The Transport Ministers of Belgium, Austria and Luxembourg, as well as MEPs and numerous associations, call European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen to act upon the recent…
The European Commission has decided to refer Spain to the Court of Justice of the European Union for failing to correctly transpose and applying EU rules concerning rail,…
European Sleeper is working to launch its first night train service to Prague in 2023. In the process it has to overcome a host of obstacles. But in…
To encourage railway operators to run night trains to and from Belgium, the federal government wants to cover the costs of using the rail infrastructure and energy charges.…
The Hungarian government has proposed a 40-percent reduction of track access charges on the national railway network. This would be realised by a temporary cancellation of the surcharge,…
Pandemic-related support schemes for the railway sector via adjusted track access charges could be a longer-term measure to support the modal shift to rail. This was discussed at…
The European Commission has approved a 20-billion-euro German state aid scheme to aid domestic companies that have suffered due to the war in Ukraine and related sanctions. The…
Throughout the pandemic, track access charges were reduced, mark-ups were waived and infrastructure managers were compensated, in order to support the rail sector in these difficult times. Now…
The objective which should unite the European railways is to break the chains of national rules, which keep railways essentially locked in their home countries.
Night trains are making a comeback as a more sustainable long-distance transport. There are however quite some challenges, such as high costs and different standards across countries. “The…
In order to mitigate the effects of the crisis caused by Covid-19 on rail transport, Spain extends the reduced track access charges. This was detailed in one of…
The new German coalition will invest ‘considerably more in the railways than in the roads’. The SPD, Greens and FDP presented their plans in a coalition agreement on…
“We have to reduce track access charges, and especially Germany has a problem with this”, said Oldag Caspar of Germanwatch during a panel discussion at the arrival of…
The French government will invest 170 million euros per year until 2024 in the rail freight industry. Among other measures, half of the track access charges will be…
The fact that Swedish operator SJ will run a new night train from Stockholm to Hamburg is not seen as fair by everyone. The train, with government subsidy,…