Rail traffic in Europe is increasing. While this is a positive development for European environmental goals, it also leads to increased rail capacity shortage in parts of the railway network. Consequently, anticipated traffic or requests can conflict with each other.
Current Request Conflict Resolution
For already placed requests, Infrastructure Managers (IMs) gather the relevant applicants to identify mutually agreeable solutions. Where no resolution can be reached, IMs apply criteria published in their Network Statements to determine which request has higher priority – while still doing its utmost to accommodate all requests.
The development of commonly applicable criteria is subject of a Timetable Redesign (TTR) task force composed of experts from RailNetEurope (RNE) and Forum Train Europe (FTE). This task force is working to establish European “Allocation Principles.”
Socio-Economic Criteria in Scandinavia and their Potential for Europe
In certain Scandinavian countries, socio-economic criteria have been successfully applied in cases of conflict in the Annual Timetable for several years.
Taking inspiration from this benchmark, RNE together with FTE set out in early 2023 to investigate the possibility of using Socio-Economic Criteria on a European level and assigned a first feasibility study to be conducted by the Swedish consortium RISE and VTI.
The consortium was commissioned to conduct a study addressing:
- Whether the different Socio-Economic Criteria approaches already used in Scandinavia can be used for cross-border conflict cases, and
- Whether an expansion to the phases already before requests are being placed (Advance Capacity Planning) is possible.
Results of the Feasibility Study
The feasibility study, completed in November 2024, highlighted several aspects that could support the introduction of socio-economic criteria at the European level.
The study used …
- simulations,
- best practices, and
- existing data from European studies
.. to provide first ideas to be used in next steps.
The study also included a spreadsheet for testing ideas related to the application of these criteria.
However, the findings underscored the high complexity involved and that several preconditions must first be established to fully use Socio-Economic Criteria.
Draft Capacity Regulation requiring the Use of Socio-Economic Criteria
The draft Capacity Regulation, published in July 2023 and expected to come into force by the end of 2025, also requires IMs to implement a system using Socio-Economic Criteria in several stages of the Capacity Management process.
Considering the demanding implementation of preconditions and several open questions (e.g. use of environmental criteria, multi-annual planning aspect, connection between trains and freight/passenger traffic flows etc.), RNE recommends that an immediate “big bang” implementation should be avoided, as it would lead to significant technical issues. Instead, a long-running gradual implementation should be envisaged, enabling a stepwise approach, enhancement of potential criteria, piloting and overall, a steady learning process for IMs and stakeholders.
We thank the consortium of RISE and VTI for conducting this study on behalf of RNE and FTE.
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