major European players in the railway sector

This organisation, created in 2003, brings together 33 infrastructure managers and is the European production and sales centre for international train paths. The role of RailNetEurope is to enable easy and fast access to European railway infrastructures and to increase the quality and efficiency of cross-border rail traffic.
www.railneteurope.com
 

This organisation was founded in 2002 to promote the interests of European infrastructure managers. Its role is also to represent infrastructure managers before the European Railway Agency (ERA).
Based in Brussels, it represents 10 infrastructure manager members from Belgium, Denmark, Finland, France, Great Britain, Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, Spain and Sweden.
www.eimrail.org 
Internal organization of the EIM and relations between EIM technical work groups and ERA work groups (PDF, 113 Kb)
 

Seventy-nine rail operators and infrastructure managers, mostly European, compose this Brussels-based body which lobbies and mediates in dealings with European institutions. Created in 1988, it promotes a strong rail industry, the guarantor of an effective, economic and sustainable transport system.

www.cer.be 
 

The European Railway Agency was created in order to help reinforce the safety and interoperability of technical standards along the European railway network. Its missions are :

Drawing up Technical Interoperability Specifications (STI),
Devising Common Safety Goals (OSC) and Common Safety Methods (MSC),
Harmonising safety certificates,
Cooperating and coordinating with national safety authorities,
Monitoring safety data.
www.era.europa.eu

Réseau Ferré de France is represented before the ERA by the European Rail Infrastructure Managers (EIM); each member of this federation appoints a representative within a “mirror group”, which is in charge of defining common stances which will then be defended before the ERA.
The members of the EIM also propose representatives for each of the ERA’s working groups. Réseau Ferré de France is represented in three working groups.
 

Based in Paris, the International Union of Railways is the worldwide organisation for international cooperation between railway companies and infrastructure managers. It currently has 201 members on all five continents. In order to meet local demands, 6 regional assemblies have been set up, including a European UIC assembly.

Its goal is to promote railway transport across the world in order to cope with the challenges of mobility and sustainable development. It is therefore involved in all areas that affect the development of this mode of transport, encouraging cooperation between its members.
www.uic.asso.fr
 

Created in 2006 and based in Brussels, the Trans-European Transport Network Executive Agency (TEN-T), is entrusted with the management of the Community funds available for the promotion of the trans-European transport network. It is connected to the Directorate General for Transport and Energy of the European Commission.

It provides the technical and financial management for organised events and projects, helps the Commission, project managers and the institutions that finance them, and ensures coordination between the various players involved. Having managed the projects for the 2000-2006 period, its mandate has been extended to cover the projects for the 2007-2013 period.

The Trans-European Transport Network (TEN-T) is a major element in the economic competitiveness and the balanced and sustainable development of the European Union. Its main role is to encourage the expansion of transport links through the interconnection and interoperability of national networks.
www.ec.europa.eu/ten/transport/agency/index_en.htm
 

The main task of this Government organisation, created in 1985, is to develop uniform systems of law for railway transport at international level.
www.otif.org