Austrian communications specialist Frequentis is moving to majority control of Spanish MCX software developer Nemergent Solutions, consolidating the technology stack underpinning its FRMCS migration platform as large-scale European trials begin this summer.

Frequentis will increase its stake in Nemergent from 25% to 51%, effective July 2026, absorbing the company it has partnered with since 2020 into the Frequentis Group. The announcement, made 16 June, also deepens a strategic partnership with Dutch connectivity specialist Lyfo.

Nemergent’s mission-critical services technology is already the core of Frequentis MissionX — the platform the company positions as its primary pathway for railway operators migrating from GSM-R. The consolidation gives Frequentis direct control over development resources at a point when FRMCS validation under the EU-Rail MORANE 2 programme is moving from lab testing to live field trials.

MCX platform tightened as field trials approach

Frequentis has held a stake in Nemergent since 2020, raising it to 25% in May 2024. The move to majority ownership is not a pivot — it formalises a dependency already built into MissionX.

MissionX is Frequentis’ integrated platform for safety-critical rail communications, covering dispatcher voice, broadband data and the interworking functions that allow GSM-R and FRMCS to operate in parallel during migration. Majority ownership of Nemergent removes the structural risk of a key software component sitting outside the group at the moment migration contracts begin to be awarded.

Timing tied to FRMCS transition window

Across Europe, more than 130,000 kilometres of GSM-R infrastructure remain in operation. The technology underpins safety-critical voice communications and forms the bearer layer for ETCS on most national networks.

Decommissioning pressure intensifies from 2030, but infrastructure managers and operators are being pushed to begin migration planning now — MORANE 2 field trials, which Frequentis participates in, are scheduled to start this summer.

Railway organisations making procurement decisions in the next two to three years will expect suppliers to demonstrate stable, fully controlled technology stacks. A supplier group that does not control its own core software stack carries a different risk profile when contracts are being awarded.

Manuel Hintermayr, Frequentis Director Mission Critical Services, confirmed in the announcement that the consolidated MissionX ecosystem is intended to support large-scale FRMCS railway programme rollouts.

Parallel network problem addressed by Lyfo partnership

The deepened partnership with Lyfo targets the operational problem that defines the transition period itself. For several years, railway networks will run GSM-R and FRMCS simultaneously, and safe operation depends on maintaining uninterrupted connectivity across both.

Lyfo’s multi-network switching technology automatically moves between available networks when one becomes unavailable — addressing the continuity gap that arises precisely when neither system is yet fully dominant.

SPAIN: The Spanish manufacturer has set a target to double production capacity by end-2028, as its order book reaches EUR 6.5 billion — the largest in the company’s history.

The target was announced at Talgo’s annual general meeting in Vitoria-Gasteiz, where chairman José Antonio Jainaga said new investment in the company’s Rivabellosa and Las Matas factories would underpin the expansion. The investment details remain to be defined.

The order book has grown rapidly across four customer bases: Deutsche Bahn, DSB, FlixTrain and Trafikverket — all buying the same Talgo 230 intercity platform. Delivering that volume without further delays is the open question the capacity plan is meant to answer.

Four contracts, one platform

The EUR 6.5 billion order book, up from EUR 4.466 billion at end-2025, rests on a single product. Deutsche Bahn signed a framework contract for up to 100 ICE L sets in 2019, with negotiations ongoing over a potential reduction to 60. DSB signed a EUR 500 million framework contract for 16 EuroCity sets. FlixTrain placed an order for 30 sets — with an option for 65 more — worth EUR 1.06 billion. Trafikverket followed in April with a EUR 756 million contract covering locomotives and day and night sets for Sweden’s night train network.

The DSB sets entered service 3 November 2025. The ICE L is a different story: originally due in December 2023, it is running more than two years late. The FlixTrain and Trafikverket deliveries have yet to begin.

Delivery record as context

José Antonio Jainaga described the capacity ambition as a goal, not a commitment. Current output at the two Spanish plants runs at 400–500 carriages per year. Doubling that by end-2028 would require both factories to scale significantly while simultaneously executing on four live programmes.

The ICE L delay — Deutsche Bahn’s Talgo-built intercity fleet — has been the most visible pressure point. It is not the only one.

