Rail Electronic Data Interchange in a Border Crossing Point in South East Europe : An Assessment of Options


== Abstract ==

Within the European Union (EU) rail             transport is currently the least integrated transport mode.             This leads to delays, extra costs, and insufficient use of             rail freight, especially for time-sensitive cargo. This also             represents a missed opportunity in terms of moving towards a             greener transport modal split within the EU. Rail freight,             for which international activity represents 50 percent of             total activities, will not be able to develop fully if             border crossing rail operations do not deliver a better             service for shippers and freight operators who require             seamless trans-national transport as is possible by road,             air and sea. Observing that the modal split of rail in the             EU is stagnating at around 16 percent after years of             decline, the European Commission proposed a regulation on a             European rail network for competitive freight to be based on             a number of rail freight corridors which entered into force             on November 9, 2010. Regulation No 913/2010 makes it             mandatory to create a European rail network for competitive             freight based on international freight corridors,             recognizing that the need to strengthen the competitiveness             of rail freight requires a corridor approach, involving             corridors that cross national borders. TheEU adoption in             2010 of a corridor approach focusing on international rail             freight has important implications for EU member states,             accession and candidate countries, in terms of approaching             rail freight investments and performance from an             international corridor perspective with enhanced             cross-border coordination, with the ultimate aim of             increasing the attractiveness of rail to potential freight             customers. The objective of this report is to address this             recommendation by assessing whether it makes sense to             introduce a pilot EDI in a rail border crossing point in             South East Europe. It aims to make a preliminary assessment             of the various technical options in terms of hardware,             software, and communication requirements of such             architecture, taking into account that any technical             solution proposed needs to be adapted to the countries in             question, given existing infrastructure and European             regulations. The ultimate aim is to improve rail border             crossing performance in South East Europe by the use of EDI             to improve integration.


== Original document ==

The different versions of the original document can be found in:

* [http://hdl.handle.net/10986/22811 http://hdl.handle.net/10986/22811] under the license http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/igo/