Rail Service Facilities in the European Union

During this Forum, experts will discuss how to ensure fair, transparent, and efficient access to rail service facilities, addressing regulatory approaches, business models, and coordination challenges in the context of the Single European Railway Area and the High-Speed Plan.

Rail service facilities, ranging from maintenance depots to refuelling stations, marshalling yards, and freight terminals, are indispensable components of the European rail system. As EU rail markets evolve toward greater liberalisation and cross‑border integration, ensuring fair, transparent, and efficient access to such facilities has become a cornerstone of the Single European Railway Area.

In November 2025, the European Commission launched the High-Speed Plan, aiming to deliver a well-functioning, faster high-speed rail network by 2040. To enable this, one key action is removing entry barriers for new high-speed operators by ensuring better coordination of track capacity, fair track access charges, and non-discriminatory access to service facilities. For freight, and especially single‑wagonload operations, service facilities constitute an essential part of the business model. Users face issues related to charges, access conditions, neutrality, and revenue‑management practices that can disproportionately affect competitiveness. Another pressing question is whether operators can feasibly build their own facilities, or whether high investment costs mean only dominant players can, raising concerns about replicability, market foreclosure, and possible unbundling requirements. Some facilities remain natural monopolies with high sunk costs, while others operate in more contestable environments, making a one‑size‑fits‑all approach potentially burdensome or misaligned with market realities. Examples such as UK regulatory decisions on strategic assets, like the Channel Tunnel, illustrate the challenges of balancing investment incentives, fair access, and competitive neutrality. Hence, new rules on rail capacity and service facilities are under discussion at the European level, emphasising harmonisation, digitalisation, and cross-border coordination.

The Forum, co-organised by the Transport Area of the Florence School of Regulation together with the EC’s DG MOVE, will tackle the following topics: 

· Asymmetrical regulatory approach to service facilities: Is a single EU‑wide horizontal regulation justified? Should regulatory obligations vary according to market power? What are the lessons from the UK Channel Tunnel regulatory decision? What digitalisation and coordination requirements are needed? How to ensure neutrality and transparency in facility operations?

· Business models and relevance to different services: What are the business models for different service facilities? Should there be a different approach for service facilities supporting passenger service vs freight services? Are there specific requirements for service facilities for single‑wagonload freight? What distinguishes a standard shunting hill from a neutral shunting hill in terms of ownership, governance, and operational approach? 

· Coordination between service facilities’ operators and rail infrastructure managers: How to ensure an effective coordination of service facilities and infrastructure network in the framework of the new Capacity Management Regulation? What digitalisation and coordination requirements are needed? How to ensure neutrality and transparency in facility operations? How to interface railway services effectively in ports with the main network?

Kindly note that registration is upon invitation only.

At the EUI and the Robert Schuman Centre, we are dedicated to removing barriers and providing equal opportunities for everyone. Please indicate in the registration form your accessibility needs, if any. Alternatively, you can contact the logistics organiser of the event.

At FSR, we actively work to achieve gender-balanced representation at all our events. As a platform that connects diverse voices and perspectives in the sector, we strongly value inclusive and gender-balanced panel debates and training courses.