EU Has Few Answers as Rail Freight Struggles and DAC Slips Back

A few months ago, Czech MEP Ondřej Krutílek asked the European Commission to explain what is going wrong with rail freight and what can be done to support it. Transport Commissioner Apostolos Tzitzikostas eventually replied in a half-page letter that left more questions unanswered than resolved.

Tzitzikostas pointed out that the three main segments of rail freight, block trains, intermodal transport and single wagonload traffic are each struggling for different reasons. He attributed the decline in block trains, which account for the vast majority of rail freight, to an "economic shift." Intermodal transport is growing, but not enough to compensate for the losses in block trains, while single wagonload traffic is simply less competitive than road transport.

DAC Is the Only Specific Measure Mentioned for Single Wagonload

When addressing the Commission’s plans to improve the competitiveness of rail freight and stabilise the persistently unprofitable single wagonload sector, Tzitzikostas mentioned only the "pilot deployment of Digital Automatic Coupling (DAC)."

According to the Commissioner, this "could" make single wagonload traffic more attractive by improving the economics of train handling. At the same time, however, Tzitzikostas wrote that DAC would not be fully deployed even at the beginning of the 2030s. He referred to "structurally high costs, the risk of fragmentation of rail transport and empty running" among the reasons.

He did not explain what the European Commission intends to do to help single wagonload operators survive until DAC is introduced.

State Aid and Capacity Rules Will Also Take Time

For rail freight more generally, Tzitzikostas pointed to two main initiatives: the new state aid guidelines for land and multimodal transport and the Capacity Regulation.

The new state aid rules allow a higher share of project costs to be covered, increasing support from 50% to as much as 90%, while the Capacity Regulation is expected to introduce a new timetable system from the end of 2030.

In his reply to Krutílek, the Commissioner also referred to an answer he gave in April 2025 to a parliamentary question from Austrian MEP Sophie Kircher. At the time, he pointed out the main measures adopted by the Commission to support rail freight, while also acknowledging that "investment remains below needs."

New railway lines and terminals, the deployment of DAC and ERTMS, and what remains of the Greening Freight Package are all important measures, but none of them offers immediate help. All require years of commitment and billions of euros, while the sector also needs concrete measures in the short term as rail freight volumes continue to fall in many EU countries.

The Next EU Budget Could Bring More Funding

At the time of his reply, the EU Transport Commissioner could not yet point to one source of potential medium-term support: the proposal for the EU’s next Multiannual Financial Framework for 2028–2034, for which the European Commission has since proposed an overall budget.

At the same time, funding for TEN-T corridor projects serving military mobility is expected to increase tenfold.

The final decision on the shape of the EU’s next long-term budget will rest with the Member States. Following talks with Czech Prime Minister Andrej Babiš in Prague on Friday, 28 August, European Council President Antonio Costa said he expects an agreement to be reached by the end of this year.

_{Source: RailFreight, Vláda České republiky}