OREANDA-NEWS.  In order to boost and facilitate international rail transport, several freight corridors have been designated within the European Union. The first two corridors crossing Belgium have been operational since 10 November 2013. These include 'Rail Freight Corridor 1' (RFC 1), which links Zeebrugge and Antwerp/Rotterdam to Genoa via Germany and Switzerland, and 'Rail Freight Corridor 2' (RFC 2 comprising, among others, the old 'Corridor C' route), which links Antwerp/Rotterdam to Basel via Dijon/Lyon and Luxembourg.

The third corridor across Belgium, the RFC 8, will become operational as of November 2015.

Corridors map

These freight corridors, the product of a common agreement between infrastructure managers, enable continuous cross-border traffic for goods trains on international routes. The aim is to improve service quality for customers by making them a top priority.

One-stop shop

In addition to benefiting from harmonised train routes right along the corridor, making it easier to pass from one national network to another, customers can manage their requests through a single contact point.
For each corridor, a single and unique point – the 'one stop shop' corridor – has the task of managing capacity allocation on the corridor, in a transparent and non-discriminatory way.

Rail companies and 'applicants'

In addition to rail companies, other candidates – known as 'applicants' (loaders, shippers, etc.) – can also make a capacity request on these freight corridors.
Before making a route request for one of these corridors, the 'applicant' must conclude a capacity contract with Infrabel and designate a rail company that will carry out the actual transportation.