Implementation of the legal requirements of the German Railway Noise Mitigation Act effective 13 December 2020.

Effective 13 December 2020 the German Railway Noise Mitigation Act (SchlärmschG) will be implemented. Under this legislation, it will no longer be permitted to run or let other parties run noisy freight trains on the German rail network.

A freight train is considered ‘noisy’ within the meaning of the Act if at least one wagon in the train is equipped with cast-iron brake blocks. Noisy trains may continue to operate in ad hoc services if the train’s speed is reduced so that its noise emissions do not exceed that of a fictitious comparable train containing only low-noise wagons.

Trains containing noisy freight wagons may only run at undiminished speed if notices of exemption are presented for all noisy freight wagons in the train with the request. The freight operating company or wagon keeper can request exemption certificates from the Federal Railway Authority. An exemption under Section 5 German Railway Noise Mitigation Act can be granted if

• it can be demonstrated that no approved technology exists for retrofitting the wagon,
• the wagon runs exclusively on a section of line with steep gradients before or after its main leg, or
• the wagon is operated solely for reasons of historical interest or tourism.

The exemption documents must be e-mailed directly to DB Netz AG as part of the train path request:

In addition, train paths can be applied for at undiminished speed despite the use of noisy wagons if an expert noise control assessment (schallschutztechnisches Gutachten) demonstrates compliance with the emission limits on the route to be travelled even if noisy freight wagons are used.

The train path order must include information as to whether the train in question is a low-noise train, a noisy train with an exemption, or a noisy train. This information is mandatory and must be input via a selection field in the train path portal.

We at DB Netz AG are obliged to check compliance with the legal requirements. From 13 December 2020, verification of compliance will be carried out ex post by means of a random sample of 5% of all train journeys. Train compositions/consist lists will be requested for the trains in the sample. These lists will be used to review the brake equipment of each wagon. The lists will be transmitted over a direct interface based on a REST web service. Alternatively, the lists can be transmitted as Excel documents in accordance with the format template provided by DB Netz AG. Both the technical description of the interface (three documents in total) and the format template of the Excel document can be found on DB Netz AG’s website under ‘Downloads’ on the Railway Noise Mitigation Act page. We at DB Netz AG will contact all the freight operating companies included in the sample to ask them to provide us with their lists of wagons, first on 22 December 2020 for the period 13.12.2020 to 20.12.2020 and then again on 5 January 2021 for the period 21.12.2020 to 03.01.2021.

Please note that the above regulations result directly from the provisions in Sections 1 to 8 German Railway Noise Mitigation Act (SchlärmschG), which are to be applied without restriction. The announcement made by the German Federal Ministry of Transport and Digital Infrastructure (BMVI) in its letter dated 23 November 2020 that it will not impose sanctions for violations of the Railway Noise Mitigation Act in the 2020/2021 working timetable period relates exclusively to the official discretionary powers referred to in Sections 11 to 13 SchlärmschG: The Federal Railway Authority (EBA) will not impose the sanctions mentioned there until the 2021/2022 timetable change; the obligations arising from the SchlärmschG for the parties involved shall remain in full force.

If a freight operating company registers a train as quiet although it knows that it will contain noisy wagons within the meaning of the Railway Noise Mitigation Act, this will be considered a violation of the Act starting on 13 December 2020. Similarly, from this date, we at DB Netz AG will no longer be permitted to offer paths without reduced speed for trains that are registered as noisy.

You will find detailed information on the German Railway Noise Mitigation Act on DB Netz AG’s website.

This text is an English translation provided by DB Netz. The official statement, in German, is provided in DB Netz Kundeninformationen.

We are pleased to inform that RFC Rhine-Danube published the first version of the Temporary Capacity Restrictions (TCR) overview. The document was elaborated by TCR experts of our corridor and provides details on construction works along the corridor in 2020-2023. Interested parties may easily select the requested TCR per section via an interactive map.