Leo Express is currently operating three leased Talgo VI coaches on the Prague–Bratislava corridor, a platform from the 1990s that has since been refurbished. Since April, persistent door failures and air conditioning faults have kept one or two coaches out of service at any given time. Czech rail authority Drážní úřad has conducted three inspections. Leo Express has a planned entry onto German routes scheduled for 25 June, with no official announcement of cancellation as of publication.

The Talgo VI issues do not reflect on the Talgo 230, which is a different and newer design. But they illustrate the gap between order volume and operational reliability that has marked Talgo’s recent European programmes.

GERMANY: Italo chief executive Gianbattista La Rocca has told Handelsblatt the Italian operator will not delay its planned 2028 entry into Germany — and that a Bundesnetzagentur decision on long-term track access must come by the end of June or the Siemens production slot is lost.

The deadline is structural, not rhetorical. Italo has already deferred Siemens production by ten months and invested more than EUR 25m. A further delay collapses the 2028 entry timeline entirely.

Bundesnetzagentur has no legal basis in the current framework to grant the ten-to-fifteen-year path contracts Italo is demanding. DB and FlixTrain have both signalled they would challenge any bespoke capacity guarantee.

The EU Capacity Management Regulation takes effect from December 2030 — making any interim national model for Italo legally exposed from the moment it is granted.

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Hitachi and Pesa team up for Poland’s first high-speed tender

POLAND: Japanese manufacturer Hitachi Rail and Polish rolling stock producer Pesa Bydgoszcz have signed a cooperation agreement to bid jointly for PKP Intercity’s tender for 20 very high-speed trains — Poland’s first procurement at 320 km/h.

The bid is built around Hitachi Rail’s ETR1000 platform — the Frecciarossa 1000 — with initial production at Hitachi’s Italian facilities and a gradual transfer of manufacturing to Pesa’s plant in Bydgoszcz. The Siemens–Newag consortium, previously confirmed, has since dissolved after the two parties failed to agree on cooperation terms.

Bids are due May 2027, with a contract decision targeted for August 2027. The tender includes an option for 35 additional trainsets and 30 years of maintenance.

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Austria drops airport link to keep Brenner on time

AUSTRIA: A EUR 19.5 billion rail investment plan for 2027–2032 has been approved by Austria’s government, delaying the Vienna airport rail link by two years to keep the Brenner Base Tunnel’s northern approach on schedule.

The Brenner northern approach in Tyrol — from Radfeld to Kufstein — stays in the programme, with construction starting 2030 and completion targeted for 2039. The Flughafenspange takes the cut instead.

Austria’s plan is now conditional on a decision that has not yet been taken: Germany has not made a binding commitment to its Nordzulauf from Munich through Rosenheim to the Austrian border. Without that, the Brenner Base Tunnel opens in 2032 without a functioning northern approach on the German side.

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Poland maps out 4,700 km rail expansion to 2050

POLAND: The country’s first comprehensive long-term rail plan sets out 4,700 km of new lines — including 2,700 km to high-speed standard — as the framework for network development after 2035.

The Integrated Railway Network (ZSK), presented 15 June by Centralny Port Komunikacyjny, PKP Polskie Linie Kolejowe and the Ministry of Infrastructure, is a planning document — not a government decision. Ministerial Council approval is required before it enters formal planning documents and TEN-T mapping, and no date has been announced.

Around 1,000 km are already under construction or in procurement. The remaining 3,700 km are post-2035 investment, estimated at approximately 610 billion zlotys, with no funding source yet identified or committed.

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Poland bans Turkish train manufacturer from zero-emission tender

POLAND: Koleje Dolnośląskie, a regional operator in Lower Silesia, has excluded Turkish manufacturer Bozankaya from a tender for zero-emission trains, applying EU rules that allow third-country suppliers without trade agreements with the bloc to be shut out of public procurement. Three European manufacturers advance.

The legal basis is a Polish implementation of EU procurement rules in force from 9 September 2025 — distinct from the Foreign Subsidies Regulation used to remove CRRC from a Lisbon metro consortium in April. That instrument targets state subsidies; this one targets countries not party to the EU’s international procurement agreements. Turkey is not a signatory to the Government Procurement Agreement.

Pesa, Siemens Mobility and Škoda Group advance to the next phase. A successful prototype test triggers a framework order of up to 16 trains.

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OnTrain presents first Traxx Universal locomotive

INDUSTRY: OnTrain, a new Polish locomotive leasing platform backed by pan-European infrastructure investor Marguerite, has presented its first Alstom Traxx Universal multi-system electric locomotive at Żmigród — the opening move in a 40-unit fleet build targeting freight and passenger operators across eight Central and Southeast European countries.

