Working Group Interoperability & ERTMS

The main goal of this Working Group is to inform the stakeholders about the real dates of ETCS implementation taking into account the national implementation plans in order to contribute to a harmonised ETCS deployment.

Special attention will be devoted to the technology used in the different countries of the Corridor and the state of play for decommissioning of the class B systems.

Working Group Time Table/Corridor One-Stop-Shop  

The Working Group Time Table/Corridor One-Stop-Shop (WG TT/C-OSS) is acting as a joint body of the 7 Infrastructure Managers involved and 1 Allocation Body in Rail Freight Corridor North Sea – Baltic, led by the C-OSS manager. 

Based on the knowledge of national developments in rail freight transport and deep understanding of the market needs to be provided by the Working Group members, the Working Group can derive essential insights for capacity-related issues and further developments of the Corridor.

It has become an effective part of the working method on the Corridor to have several periodic meetings each year between the stakeholders involved. 

The annual work plan covers conceptual topics, e.g., further development of the corridor products as well as the improvement and harmonization of processes and the revision of the Book IV’s capacity chapters. With its specialist know-how the Corridor benefit from the mutual exchange of ideas and thus creates added-value for the applicants along the Corridor.

Working Group Performance Management & Operations

The Working Group Performance Management & Operations (WG PM&O) consists of representatives from all the involved infrastructure managers along the Corridor. Through their analytical expertise, they are dedicated to improving the punctuality of rail freight traffic, to the benefit of the Corridor and all stakeholders.

The main aim of the WG is to monitor the performance of rail freight traffic along the Corridor through market development and operations KPIs, as well as 2 operational priorities defined by the revised TEN-T Regulation:

• Dwell time at internal cross-border sections;
• Punctuality of freight trains crossing at least one border along RFC NS-B.

Through monitoring these KPIs they identify problems, that are then examined and analysed to detect the causes. The next step is that individual members address any issues pertaining to their own IM and ensure that necessary measures are taken for improving them. If the issues are cross border the involved IMs and other stakeholders work together to find a solution.

Furthermore, discussions are held regularly with the railway undertakings with the aim to involve them in the process where needed and to keep them informed of any important matters e.g. punctuality regarding specific trains.

The WG PM&O holds several periodic meetings each year and the yearly work plan covers numerous topics e.g. creating a monthly punctuality report on the Corridor in cooperation with RailNetEurope, the status of any improvement measures of poor punctuality performance and the complex business involving the accurate counting of amount of trains at borders and other border issues, e.g. linking of trains. The WG also publishes each year a performance report.

Working Group Infrastructure

Infrastructure working group is formed from representatives of all RFC North Sea-Baltic member countries forming a unison technical representation of the corridor infrastructure.

Working group is responsible for assembling and harmonizing technical data from every infrastructure manger and aligning operational requirements.

Some of the key activities include periodic reviews and technical assurance of the Implementation Plan and continuously providing information or administrating the Customer Information Platform.

Subgroup Legal Issues

Subgroup Legal Issues (SLI) is formed of lawyers mainly representing all Members of the Rail Freight Corridor North Sea – Baltic.

The main activities of the SLI are:

• Legal advice according to the request and tasks from RFC North Sea – Baltic Project Management Office, Management Board,
• Legal checking of all documents related to the Rail Freight Corridor North Sea – Baltic Corridor activities.
• Ad hoc meetings or written procedures for the preparation of SLI opinions concerning main tasks.

Working Group Temporary Capacity Restrictions

This working group is composed with TCR specialists of each IM. 
The group meets at least once a year and do a lot of information exchange by e-mail and by Teams-meetings.

Main goals are to:

• promote and initiate coordination of planned works between neighbouring IMs on our Corridor lines with the aim to minimize the impact for freight traffic to keep traffic going.
• develop and initiate tools to communicate to RUs about planned TCRs and their impact on traffic on our Corridor lines.
• facilitate IMs in their task to implement the Commission delegated decision (EU) 2017/2075  (Annex VII).
• help RailNet Europe to develop processes and IT Tools to coordinate and communicate TCRs.

Products:
- Collection of information about planned TCRs for the next years on the Corridor lines. The information is available in Excel-overviews on the Corridor’s website.
- Collection of information about planned TCRs with major impact for RUs. The information is available in detailed impact sheets on the Corridor’s website.

 

Working Group Transport Market Study

The Working Group Transport Market Study is composed of specialists of each IM and functions on an ad-hoc basis, in case of need for Transport Market Study development. The Working Group develops tendering documents for a Transport Marked Studies, and supports the Office in tendering procedures. During studies development the specialists also support contractor by delivering the data. The Working Group monitors the works on the Transport Marked Studies in order to ensure good quality of documents. 

Taskforce International Contingency Management

The Taskforce International Contingency Management is formed of representatives of all RFC North Sea-Baltic member countries. The experts are responsible for RFC North Sea – Baltic Re-Routing Scenarios and Parameters overviews which are published on the RFC website in order to allow the continuation of the traffic flows at the highest possible level despite an international disruption and ensure technical expertise. Additionally, the Working Group Members participated in the development of the Handbook for International Contingency Management.