Please find the document on our TCR web page.

We are happy to announce, that as of today – October 12^th 2020 – the Rail Freight Corridor Rhine-Danube has started its operations by publishing Reserve Capacity (RC) for the timetable (TT) 2021 in the Path Coordination System (PCS).

Our corridor forms an important international traffic axis, which connects production centers in Eastern Europe with target markets in the West. Its lines stretch from Strasbourg at the river Rhine through Southern Germany, Austria, Hungary up to the Black Sea Coast with the high sea port of Constanta in Romania.  In addition, it also covers the axis from the German/Czech border of Cheb via Praha and Ostrava up to the Slovakian/Ukrainian border of Čierna nad Tisou.

Several RFCs connect to our lines, such as RFC Orient/East-Med, Alpine-Western-Balkan, Atlantic and Rhine – Alpine, which all serve as feeder / outflow lines.

The RFC Rhine-Danube consist of:

• 5 111 km of principal lines;
• 1 832 km of diversionary lines;
• 78 terminals including several inland waterway ports;
• 1 high – sea port at the Black Sea (Constanta).

The corridor serves as an “economic engine” connecting industrial hubs along its way by enabling rail freight transport chains, and hereby supporting a green and sustainable transport mode in the heart of Europe.

We would like to thank the support of the 7 Member States and 9 Infrastructure Mangers and Allocation Bodies, as well as the financial contribution granted through the Connecting Europe Facility, which enabled this corridor to become reality.

Looking forward to delivering an excellent service for your individual traffic needs, we are welcoming our new customers aboard RFC Rhine-Danube.

On behalf of the Management Board we are happy to announce that the next RAG/TAG meeting of Rail Freight Corridor Rhine-Danube will be held on 14^th October 2020, between 10:00 and 13:00.

Initially we planned to have finally a physical meeting, but unfortunately due to the current travel restrictions the event will be held through MS Teams.

During the meeting our C-OSS Manager, Ms Svenja Roßkopf, will present you the corridor’s Reserve Capacity offer for Timetable 2021 (to be published on 12^th October 2020), and is welcoming any questions which may arise.

Furthermore, we would like to continue the open discussion with our business partners concerning further measures towards a competitive and efficient rail freight services on our corridor.

The agenda of the meeting will be available shortly on our website.

We are looking forward to your numerous participation!

Ms Svenja Roßkopf is the newly appointed C-OSS Manager of our corridor.

We are happy to announce that starting with July 1st 2020 Svenja Roßkopf joined the PMO as C-OSS Manager for RFC Rhine-Danube. In her new function, she will serve as the single point of contact for our customers and will provide the timetable offers for the products PaP and Reserve Capacity, as well as feeders and outflows to these international paths. Ms Roßkopf presents the exclusive sales entry point and allocation body for any international path request crossing at least one border along RFC Rhine-Danube.

Svenja Roßkopf completed a master’s degree program in international logistics and management and has gained professional experience in the fields of finance, logistics and sales by working for internationally operating companies in various countries. As employee for RFC Rhine-Alpine she took her first steps in the RFC world and accompanied several projects and studies on a.o. infrastructure developments, capacity bottlenecks, international contingency management, marketing and the evaluation of Reg (EU) 913/2010. She is looking forward to continuously improving the international path products for RFC Rhine-Danube and to fruitfully exchanging ideas with our customers and partners.

During the Rhine-Danube Core Network Corridor meeting Mr. Jean-Marc Hillenberg, Managing Director of RFC Rhine-Danube (RFC RHD) introduced in his presentation the new RFC RHD, its strategy, and the needs of Railway Undertakings regarding the development of infrastructure (according to the initiative of Ms Elisabeth Werner). Mr Hillenberg emphasised the importance of abolishing operational and administrative bottlenecks on the corridor, and that every stakeholder has its responsibility in this process. The attractiveness of rail freight can only be ensured if the service provided is reliable and efficient when compared with other modes of transport.