The first five units have been available since April 2026. The remaining 35 follow from March 2027 at three locomotives per month, with certification covering Poland, Germany, Austria, Czech Republic, Slovakia, Slovenia, Croatia, Serbia and Hungary across two corridor configurations.

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AUSTRIA: A EUR 19.5 billion rail investment plan for 2027–2032 has been approved by Austria’s government, delaying the Vienna airport rail link by two years to keep the Brenner Base Tunnel’s northern approach on schedule.

The Ministerial Council adopted the framework on 17 June. The Flughafenspange — the planned rail connection between Vienna Schwechat airport and Bruck an der Leitha — is delayed by two years. The Brenner northern approach in Tyrol (Unterinntaltrasse, Radfeld–Kufstein) stays in the programme, with construction starting 2030 and completion targeted for 2039.

The plan is EUR 1.6 billion smaller than the 2024–2029 framework. The decision ends weeks of confrontation between Vienna and the Tyrolean state government, which had pushed back hard against any delay to the Brenner approach.

Austria moves first, waits on Germany

Tyrol’s Landeshauptmann Anton Mattle made the stakes clear: if the Brenner northern approach came out of the plan, the Tyrolean government would block approval. Vienna backed down. The Unterinntaltrasse from Radfeld to Kufstein stays — construction starts 2030, delivery 2039.

What gets cut instead is the Flughafenspange. The Vienna airport link slides two years. The Semmering base tunnel opens 2029, unchanged. The Linz–Wels four-track expansion completes 2031, unchanged. ÖBB saves EUR 1.6 billion across the programme period as part of a broader federal budget consolidation. ÖBB CEO Andreas Matthä acknowledged the restraint directly: the company is easing off on some projects.

The German condition

The Brenner Base Tunnel opens in 2032. Full capacity on the corridor requires functioning northern approaches on both sides of the border — Austria’s, now confirmed, and Germany’s, still unresolved.

Austria is waiting for Bavaria and the Bundestag to make a binding decision on the German Nordzulauf from Munich through Rosenheim to Kufstein. No formal decision has been taken. The approved plan ties future Austrian framework programmes to Germany’s progress — without a fixed deadline. Bundeskanzler Christian Stocker and Mobility Minister Peter Hanke approved the plan in Vienna. The next move is in Berlin.

POLAND: The country’s first comprehensive long-term rail plan sets out 4,700 km of new lines — including 2,700 km to high-speed standard — as the framework for network development after 2035.

The Integrated Railway Network (ZSK), presented 15 June by Centralny Port Komunikacyjny, PKP Polskie Linie Kolejowe and the Ministry of Infrastructure, replaces an earlier model of ten Warsaw-centred spokes with 19 national corridors. The plan requires Ministerial Council approval before it enters formal planning documents and TEN-T mapping.

Around 1,000 km of the total are already under construction, in procurement or at advanced design stage. Costs for investments after 2035 are estimated at approximately 610 billion zlotys.

From spokes to corridors

The ZSK marks a structural departure from the previous model, which routed lines outward from Warsaw in ten radial spokes. That design served the CPK airport hub logic — connections to a single national interchange. The new plan builds 19 corridors that link cities to each other, not only to the capital. Deputy ministers Maciej Lasek and Piotr Malepszak presented it as a network designed for national connectivity, with 27 small and medium cities gaining rail access for the first time.

The Polish government has drawn the comparison to the 1990s motorway programme — an infrastructure commitment that outlasted multiple governments and delivered a national road network. The ZSK is intended to survive changes of government.

What happens before 2035

The 1,000 km deliverable by 2035 represents the portion of the plan already in motion. It includes the Y-line — the central spine linking Warsaw to Łódź and branching to Poznań and Wrocław — and the Rail Baltica section Ełk–Trakiszki. CPK airport terminal construction begins in 2026, with the first high-speed section targeted for 2035.

The remaining 3,700 km are post-2035 investment, estimated at approximately 610 billion zlotys — roughly EUR 143 billion at the current exchange rate, of which 410 billion zlotys covers new lines and 200 billion zlotys covers modernisation of 5,600 km of existing network. No funding source for the post-2035 phase has been identified or committed.

The passenger forecast underpinning the plan projects 720 million annual journeys by 2050, up from 439 million in 2025. On the freight side, average commercial speed is targeted to rise from 34 km/h to 56 km/h, supported by 23 new intermodal terminals.

