Page 44 - RFC Rhine-Alpine_Annual Report 2016

42 CORRIDOR RHINE-ALPINE – Annual Report 2016
Activities of the Executive Board
international authorisations for on-board equipment will be handled by the European Union Agency for Railways (ERA).6
The European Deployment Plan does not yet cover all rail freight corridor (principal and diversionary) lines which are important to make real international use of ERTMS on-board equipment possible. For example, the routes Rot- terdam–Venlo–Dusseldorf and the connection of some (Northern) Italian terminals including Gallarate to the corridor are not yet covered in the EDP. That is why the Executive Board works together to have a coherent and synchronised corridor planning. In 2017 it is expected that complementary national deployment plans will be adopted which should also fill these mentioned corridor gaps and consequently aim at adopting a revised corridor implemen- tation/development plan by the end of 2017.
Practical progress was reached on ERTMS implementation by the works on closing the Swiss border crossings with Germany and Italy. By the end of 2017 these border cross- ings should be closed in such a way that Swiss Class-B systems are no longer needed to transit Switzerland.
Cooperation with TEN-T Core Network Corridor Rhine-Alpine
In its meeting with EU CNC Rhine-Alpine coordinator Pawel Wojciechowski, the ExB concluded the need to further step up the cooperation between the two governance structures by:
Using the same KPIs as for railway freight;
An exchange of data and studies where possible;
The RFC management board establishing a position paper on “limited” infrastructure developments projects benefitting the corridor highlighting international bene- fits (showcase can be 740m trains and P/C 80/400 profile);
Cooperating with planned missions of the European coordinator.
Capacity allocation, corridor one-stop shop
During the ExB meetings, the offer of the C-OSS and the results of the user satisfaction survey regarding the C-OSS were discussed. The users are satisfied with the user friendliness of the C-OSS but want to see improvements
in the offer. An important indicator for this is that the vast majority (> 90 %) of allocated Pre-arranged Paths (PaPs) is modified following the allocation to the railway undertaking. This is why the Executive Board will continue the dialogue with the Management Board to enhance both the quality and quantity of the C-OSS offer. Presently the C-OSS serves approximately 10 % of all international rail freight traffic on the corridor which is not a sustainable share in the medium term future.
Implementation of 740m trains
The 2013/2014 study of the rail freight corridor on cor- ridor infrastructure standards showed the potentially pos- itive impact of facilitating 740m trains, which is the TEN-T standard that must be implemented on the TEN-T Core Network Corridors by 2030. For the RFC Rhine-Alpine it means that some investments in sidings in Belgium and Germany are needed, other required investments in Swit- zerland and Italy are already planned.
“The ExB will continue the dialogue with the MB to enhance both the quality and quantity
of the C-OSS offer.”
6 See also website http://www.era.europa.eu/Pages/Home.aspx
2016, the German Federal Ministry of Transport and Digital Infrastructure decided to include a programme of facilitating 740m trains in its consultations for the Federal Transport Infrastructure Plan (BVWP) which includes the necessary investments on the RFC Rhine-Alpine as well. This promising development, once endorsed in the final infrastructure programme by the German government,