ERFA welcomes the European Commission?s decision to prohibit the merger between Siemens and Alstom. Siemens-Alstom: thanks to the Commission for its perseverance in the enforcement of competition rules. Next step: to ask for a real market access reciprocity.

CER, ERFA, FEPORT, UIP and UIRR express their deep concerns on how CT will remain competitive in a marketplace where homogeneous EU-wide rules are replaced by Member State choices. The associations issuing this statement call on the Romanian Presidency to ensure wins for Combined Transport in the impending trialogue process and to align more closely with the ambition of the European Parliament position.

On the occasion of the Rail Freight Day in Vienna ERFA President Lindsay Durham highlighted the importance of increasing efficiency and reducing costs through a more standardised infrastructure as well as the reliability of rail services by putting in place incentives for Infrastructure Managers to deal with recurring problems on the network and an improved framework for delivering competition within rail.

Private rail freight companies, represented by ERFA, held their annual strategy workshop in Brussels this week. The conditions needed to boost rail freight growth in Europe and to drive rail?s attractiveness for customers on quality, reliability and cost issues were the main themes of the day.

CER, EIM, ERFA, UIP, UIRR and UNIFE share the view that the Graz Declaration can mark the beginning of a new era of clean, safe and affordable mobility for the benefit of Europe?s citizens, the environment, and society at large, and reiterate the importance of keeping rail at the heart of national and EU policies for a decarbonized and clean transportation of the future.

One year after the reopening of the Rastatt line ERFA, NEE and UIRR highlight the lessons learnt and the positive steps taken to tackle rail freight's weak points, while mentioning some issues that remain open to this day. Never again must the closure of a small stretch of railway line lead to such chaos and wide-reaching economic damage.

Many rail freight services cross the borders of countries where different languages are spoken. At the moment European legislation states that locomotive drivers must be B1 level competency in every country in which they drive a train. This means that rail freight operators must invest in expensive training and that they must carefully roster their train drivers to only drive on certain routes.

ERFA and ALLRAIL wrote a joint press release on Polish rail incumbent PKP's plan to launch actions that may lead to even more centralised control of the rail system in Poland. Any move to even more centralised control will turn the clock backwards.

The ERFA Annual Event focussed on the actions needed to improve the competitive offer of rail through reducing track access charges, improving the reliability of train services and making the case for strong co-ordinated Infrastructure Manager contingency plans.

ERFA, NEE and UIRR jointly published a study realised by HTC (Hanseatic Transport Consultancy) which evaluates the economic damage of the Rastatt interruption. The assessment of the economic damage has been made by determining the value-added losses for the manufacturing and service sectors: the result shows losses of at least 2.048 billion euro.

Following the latest Dutch government's decision which allows Prorail to introduce new mark-ups in the rail freight sector, ERFA highlights that the future mark-ups should reflect the ability of rail to compete with road rather than looking inwardly at the railway system.

ERFA welcomes Spinetta report's general orientation: the French railways needs more competition! The report initiative is a positive step forwards; it provides hope that France will start moving on the right trajectory towards a policy of supporting modal shift to rail, with measures enhancing a healthy competition. The French government's orientations, warmly applauded, are expected to be urgently implemented.