Military corridors built in from the start

All ZSK corridors are designed as dual-use infrastructure. Military mobility requirements were incorporated into the planning process from the outset — a requirement that has driven Polish infrastructure planning since 2022. Every corridor meets the load and gauge specifications required for military rail movements.

The ZSK is a planning document, not a government decision. Ministerial Council adoption is the next formal step, and no date has been announced. The political targets embedded in the plan — “Poland in 100 minutes,” “Poland in 3 hours” — are aspirations, not contractual commitments. The plan spans multiple political cycles, and no funding mechanism for the post-2035 phase has been identified.

OnTrain, a new Polish locomotive leasing platform backed by pan-European infrastructure investor Marguerite, has presented its first Alstom Traxx Universal multi-system electric locomotive at Żmigród — the opening move in a 40-unit fleet build targeting freight and passenger operators across eight Central and Southeast European countries.

Piotr Ignasiak, CEO of OnTrain, said the company has already completed trials on four of the five initial locomotives, confirming the Traxx platform as its foundation for competing with established European leasing operators.

The remaining 35 units are scheduled for delivery from March 2027 at three locomotives per month — with offices planned in Berlin and Prague to support commercial expansion into the company’s core markets.

Fleet and corridor structure

The 40-unit order is divided into two batches. Thirty-five locomotives will be certified for Poland, Germany, Austria, Czech Republic, Slovakia, Slovenia, Croatia and Serbia. The remaining five cover an eastern corridor: Poland, Germany, Austria, Czech Republic, Slovakia and Hungary. The first five units have been available since April 2026, offered to Nordic operators through Hankavik.

All units are equipped with Alstom’s Onvia signalling system — the onboard ETCS solution formerly known as Atlas. Alstom will carry out preventive maintenance during the warranty period.

OnTrain enters a market where Akiem, Railpool and Alpha Trains each operate several hundred locomotives. Its model targets operators facing ageing fleets, rising ETCS compliance requirements and the capital cost of ownership — reducing the barrier to fleet renewal without a direct purchase commitment.

Production and investor base

The locomotives are manufactured at Alstom’s Kassel site in Germany, with bodyshells produced at the Wrocław facility in Poland — a site that has produced more than 2,000 Traxx bodyshells.

OnTrain is backed by Marguerite, Griffin Capital Partners and WBW Invest, a Polish rail and logistics investment company.

The first unit was presented in a distinctive teal and orange livery. Subsequent deliveries will use a turquoise finish, with the final 35 units adopting OnTrain’s standard white livery.

GERMANY: Italo chief executive Gianbattista La Rocca has told Handelsblatt the Italian operator will not delay its planned 2028 entry into Germany — and that a Bundesnetzagentur decision on long-term track access must come by the end of June or the Siemens production slot is lost.

La Rocca said Italo has signed preliminary agreements with Siemens and already deferred production by ten months. Without a commitment from Bundesnetzagentur by the end of June, he said, “almost everything changes — timing, costs, strategy.”

Italo is demanding track access guarantees of ten to fifteen years, replacing Germany’s current annual allocation system. DB chief executive Evelyn Palla, speaking to the same newspaper, pointed to EU-level reforms due in 2031 and questioned whether introducing a new model shortly before that made sense.

EUR 25m invested, production on hold

Italo has invested more than EUR 25m in the German project so far. The company has already established a German subsidiary, Atrium SE, obtained a railway licence, and mapped a network covering 18 cities across two corridors — München–Köln–Dortmund and München–Berlin–Hamburg, with 50 daily services planned.

Bundesnetzagentur’s delay forced the ten-month production deferral. Italo’s total investment commitment stands at EUR 3.6bn — EUR 1.2bn for 26 Siemens Velaro trains and EUR 2.4bn for thirty years of maintenance and operations. La Rocca said postponing entry to 2031, when EU capacity rules are due to change, is not an option.

The access question Bundesnetzagentur cannot easily answer

Italo’s core demand — multi-year path contracts of ten to fifteen years — has no legal basis in the current German framework. DB InfraGO chief Philipp Nagl warned in late May that a clause reserving guaranteed capacity for new entrants would not survive a legal challenge. FlixTrain, he argued, would have both the standing and the commercial incentive to contest it.

