What changed between the plenary report and the adopted text

Added:3. Chapters II to V of this Regulation shall not apply to rail infrastructure or railway services that are excluded from the application of Chapter IV of Directive 2012/34/EU in accordance with Article 2(3), (3a), (4), (8), (8a), (9) and (10) of that Directive during the period of validity of the relevant exclusions. [Am. 32]

Added:4. This Regulation shall not apply to Cyprus and Malta for as long as no railway system is established within their territory.

Added:Article 2 General responsibilities and principles

Added:1. Without prejudice to Article 7c of Directive 2012/34/EU, infrastructure managers shall be responsible for the management of rail infrastructure capacity and rail traffic management.

Added:References to an infrastructure manager in all provisions related to rail infrastructure capacity allocation in this Regulation shall be construed as references to the allocation body referred in Article 7a(3) of Directive 2012/34/EU.

Added:2. With the view to facilitating the provision of efficient and effective rail infrastructure capacity and traffic management within the Union, infrastructure managers shall cooperate within the European Network of Infrastructure Managers (‘ENIM’) referred to in Article 7f of Directive 2012/34/EU and in accordance with the provisions of this Regulation on cooperation.

Added:3. In fulfilling their responsibilities in accordance with paragraph 1 and 2, infrastructure managers shall:

Added:(a) make optimum effective use of the available infrastructure capacity as required in Article 26 of Directive 2012/34/EU with the aim of increasing the share of rail transport, both for passenger and freight services in accordance with Union’s climate targets; [Am. 33]

Added:(b) maximize the value to society of rail transport services enabled by rail infrastructure in social, economic and environmental terms;

Added:(c) ensure non-discriminatory management of and transparent access to infrastructure capacity, including during works, with a view to supporting fair competition;

Added:(d) enable seamless and punctual rail traffic across more than one network and across borders by striving to eliminate bottlenecks and operational obstacles; [Am. 34]

Added:(e) ensure transparency about the state and availability of rail infrastructure capacity;

Added:(f) review and improve the performance of rail infrastructure and transport services in close cooperation with rail sector operators, including service facilities that are directly involved in a railway service; [Am. 35]

Added:(g) contribute to the implementation and development of the single European railway area, in particular through common European technical and operational rules and standards, technical equipment requirements and staff certification. [Am. 36]

Added:Article 3 Impartiality of the infrastructure manager in respect of traffic and capacity management, including maintenance planning

Added:1. Infrastructure managers shall carry out the functions of traffic and capacity management, including maintenance planning in a transparent and non-discriminatory manner and the persons in charge of taking decisions in respect of those functions shall not be affected by any conflict of interest.

Added:2. As regards traffic management, infrastructure managers shall ensure that railway undertakings, in cases of disruption concerning them, have full and timely access to relevant information. Where the infrastructure manager grants further access to the traffic management process, it shall do so for the railway undertakings concerned in a transparent and non-discriminatory way.

Added:3. As regards capacity management and the long-term planning of major maintenance, renewal and upgrade of the railway infrastructure, the infrastructure manager shall consult applicants, as defined in Article 3, point 19 of Directive 2012/34/EU, in accordance with this Regulation and, to the best possible extent, take into account the concerns expressed.

Added:Article 4 Definitions

Added:For the purposes of this Regulation, the definitions in Article 3 of Directive 2012/34/EU shall apply.

