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Timetable Redesign for Smart Capacity Management

Legal Framework

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Introduction

TTR will introduce a new way of planning and allocating railway capacity. To fully implement this innovative process, compliance with the relevant legal framework needs to be ensured. The current legal framework (European and national laws) reflects existing capacity management processes, which do no longer (fully) meet market needs.

A task force of legal experts from RNE Members, FTE Members, CER, EIM and CIT (with occasional involvement of DG MOVE representatives) has conducted a comprehensive analysis of the compatibility of TTR with the existing legal framework and described possible options how to legally support TTR and its pilot runs. These options were designed with the aim of limiting changes to the existing legislation to what is strictly necessary to enable TTR implementation. The conclusions have been shared with the European Commission as input for its upcoming legislative initiative on ‘Cross-border rail traffic – better coordination and management’, which is expected to support the rollout of TTR across Europe.

Overview of Findings

The legal analysis as well as TTR pilot projects have shown that especially some innovative features of TTR are difficult, if not impossible, to implement in the existing legal environment (EU and/or national law). This is in particular the case for the following process items:

  • capacity partitioning in the Capacity Model and safeguarding of capacity
  • the new product type ‘Rolling Planning request’, incl. the multi-annual aspect of Rolling Planning
  • the shortened timeframe for answering annual timetable requests

In addition, diverging national rules for capacity allocation create an obstacle to implementing a harmonised capacity planning and allocation process as envisaged in TTR across Europe.

Conclusions for Full TTR Rollout

According to the analysis, only parts of the TTR process can be implemented in the current legal framework (e.g. Capacity Strategy, digitalisation of capacity planning tools, etc.). Adaptations to the legal framework thus seem to be an indispensable precondition to enable full TTR rollout.

The European Commission has announced its intention to revise the existing legal framework with a view to enabling more efficient and market-oriented capacity planning and allocation processes. At the beginning of 2022, an impact assessment support study was launched analysing different policy options. A legislative proposal is expected to be presented during the first half of 2023, which will then be subject to the ordinary legislative procedure for the adoption of new EU legislation.

Considering the timeline for negotiations between the European Parliament and Council and adoption of the new and/or revised rules, it is expected that TTR cannot be fully implemented before TT 2028. However, the TTR implementation team together with the TTR legal task force will continue monitoring the developments with the aim of fully implementing TTR as soon as legally feasible.

Additional Activities of TTR Legal Task Force

Besides closely following the upcoming legislative developments, the TTR legal task force also supports the TTR programme by providing legal analysis for new and improved process items.

Further Information

More information on the TTR legal framework is available here:

Contact

If you have further questions, please feel free to contact the leader of the TTR Legal Framework task force, Ms Elisabeth Hochhold (elisabeth.hochhold@rne.eu).