As Infrastructure Manager, we contribute towards creating a single European railway area by carrying out projects to improve the network in line with standardised Community technical and safety rules, essential for making the various national railway systems interoperable.
We participate at all levels (decision-making, management and operations) in cooperation activities with the other European managers, in particular along the freight corridors and multi-modal corridors of the TEN-T network, in order to increase rail's competitiveness compared to other transport methods and laying the groundwork for achieving the 2030 and 2050 European sustainability and modal share objectives established by the 2011 White Paper and strengthened by the December 2020 "Sustainable and Smart Mobility Strategy".
We carefully and continuously monitor all international activities aimed at increasing the competitiveness of railway transport in compliance with Community regulations and within the framework of constructive partnerships with other European infrastructure managers on a bilateral and multilateral basis to share processes and IT systems.
The creation of a single European railway area requires a great commitment from infrastructure managers to ensure a competitive railway market and a interoperable and high-performance network. The process of liberalising the railway sector, which began in 2001, was carried out over the last twenty years through four railway packages and will be completed with the 2021 timetable with the full opening of national and international passenger and freight transport in Europe.
The interoperability of the national rail networks is planned for 2030 on the lines belonging to the so-called European TEN-T core network by fully implementing standardised performance, technical and safety standards at European level.
Within the trans-European transport networks (TEN-T), the EU has adopted a “Corridor” approach by identifying 9 European Core Network Corridors to support the coordinated creation by 2030 of the Core Network between the various States.
Central Network Corridors are the key tool for creating a single multimodal and interoperable European transport area. The action needed to achieve this aim is the removal of traffic bottlenecks and the development of infrastructure capable of increasing the efficiency of transport systems and improving mobility services and their accessibility to travellers and freight.
European Freight Corridors are one of the most important cornerstones of the Community policy aimed at creating a Single Railway Area and the most advanced and organised form of collaboration between European rail infrastructure managers.
European Freight Corridors were established by regulation EU/913/2010 with the goal of making international rail freight transport competitive.
On an international level, we cooperate actively with other European infrastructure managers, European institutions and trade associations, such as the Infrastructure Forum of the Union Internationale des Chemins de Fer (UIC), RailNetEurope (RNE), CER (Community of European Railways) and PRIME (Platform of Infrastructure Managers in Europe)
As part of the funding programmes made available by the European Union to support the cohesion and infrastructure development policies of EU countries, RFI is the recipient of monies from the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) under the National Operational Programme (NOP) on Infrastructure and Networks and the Regional Operational Programmes (ROP), as well as funds from the Connecting Europe Facility (CEF) programme. In addition, RFI benefits from financing from the Development and Cohesion Fund for the implementation of certain strategic projects together with monies from the Plan of Action and Cohesion (PAC), which is complementary to the programmes co-financed by EU Structural Funds.
In order to meet the demand of freight railway companies to run trains of 740 metres in length, and also comply with the infrastructure adaptation obligations set out in EU Regulation 1315/2013, Rete Ferroviaria Italiana (RFI) is carrying out interventions on the national network to adapt the lines to this standard. Making infrastructures more modern and accessible to longer, heavier and more hig...
Published the summary documents of the main operational-institutional activities carried out by the Scandinavian-Mediterranean, Rhine-Alpine, Mediterranean and Baltic-Adriatic Corridors in 2020