European Railway Platform

The European Railway Platform (ERP) is a new market‑side body based on the Regulation on the Use of Railway Infrastructure Capacity (“Capacity Regulation”). It is foreseen as the market-representing counterpart to the European Network of Infrastructure Managers (ENIM), with a mandate to support operational stakeholders other than infrastructure managers at the European level and to provide consolidated input on capacity management, traffic management, performance review and related technical standards. 

Forum Train Europe (FTE) led the preparation of the ERP proposal, which was submitted to the European Commission on 11 June 2026, the day the Capacity Regulation entered into force. For the development of the proposal FTE collaborated closely with ALLRAIL, ERFA, CER, UIP, UIRR, FEPORT and other associations, and consulted representatives of other operational stakeholders such as ports, service facilities and public service obligation (PSO) authorities. Through this joint effort, FTE and its partners aim to deliver an ERP set‑up that meets the legal requirements of the Capacity Regulation while fully aligning with stakeholders’ expectations on representation, governance and day‑to‑day functioning.

The submitted proposal ensures for ERP to be inclusive, transparent and effective in practice, not just on paper. Operational stakeholders want a platform that genuinely reflects their diversity, avoiding unnecessary bureaucracy and costs, and which is able to deliver timely, strong, unified and well‑founded positions in the often-tight consultation timelines of ENIM. A central goal of the current design work is therefore to ensure that ERP’s composition, rules of procedure and working methods closely match these expectations, so that the platform is both representative and operationally efficient. Therefore, the ERP is designed as a lean and inclusive platform that organises consultations and gives operational stakeholders a single, structured voice in the Capacity Regulation framework.

As soon as the European Commission officially communicates the establishment of the European Railway Platform, a call for membership will be published so that all interested operational stakeholders can join for the inaugural ERP Plenary Assembly.