and rolling-stock movement, and may not fit in its annual schedule. Therefore, infrastructure managers should be able to offer capacity of sufficient quality and quantity also for rail services that have unstable demand, are organised on relatively short notice, include more than a single train run, and may run repeatedly for a period of time that may not coincide with the duration of the working timetable period. This type of capacity offer could also be offered in a package of minimum pre-calculated unreserved train paths that can then be allocated at short notice. [Am. 13]

Removed(12a) Different practises for timetable planning are used in Member States and these concepts should be taken into account in the strategic capacity planning. These practises require increased coordination between infrastructure managers across borders, in particular when the infrastructure manager pre-plan capacity by using integrated clock-face timetables. [Am. 14]

Removed(13) Applicants for rail infrastructure capacity should be able to plan and request rail infrastructure capacity on an annual basis through the working timetable. Applicants should also be able to request rail infrastructure capacity with greater advance for stable, multi-annual rail services through framework agreements. Finally, applicants should be able to request capacity close to the time of operation for individual trains through ad hoc capacity requests or for repeated train services through rolling planning requests.

Removed(14) A significant share of rail freight transport is long-distance and requires cross-border coordination of infrastructure managers. The policy goal of increasing rail traffic also relies on growing cross-border passenger services. To facilitate and promote an increasing cross-border traffic in the single European railway area, it is necessary to ensure greater consistency and harmonisation of the rules and procedures on the management of rail infrastructure capacity. Accordingly, the role of the European Network of Infrastructure Manager should be strengthened with a view to entrusting it with the development of guidelines for the harmonised implementation of this Regulation on procedures and methodologies for the management of rail infrastructure capacity and with the active coordination of cross-border capacity and traffic. In particular, the European Network of Infrastructure Managers should develop European frameworks for capacity management, for the coordination of cross-border traffic management, disruption management and crisis management, and for performance review. Railway undertakings, applicants and other operational stakeholders should also be consulted in the development of these European frameworks. [Am. 15]