Added:The following definitions shall also apply:

Added:(1) ‘force majeure’ means any unforeseeable, unavoidable or exceptional or unusual event or situation beyond the control of the infrastructure manager or, the railway undertaking or the applicant, which cannot be avoided or overcome with reasonable foresight and diligence, cannot be solved by measures which are from a technical, financial or economic point of view reasonably possible for them, which hasincluding re-routing across borders; this event must have actually happened and isneeds to be objectively verifiable, and which makes it impossible for the infrastructure manager to fulfil, temporarily or permanently, its obligations in accordance with this Regulation or Directive 2012/34/EU or for the railway undertaking to meets its contractual obligations towards an infrastructure manager or managers; [Am. 37]

Added:(2) ‘interoperability’ means interoperability as defined in Article 2(2) of Directive (EU) 2016/797 of the European Parliament and of the Council;

Added:(2a) ‘applicant’ means railway undertaking or an international grouping of railway undertakings or other persons or legal entities, such as competent authorities as defined in Article 2(b) of Regulation (EC) No 1370/2007 of the European Parliament and of the Council and shippers, freight forwarders and combined transport operators, with a public-service or commercial interest in procuring infrastructure capacity; [Am. 38]

Added:(3) ‘operational stakeholder’ means an applicant, railway undertaking association of applicants, infrastructure manager, railoperator of service facility operator, provider of rail-related services and any other entity directly involved in operating a rail transport service; [Am. 39]

Added:(4) ‘European Coordinator’ means the Coordinator referred to in Article 51 of Regulation [... new TEN-T Regulation];

Added:(5) ‘framework agreement’ means a legally binding general agreement under public or private law, setting out the rights and obligations of an applicant and the infrastructure manager in relation to the infrastructure capacity to be allocated and the charges to be levied over a period longer than one working timetable period;

Added:(6) ‘simultaneous capacity allocation’ means a process whereby infrastructure managers allocate rail infrastructure capacity in response to a set of requests for capacity received by a given cut-off date and through coordination of these requests to ensure the best possible utilisation of the infrastructure and the closest possible match with the requests;

Added:(7) ‘first come, first served’ means a principle for the allocation of rail infrastructure capacity where the priority for the allocation process is given according to the chronological order of the capacity requests;

Added:(8) ‘train path’ means the infrastructure capacity needed to run a train between two places over a given period, which is described as an exact route with timing for that train, including the origin and destination, an entry time and day and an exit time and day, including any stopping point and related departure times;

Added:(9) ‘capacity specification’ means a capacity right, which specifies the commercial and operational characteristics of the infrastructure capacity relevant for the applicant concerned and which provides the infrastructure manager with enough information to prepare specific train paths that respect those characteristics;

Added:(10) ‘multi-network rail service’ means a freight or passenger rail transport service, domestic or international, which is operated on two or more networks managed by different infrastructure managers. The train may be joined and/or split and the different sections may have different origins and destinations, provided that all wagons or carriages cross over into at least one network operated by a different infrastructure manager;

Added:(11) ‘multi-network capacity right’ means the entirety of capacity rights enabling the provision of a multi-network rail service;

Added:(12) ‘partitioning of infrastructure capacity’ means assigning shares of the total available capacity of an element of infrastructure to different types of rail transport services and to capacity restrictions resulting from infrastructure work.

Added:(13) ‘working timetable’ means the continuously updated data defining all planned train and rolling-stock movements which will take place on the relevant infrastructure, as expressed by allocated capacity rights, during a working timetable period;

Added:(14) ‘working timetable period’ means the period of time during which a given working timetable is valid;

Added:(15) ‘infrastructure work’ means interventions on the railway infrastructure for the purpose of development, maintenance, renewal and upgrade of the railway infrastructure as defined in Article 3, points (2a), (2c), (2d), and (2e) of Directive 2012/34/EU;

Added:(16) ‘regulatory body’ means the regulatory body referred to in Article 55 of Directive 2012/34/EU;

Added:(17) ‘incident’ shall mean any occurrence, or series of occurrences having the same origin, which causes disruption of rail traffic.

