Rail Freight Corridor 2 is launched

Rail Freight Corridor 2 (Rotterdam/Anvers – Luxembourg – Basle/Lyon) started its operational activities on 10 November 2013.

This launch was jointly initiated by ProRail, Infrabel, Société Nationale des Chemins de Fer Luxembourgeois (CFL), l’Administration des Chemins de Fer luxembourgeois (ACF), Réseau ferré de France (RFF), Chemins de Fer Fédéraux suisses (CFF) and Sillon Suisse, in accordance with Regulation (EU) 913/2010/UE concerning a European rail network for competitive freight.

Rail Freight Corridor 2: a major European rail freight route

Rail Freight Corridor 2 links by rail the main European ports (Rotterdam and Antwerp) to the industrial zones of Western Europe up to the gateways of Southern Europe (Switzerland, South of France, Spain and Italy).

This corridor is one of the main railway routes and one of the most promising rail corridor in Europe, with already more than 30 000 trains per year carrying more than 20 million tons on international relations.

The ambitious aim of Rail Freight Corridor 2 is to enable rail transport to be more efficient and win market shares to the road. It is mainly on medium and long distances that it can become more competitive in comparison to road. International transport is therefore the natural scope of rail freight.

A service improved for railway undertaking with the implementation of a one-stop shop and the supply of international paths

Capacity allocation is one of the main tasks entrusted to the corridor. It will enable a better service for railway undertakings and the other authorized applicants. For example, to go from Rotterdam or Antwerp to Basel, they will only have a single contact point, the one-stop shop of the corridor.

Since 10 November 2013, the infrastructure managers and allocation bodies entrusted the one-stop shop with a first catalogue of international paths for ad-hoc trains paths of the 2014 timetable. These paths concern the routes Rotterdam-Antwerp-Metz-Basle and Rotterdam-Antwerp-Lille and are described in the website of the corridor www.rfc2.eu.

All applicant who wants to book this capacity, whether railway undertaking or not, can do it through the European IT tool Path Coordination System developed by RailNetEurope.

In January 2014, the corridor will publish a second international paths catalogue, richer, for the 2015 timetable.

Coordinated works made public

Also in order to improve the quality of service for its customers, the corridor implemented a coordinated planning of works on its 3000 kilometers of lines. The list of works planned within the next twenty four months is from now on available on the website of the corridor www.rfc2.eu.

Transparency and cooperation with railway undertakings and terminals

On the occasion of its launch, Corridor 2 publishes its “Corridor information Document” which provides all necessary information on the corridor and mainly:

• a detailed description of the lines and terminals of the corridor;
• a presentation of the measures implemented on capacity allocation and traffic management coordination;
• an indicative presentation of all investments planned on the corridor within the next ten years;
• the main elements of a transport market study performed in 2012/2013.

The corridor works in close collaboration with the railway undertakings and terminals. To consult them regularly, the corridor set up two advisory groups which meet a few times a year.