The second railway package
General
The second railway package was adopted in 2004. The purpose of the
package is to speed up the liberalisation of international freight
traffic. The result of the package is that rail freight traffic in
the EU was opened for competition from 1 January 2006, instead of
during 2008, which was the target date of the first railway
package.
A further aim of the second railway package – consisting of four directives – was to go further with the opening of the market that began with the first railway package. The duties of official bodies should be performed by official bodies; railway undertakings should focus on developing their businesses and providing an ever better service to their customers.
The second railway package gives the green light for foreign operators to operate domestic freight traffic and for “cabotage”, that is, loading and unloading in a country where the railway undertaking does not have its registered office, in international traffic. The rules are to apply over the entire rail network. In order that the free market does not affect safety within the systems, the package contains a directive on railway safety (2004/49/EG). Developments in the sector have contributed to the member states seeing the need to move forward issues of technical harmonisation at a faster rate and with greater professionalism. The directives on interoperability were updated and a new European rail authority (the European Railway Agency, ERA) for interoperability and safety, was established.
In the light of Sweden’s obligation to incorporate the directives of the second railway package into Swedish legislation, on 1 March 2007 the Swedish government tabled a bill (2006/07:45) proposing changes to the Railway Act (2004:519), the Accident Investigation Act (1990:712) and Undergrounds and Tramways Safety Act (1990:1157). It is proposed that the changes to the Act should come into force on 1 June 2007.
EC legal acts in the second railway package
- Regulation (EC) No 881/2004 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 29 April 2004 establishing a European railway agency (Agency Regulation)
- Directive 2004/49/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 29 April 2004 on safety on the Community's railways and amending Council Directive 95/18/EC on the licensing of railway undertakings and Directive 2001/14/EC on the allocation of railway infrastructure capacity and the levying of charges for the use of railway infrastructure and safety certification (Railway Safety Directive)
- Directive 2004/50/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 29 April 2004 amending Council Directive 96/48/EC on the interoperability of the trans-European high-speed rail system and Directive 2001/16/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council on the interoperability of the trans-European conventional rail system
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Directive 2004/51/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council
of 29 April 2004 amending Council Directive 91/440/EEC on the
development of the Community's railways