As National Railway Infrastructure Manager, every year we publish the updated edition of the Network Statement (NS) to inform our clients - Railway Undertakings (RUs) and other authorised entities - the criteria, procedures, methods and deadlines for allocating infrastructure capacity and the provision of related services, together with all information on the characteristics of the network and access conditions.
The development process and contents
The NS is issued by Directive of the MD of RFI after a complex preparation process including the involvement of all RFI’s divisions, consultation of all parties concerned (RUs, Regions, Autonomous Provinces and Framework Agreement holders) and supervision of the Italian Transport Authority (ART).
In particular, the NS is the result of:
● the analysis and finalisation of “experience feedback” in the continuous relationship between RIMs and RUs
● the analysis and finalisation of the development of infrastructure scenarios and the opportunities arising as a result,
● the analysis and finalisation of the RIM's organisational developments in relation to economic and industrial dynamics,
● consultation with the partners concerned (Regions, Autonomous Provinces, Railway Undertakings that are licensed and Applicants which have shown interest in signing a Framework Agreement), subject to sending a first draft of the document,
● the acquisition of any prescriptions from the Italian Transport Authority (ART).
Following formalisation, the NS is published via the RFI website. For full information at international level the document is also published in English.
The NS consists of 6 chapters:
Chapter 1 - General information
Chapter 2 - Conditions of access to the infrastructure
Chapter 2 special section - Conditions of access to the HS/HC infrastructure
Chapter 3 - Infrastructure characteristics
Chapter 4 - Capacity allocation
Chapter 5 - Services
Chapter 6 - Tariffs
The NS is usually updated every year in December and governs the scheduling, negotiation and management of the railway timetable which will be implemented 12 months after. The publication in December is brought forward by 4 months from the date (the following April) of starting work on allocating train paths, so as to enable Railway Undertakings to know the rules and the infrastructure scenario well in advance, thus enabling them to effectively plan their activities and formulate train path and service requests to the Infrastructure Manager accordingly.
In accordance with art. 14 of Legislative Decree 112/2015, RFI has published the first draft of “Network Statement 2025", for the purpose of starting the consultation phase with the RUs, Regions, Autonomous Provinces and other interested parties.
Any comments by the interested parties must be received no later than 31 July 2023 to the following e-mail: rfi-dce-dco@pec.rfi.it.
documents download
By CEO Provision No. 7 of 31 May 2023, the Managing Director of RFI issued the 2024 Network Statement – May 2023 edition.
In the NS, the National Railway Infrastructure Manager sets out:
By CEO Provision No. 6 of 31 May 2023, the Managing Director of RFI issued the 2023 Network Statement – May 2023 edition.
In the NS, the National Railway Infrastructure Manager sets out:
For accredited users, the new RFI e-NS information system is now available online. The system is based on GIS technology for interactive and dynamic consultation of the characteristics of the infrastructure and plants published in the Network Information Prospectus. Instead of the previous NS WEB, the portal provides applicants with thematic maps and documents containing technical and commercial information on the services offered on the lines and plants managed by RFI.
In order to consult eNS, users simply need to access the portal and register by clicking on the 'Create account' button, or use their authentication credentials for the RFI Applications Portal (credentials used to access the previous portal, which is no longer updated, NS WEB).
ePIR is optimised for Google Chrome and MS-Internet Explorer 9 or later.