Palla’s 2031 reference carries the same logic from a different direction: the EU Capacity Management Regulation, adopted in May 2026, restructures how track capacity is allocated across Europe, with the first timetable under the new system due in December 2030. Introducing a bespoke national model for Italo months before that framework takes effect puts whoever grants it at legal risk.

Bundesnetzagentur has not announced a date for its decision. The agency held a meeting with the parties on 22 May. La Rocca has now drawn the line: a commitment by the end of June, or the production window closes.

POLAND: Japanese manufacturer Hitachi Rail and Polish rolling stock producer Pesa Bydgoszcz have signed a cooperation agreement to bid jointly for PKP Intercity’s tender for 20 very high-speed trains — Poland’s first procurement at 320 km/h.

The agreement, signed 16 June, centres on a joint offer based on Hitachi Rail’s ETR1000 platform — the Frecciarossa 1000 — with initial production at Hitachi’s Italian facilities and a gradual shift of manufacturing to Pesa’s plant in Bydgoszcz.

PKP Intercity launched the competitive dialogue procedure at the end of 2025, with bids due in May 2027 and a contract decision targeted for August 2027. The tender includes an option for 35 additional trainsets and 30 years of maintenance.

Technology transfer as the industrial condition

Poland’s procurement does not simply ask for trains. The tender’s structure — competitive dialogue, local production requirements, technology transfer as a stated objective — reflects a logic Poland has used before: market access in exchange for industrial returns.

The Pesa partnership is Hitachi’s direct answer to that requirement. The ETR1000 platform carries ERA multi-country authorisation and has been in commercial service in Spain since November 2022, where Iryo runs the trains on the Madrid–Barcelona corridor. That operational reference is the strongest argument available in a tender requiring documented experience at 250 km/h or above.

The technology transfer scope covers aluminium bodywork production and, separately, the construction of double-deck trains — a separate product line Hitachi and Pesa intend to develop jointly. Pesa takes on responsibility for maintenance of all trains in Poland.

One known rival, one open question

The Siemens–Newag consortium, confirmed in January 2026, has since been dissolved after the two parties failed to agree on cooperation terms. PKP Intercity spoke with nine manufacturers ahead of the tender and made clear that Polish firms would participate through partnerships — a condition that has shaped the field from the outset.

PKP Intercity estimates unit cost at approximately EUR 29m. The first two trainsets must be delivered within 60 months of contract signing; the full order of 20 within 84 months. The trains are intended primarily for the “Y” line — the CPK high-speed infrastructure at 320 km/h — though that infrastructure remains years from completion.

Whether Hitachi and Pesa passed PKP Intercity’s prequalification has not been confirmed. The application deadline was 29 April.

POLAND: Koleje Dolnośląskie, a regional operator in Lower Silesia, has excluded Turkish manufacturer Bozankaya from a tender for zero-emission trains, applying EU rules that allow third-country suppliers without trade agreements with the bloc to be shut out of public procurement. Three European manufacturers advance.

Koleje Dolnośląskie has qualified Pesa, Siemens Mobility and Škoda Group for the next phase of an innovation partnership covering up to four prototype trains with electric traction and a second zero-emission power source — hydrogen, battery or supercapacitor.

The exclusion appears to be among the first applications of the mechanism in a European rolling stock tender outside the Foreign Subsidies Regulation framework — a separate legal instrument that takes effect when a supplier comes from a country not covered by the EU’s international procurement agreements.

Innovation partnership, not standard tender

An innovation partnership is not a conventional bid process. Koleje Dolnośląskie sets the performance requirements; the three shortlisted manufacturers design the solution. The operator selects the best offer.

The legal basis for Bozankaya’s exclusion is a Polish implementation of EU procurement rules, in force from 9 September 2025, allowing contracting authorities to reject or apply less favourable conditions to suppliers from countries not party to the EU’s international procurement agreements. Turkey is not a signatory to the Government Procurement Agreement.

The Foreign Subsidies Regulation removed CRRC from a Lisbon light rail consortium in April. FSR targets state subsidies that distort competition. The Koleje Dolnośląskie case operates under a different legal basis: not whether a supplier received state support, but whether its home country has a reciprocal market access agreement with the EU. Both instruments can block non-EU suppliers, but on different legal grounds.

