Page 47 - RFC Rhine-Alpine_Annual Report 2016

CORRIDOR RHINE-ALPINE – Annual Report 2016 Regulatory Authorities 45
6
6.1
Regulatory Authorities
Regulatory bodies
As in the previous year, the cooperation between the reg- ulatory bodies, the Management Board and the Executive Board has been enhanced further. Several meetings took place between the Management Board together and the C-OSS and the regulatory bodies involved in the Corridor as well as intensive talks with RUs in the railway freight sector to exchange information and experiences. At these meet- ings, regulatory bodies were informed about KPIs, improve- ments and innovations on the Corridor. Representatives of the regulatory bodies participated continuously in the meetings of the Executive Board. Based on current market structure, the main data of the corridors in particular re- lating to the future establishment and the extension of com- parable KPIs for a market-based approach was evaluated. The regulatory bodies exchanged information about signif- icant processes at their meetings and discussed them to identify possibilities for further improvements.
The regulatory bodies also actively participated in the SERAC meetings on a harmonised FCA that took place with representatives of all corridors. In 2016 the FCA had been revised in accordance with the common IM proposal. Furthermore, the regulatory bodies participated in various corridor events.
Many meetings focused on topics such as ensuring a capacity offer which is aligned with market needs and the integration of network path requests with terminal path requests. Additionally, improvements in harmonisation and coordination of corridors with regards to traffic man- agement and coordination of works are becoming more important.
During the Global Rail Freight Conference in Rotterdam in June 2016 the Chairman of IRG Rail, Mr Radoslaw Pace- wicz (UTK, Poland), expressed the urgent need for develop- ing rail freight transport even further in future:
In their declaration “Statement of IRG-Rail for TEN-T Day 21 June“, the regulatory bodies focused on key areas of concern such as improvements of the train path allocation process, strengthening of the principles of transparency, but also on non-discrimination and harmonising market- oriented information and communication technology.
In 2016 the discussions of the regulatory bodies focussed on the announced revision of Regulation (EU) 913/2010 and the respective public consultation conducted by the European Commission. In several meetings with stakehold- ers, different regulatory aspects of the Regulation were discussed in order to reflect the market point of view. On IRG-Rail level, the analysis of the current regulation led to a paper with initial thoughts on a potential revision of the Regulation. The possible revision is still of special inter- est and controversially discussed. Some improvements of the Corridor regime require the support of a revised legal framework. In other areas, deficits of the implemen- tation with regards to the existing framework set by the Regulation were identified. To work on these topics and to eventually amend the regulatory framework will be a task to tackle in close cooperation with the Management Boards of the corridors in the future.