Overeenkomst over goederenspoorverbinding Antwerpen - Basel - Lyon (en)
Ministers from France, Belgium, Luxembourg and Switzerland, meeting in the presence of Mr Jacques Barrot, Vice-President of the Commission with special responsibility for transport, today signed a letter of intent concerning the setting-up of an interoperable rail freight corridor between Antwerp, Basel and Lyon based on the European rail signalling system ERTMS.
Mr Barrot took the opportunity to point out that the ERTMS was bringing rail signalling into the digital age and would considerably improve the fluidity and performance of the freight transport system. He went on to stress that the ERTMS project was a major industrial project in an area of high technology in which European industry was a world leader.
Against the background of the work carried out by Mr Karel Vinck, European coordinator for the deployment of the interoperable signalling system ERTMS, the transport ministers of the countries traversed by the Antwerp-Basel-Lyon corridor have drawn up a timetable for the implementation of the project between 2008 and 2018, with provision for the main part of the corridor to be equipped with the ERTMS system in 2015.
The signing of the letter of intent for the Antwerp-Basel-Lyon corridor follows a similar initiative in March 2006 involving the Rotterdam-Genoa corridor. The deployment of the ERTMS system will enable 20 different, incompatible national signalling systems, the majority of which are fast becoming obsolete, to be replaced with a modern interoperable system.
See also : IP/05/321
More information :
http://ec.europa.eu/transport/rail/interoperability/ertms_en.htm