International Relations
Concerning the international activities, VPE Ltd. takes part in the work of numerous associations, international platforms. The first organisation that our company joined was RNE (RailNetEurope) that as of 2020 has more than 35 members, consisting of different IMs and ABs. The aim of RNE is to harmonise procedures and practices within the European railway sector. Since 2013, based on the regulation 913/2010, not only RNE, but also the concerned member states have had to focus on the operation of the European RFC corridors.
Currently Hungary is involved in four RFCs’ operation:
The Mediterranean corridor (RFC 6) has started in 2013 with the routing of:
from Almería-Valencia/Madrid–Zaragoza/Barcelona–Marseille–Lyon–Torino–Milano–Verona–Padova/Venice–Trieste/Koper–Ljubljana–Budapest–Záhony. From 2016 Croatia is also a member of the corridor.
https://www.railfreightcorridor6.eu
Rail Freight Corridor Orient/East-Med (RFC 7) was also established in 2013 and runs through eight countries via the following routing:
Wilhelmshaven/Bremerhaven/Hamburg/ Rostock–Dresden–Praha–Vienna/Bratislava–Budapest–Vidin–Sofia–Thessaloniki–Athens–Patras as well as Budapest–Bucharest–Constanta and Sofia–Plovdiv–Svilengrad
VPE is proud to be the hosting company for the C-OSS of RFC OEM. The C-OSS - being a contact point - among various tasks, is responsible for the management of the corridor products (Pre-arranged Paths and Reserve Capacity).
Rhine-Danube Rail Freight Corridor (RFC 9) is planned to be fully operational by autumn 2020 with the routing of Strasbourg-Mannheim-Frankfurt-Nürnberg-Wels// Strasbourg-Stuttgart-München-Salzburg-Wels-Wien-Bratislava-Budapest-Arad-Brasov/Craiova-Bucuresti-Constanta// Čierna nad Tisou-Košice-Žilina-Horní Lideč-Praha-München/Nürnberg
Amber Rail Freight Corridor (RFC 11) has been operational since 14 January 2019, at which time pre-arranged paths were published for the first time on the corridor. The corridor includes four countries and the main points of the corridor are: Koper-Ljubjlana-/Zalaszentiván-Sopron/Csorna-/(Hungarian- Serbian border) – Kelebia-Budapest-/-Komárom-Leopoldov/Rajka-Bratislava-Zilina-Katowice/Krakow-Warsaw/Luków-Terespol-(Polish-Belorussion border). VPE has been in charge of managing the Secretariat of the corridor since September 2017.
Besides RNE, our company is also member the following organisations:
CER (Community of European Railway and Infrastructure Companies)
CER’s role is to represent the interests of its members on the EU policy-making scene, in particular to support an improved business and regulatory environment for European railway operators and railway infrastructure companies.
ERA (European Railway Agency)
ERA’s vision is the establishment of the Single European Railway area. Therefore its main tasks are the following: to promote a harmonised approach to railway safety, to devise the technical and legal framework in order to enable removing technical barriers, and acting as the system authority for ERTMS and telematics applications, to improve accessibility and use of railway system information, to act as the European Authority under the 4th Railway Package issuing vehicle (type) authorisations and single safety certificates, while improving the competitive position of the railway sector.
Currently VPE’s employee is the TAF/TAP TSI National Contact Point (NCP).
PRIME (Platform of Rail Infrastructure Managers in Europe)
The objectives of PRIME are the implementation of the Single European Rail Area, better deployment of European Rail Traffic Management System (ERTMS), performance benchmarking and exchange of best practice amongst infrastructure managers.
In June 2017, PRIME decided to uptake the role of the European Network of Infrastructure Managers as foreseen in Article 7f of Directive 2012/34/EU establishing a single European railway area, as amended by Directive (EU) 2016/2370
https://webgate.ec.europa.eu/multisite/primeinfrastructure/prime-news_en
UIC (Union Internationale des Chemins de fer / International Union of Railways)
UIC was established to promote rail transport at world level with the objective of optimally meeting current and future challenges of mobility and sustainable development. UIC promotes interoperability, and operates as a Standard-Setting Organisation, creating new world IRSs (International Railway Solution) for railways (including common solutions with other transport modes)