Added:(17a) 'systematic train paths’ means train paths that are based on Articles 11 and 20 of this Regulation, pre-planned in a regular schedule for the period of a working time table. [Am. 40]

Added:CHAPTER II MANAGEMENT OF INFRASTRUCTURE CAPACITY

Added:SECTION 1 General principles for the management of infrastructure capacity

Added:Article 5 Capacity management

Added:1. Infrastructure managers shall manage rail infrastructure capacity through a planning and allocation process comprising three phases:

Added:(a) strategic capacity planning as referred to in section 2;

Added:(b) scheduling and allocation of infrastructure capacity as referred to in section 3;

Added:(c) adaptation and rescheduling of allocated capacity as referred to in section 4.

Added:2. In addition to the content laid down in Annex IV to Directive 2012/34/EU, Infrastructure managers shall include in the network statement referred to in Article 27 of that Directive a section on the infrastructure made available to railway undertakings; a section on capacity management; a section on operations, including on traffic management, disruption management and crisis management; and a section on performance management, in accordance with Annex IV.

Added:3. Decision making concerning capacity management as referred to in paragraph 1, including both the definition and the assessment of availability and the allocation of capacity rights, shall be an essential function of the infrastructure manager within the meaning of Article 3, point (2f) of Directive 2012/34/EU. The provisions on essential functions laid down in that Directive shall apply to it.

Added:Article 6 European framework for capacity management

Added:1. Infrastructure managers shall strive to follow common principles and procedures for the management of rail infrastructure capacity. For this purpose, ENIM shall develop in consultation with ERP and adopt a ‘European framework for capacity management’ in accordance with the provisions of Chapter II by …[12 months offrom the entry into force of this Regulation]. [Am. 41]

Added:2. The European framework for capacity management shall define common principles and procedures for the management of rail infrastructure capacity and for the coordination between infrastructure managers, railway undertakings and other applicants, rail service facility operators and other operational stakeholders.

Added:3. The European framework for capacity management shall include at least the elements listed in Annex III and shall be updated when necessary to take into account the experience of infrastructure managers, railway undertakings and other applicants and based on the activities of ENIM.

Added:4. Infrastructure managers shall take the utmost account of the European framework for capacity management when preparing the network statement referred to in Article 27 of Directive 2012/34/EU, in particular the contents specified in Annex IV of this Regulation. They shall explainjustify in the network statement the reason for any deviation from the common principles and procedures established in the European framework for capacity management. Deviations shall only be allowed in exceptional cases and they shall be subject to approval by the national rail regulatory body. [Am. 42]

Added:4a. The Commission shall be empowered to adopt delegated acts in accordance with Article 71 to set out the common principles and procedures for the management of rail infrastructure capacity and to amend paragraph 2 of this Article. Those delegated acts shall be adopted by ... [24 months from the entry into force of this Regulation]. [Am. 43]

Added:Article 7 Applicants

Added:1. Applicants shall make requests for infrastructure capacity. In order to use such infrastructure capacity, applicants, who are not a railway undertaking, shall appoint a railway undertaking to conclude an agreement with the infrastructure manager in accordance with Article 28 of Directive 2012/34/EU. This is without prejudice to the right of applicants to conclude framework agreements with infrastructure managers under Article 31 of this Regulation. [Am. 44]

Added:2. The infrastructure manager mayshall set requirements with regard to applicants to ensure that its legitimate expectations about future revenues and utilisation of the infrastructure are safeguarded. Such requirements shall be appropriate, transparent and non-discriminatory. They shall be specified in the network statement as referred to in point (1)(b)(2)(c) of Annex IV. They may only include the provision of a financial guarantee that shall not exceed an appropriate level which shall be proportional to the contemplated level of activity of the applicant, and assurance of the capability to prepare compliant bids for infrastructure capacity. [Am. 45]

Added:3. The Commission mayshall, by [24 months from the entry into force of this Regulation], adopt implementing acts settingto set out the details of the criteria to be followed for the application of paragraph 2 and to amend paragraph 2. Those implementing acts shall be adopted in accordance with the examination procedure referred to in Article 72(3). [Am. 46]

Added:Article 8 Management of scarce infrastructure capacity