An increasing portion of the Union rail network is either congested or close to congested and cannot accommodate the needs for railway infrastructure capacity of all applicants and support further growth in the volume of rail transport. Infrastructure development and digitalisation, in compliance with the technical specification for interoperability developed under Directive (EU) 2016/797 of the European Parliament and of the Council, in particular the European Rail Traffic Management System (ERTMS), is expected to result in an increase of available capacity in the medium-to-long term. Nevertheless, infrastructure managers are unlikely to be able to satisfy all capacity requests for the use of highly utilised or congested railway infrastructure and should rely on sound planning to anticipate needs, provide early indications to applicants, and facilitate capacity allocation.
Text as published in the Official Journal, reproduced verbatim (including any typographical quirks of the source). For the authentic version, see EUR-Lex.
