Are you a goods transportation railway undertaking, a combined transport operator, a port or a shipper operating on European routes? Would you like to find out more about ordering international train paths and freight corridors? Follow the guide!
The Corridor One Stop Shop (C-OSS) platform gives you access to the respective websites of the 11 European freight corridors. On these websites, you can consult the route of the corridor, its characteristics, its rules of use, the booking conditions for your structure, etc. This is an essential step in preparing the service of your trains!
To book train paths on one of the corridors, there is only one address: Path Coordination System (PCS). This free internet platform ensures coordination between all customers and infrastructure managers, including SNCF Réseau on the French rail network. Pre-established train paths are allocated on the basis of your file, the criteria of which are standardised to ensure that all customers are treated in a clear, transparent, harmonised and fair manner.
are transported by rail in the European Union
European freight corridors, 4 of which pass through France
are transported by freight trains in Europe
transporting semi-trailers by train
SNCF Réseau is a stakeholder in the 4 corridors that cross France.
To date, 11 freight corridors criss-cross Europe.
Each corridor corresponds to a route, but also to a dedicated team that synchronises the actions of the European infrastructure managers (IMs). Through their coordinated action within the corridors, the IMs work to give you easier access to European rail routes, by orchestrating:
The common objective is to improve the competitiveness of rail freight transport in Europe, by making it more reliable, more efficient and more accessible for railway undertakings, combined transport operators, ports, shippers and multimodal hubs. Ways of boosting intermodality, in order to improve the flow of your goods transportation between rail, sea, inland waterway and road transport, are being looked at.
The corridor: North Sea - Mediterranean, a rail freight route with over 5,500 km of track linking the Netherlands to the south of France, via Belgium, Luxembourg and Switzerland. Nearly 38,000 trains run on it every year.
The stakeholders: 6 infrastructure managers from 5 different countries, including SNCF Réseau.
The objective: to better coordinate works on the line up to 2026, so that train path capacity is improved in terms of quality and robustness.
The solution: more exchanges between infrastructure managers and a joint schedule of works to ensure, for example, that if one is carrying out works on a line, the other is not carrying out works on the alternative line at the same time.
The result: improved collaboration between countries, smoother traffic flow on the freight route and therefore greater customer satisfaction.
Infrastructure managers do not plan their works to the same deadlines and often have different railway cultures. We have managed to establish good relations with our European counterparts and helped to set up a relevant coordination process.
All our teams are committed to serving customers and developing the rail mode of transportation. Our efforts to be an increasingly reliable and committed partner for you are reflected in our Customer commitment approach.
What are the prerequisites for accessing the national rail network? Who should I contact to make a request? What steps need to be taken? Here's how to get your project off the ground.
Doubling high-speed rail traffic by 2030 and goods transportation by rail by 2050: these are the targets set by the European Commission in its Sustainable and Smart Mobility Strategy. So where do we stand today?
