Greece & Ireland

The European Commission has written to Greece and Ireland to encourage them to enact EU law that requires them to open up the market for domestic passenger rail services. EU Member States agreed to transpose the EU rules in the 4th Railway Package by 31 December 2018. Following Commission communication in January 2019, which resulted in no response, this letter now gives the two MS two months to comply. Failing that the Commission could refer the cases to the Court of Justice of the EU.

Poland

The European Commission has contacted Poland for failing to enact a court decision reached in June 2018. The court found that Poland failed to adopt measures that guaranteed that investigations into serious rail accidents were independent. The Commission says independence is key to ensuring incidents can be investigated effectively and future accidents can be prevented. If Poland doesn’t take steps to implement the court’s ruling, the Commission can refer Poland to the CJEU and ask for financial penalties.

Germany

The demand for a reduction in the VAT rate on rail tickets is growing. Leading politicians from Germany’s centre-right party, the CDU, along with its sister party, the CSU, Germany’s centre-left party, the SPD, and the Green Party are all agreed that air travel must not be allowed to remain cheaper than rail travel any longer. The issue is long-distance rail travel: at 50km and more, passengers pay 19% VAT. Passengers who fly internationally, e.g. from Germany to France, pay no VAT. In a recent survey by Civey on behalf of Allianz pro Schiene, 82.8% of respondents were in favour of reducing VAT on rail tickets to make rail travel more attractive.

Germany

Transport funding should not be ring-fenced anymore. Germany to date operates with ring-fenced funding, meaning that income from the roads pays for the roads and income from rail pays for rail. This leads to roads consolidating their dominant position. Switzerland, however, pools its transport takings to pay for transport-related costs. The German government now says it will use surplus takings from lorry tolls and invest them in rail.

Austria

The European Commission has referred Austria to the CJEU for failing to comply with European rules on the certification of train drivers. The issue: the authority tasked with licencing train drivers is not the safety authority, as required. Licensing is currently performed by the Schieneninfrastruktur-Dienstleistungsgesellschaft mbH, which has issued in excess of 6,000 licences to date. It should, however, be the Austrian Ministry for Transport, Innovation and Technology that performs this task. The Commission began its EU infringement procedure in this matter in 2015.

Denmark, Ireland, Netherlands, Poland

The European Commission says these four countries have all failed to transpose certain aspects of EU law relating to the creation of a Single European Railway Area. The purpose is to create a uniform market for matters relating to competition issues, regulatory oversight and the financial architecture of the sector.

Switzerland

The Swiss Federal Office for Transport (BAV) first published its Strategy in 2014, with a focus on three main points: funding for maintaining and expanding the infrastructure must be secured; funding of regional passenger services must be secured and competition issues must be addressed; freight transport must become self-funded. The BAV has now updated its Strategy to take into account technological advancements, intermodal mobility and electronic processes.
source= https://railway-news.com/the-policy-update-europe-united-kingdom/