The Railways Infrastructure (Access, Management and Licensing of Railway Undertakings) (Amendment) Regulations (Northern Ireland) 2019

Coordination mechanisms

9.  After regulation 13 (network statement) insert—

“Coordination mechanisms

13A.— (1) The main infrastructure manager must put in place appropriate a coordination mechanism to ensure it coordinates, at least annually, with all interested railway undertakings as well as applicants referred to in regulation 12(3) regarding the matters set out in paragraph (3).

(2) Where relevant, representatives of users of the rail freight and passenger transport services, and national, local or regional authorities, must be invited to participate in the coordination required by paragraph (1) and the Office of Rail and Road may participate as an observer.

(3) The matters referred to in paragraph (1) are—

(a) the needs of applicants related to the maintenance and development of the infrastructure capacity;

(b) the content of the user-oriented performance targets contained in the agreement referred to in regulation 15(2) and of the incentives referred to in regulation 15(3) and their implementation;

(c) the content and implementation of the network statement referred to in regulation 13;

(d) issues of intermodality and interoperability;

(e) any other issues related to the conditions for access, the use of the infrastructure and the quality of the services of the infrastructure manager.

(4) The main infrastructure manager must draw up and publish guidelines for the coordination required by paragraph (1) in consultation with interested parties and must publish on its website an overview of the activities undertaken pursuant to this regulation.

European Network of Infrastructure Managers

13B.— (1) With a view to facilitating the provision of efficient and effective rail services within the European Union, the main infrastructure manager must participate and cooperate in a network of European infrastructure managers, that meets at regular intervals to—

(a) develop European Union rail infrastructure;

(b) support the timely and efficient implementation of the single European railway area;

(c) exchange best practices;

(d) monitor and benchmark performance;

(e) contribute to the market monitoring activities referred to in Article 15 of the Directive;

(f) tackle cross-border bottlenecks; and

(g) discuss the application of Articles 37 and 40 of the Directive.”.