Three manufacturers, one prototype contract

The next phase invites Pesa, Siemens Mobility and Škoda Group to submit final offers for two to four prototype trains. Koleje Dolnośląskie’s network includes lines without electrification across four voivodeships and cross-border routes into the Czech Republic and Germany. EU funding rules now preclude diesel — trains operating in those conditions must carry a zero-emission alternative power source to qualify for EU co-financing.

Delivery is set at 30 months from contract award. The prototypes then enter 12 months of operational testing. A successful test phase triggers a framework order of up to 16 trains.

Bozankaya has previously supplied trams to Iași in Romania and holds an active tram contract in Elbląg, Poland. Those contracts are unaffected. The exclusion applies to this tender.

European Sleeper signs Italian traction deal for Milan service

NIGHT TRAINS: European Sleeper has confirmed Arenaways as its Italian traction partner for the Brussels–Milan night train launching 9 September, completing the operational setup for the route ahead of a debut that was once expected in June.

Arenaways — the commercial brand of Longitude Holding, partly owned by Renfe Proyectos Internacionales — will handle locomotive services on the Italian section. The agreement fills the last operational gap before a three-times-weekly service begins from Milano Porta Garibaldi.

From December 2026, the route extends to Antwerp, Breda and Eindhoven, adding three Dutch cities to the overnight network.

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Rail Baltica publishes first rulebook for future operators

CROSS-BORDER: Rail Baltica’s three national infrastructure managers have published the first Network Statement for the cross-border line linking Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania and Poland. The document sets out access and operating conditions for railway undertakings — even as the project’s financing and timeline remain unresolved.

The statement, published 11 June under the RailNetEurope framework, covers infrastructure characteristics, ERTMS Level 2 signalling and access conditions for the standard-gauge (1,435 mm) corridor. It was produced jointly by Rail Baltic Estonia, Eiropas Dzelzceļa Līnijas in Latvia and LTG Infra in Lithuania.

Rail Baltica’s own leadership has recently indicated that the original 2030 completion target is no longer realistic, with 2035 now under discussion.

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Chinese-built CRRC train cleared to run in Romania

ROMANIA: A CRRC Sifang train ordered by private operator Astra Trans Carpatic has received type and placing-in-service authorisation from Romania’s rail safety authority ASFR. The approval clears nearly five years of legal disputes over China’s access to the Romanian market and opens the way for commercial service.

ASFR issued the authorisations to Astra Vagoane Călători, the Arad-based sister company of Astra Trans Carpatic. Commercial service on the Bucharest–Brașov route is expected to begin in July, subject to a maintenance entity certificate still outstanding from ASFR.

The Romanian case proceeded under EU procurement law — not the Foreign Subsidies Regulation — after a court found the original 2021 exclusion of the CRRC consortium incompatible with EU rules.

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One of Europe’s biggest infrastructure projects just got more complex

The Fehmarnbelt tunnel — an 18 km fixed link carrying trains and cars beneath the Baltic Sea — will open in two stages, with rail following road by at least a year. Denmark is building it. The delay is on the German side.

By Dan Jensen

Femern A/S confirmed on 18 May that the road section will open first. The Fehmarnsund tunnel — a separate 1.7 km connection between the island of Fehmarn and the German mainland — is not expected to be complete before the end of 2032, a year after the main tunnel’s 2031 target.

No date has been set for rail opening. The tunnel’s rail section has received EUR 1.29bn through the EU’s Connecting Europe Facility.

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Tended expands geofencing safety system to Dutch rail network

INDUSTRY: British safety technology firm Tended has partnered with Dutch infrastructure provider Safelines BV to extend its geofencing system across the Netherlands’ rail network. The system replaces manual trackside marker boards with digital alerts.

The partnership was announced 9 June. Safelines BV, part of the ATR Group, has operated in Dutch railway safety for more than two decades and is described by Tended as the country’s largest provider of trackside safety solutions.

It is Tended’s second partnership in the Netherlands, following a 2024 collaboration with Dual Inventive.

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CROSS-BORDER: Rail Baltica’s three national infrastructure managers have published the first Network Statement for the cross-border line linking Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania and Poland. The document sets out access and operating conditions for railway undertakings — even as the project’s financing and timeline remain unresolved.

RB Rail AS, together with Rail Baltic Estonia, Eiropas Dzelzceļa Līnijas (EDZL) in Latvia and LTG Infra in Lithuania, published Version 1 of the Network Statement on 11 June. The document follows the RailNetEurope framework used across Europe to harmonise cross-border access rules.

It is the first consolidated reference for operators on the new standard-gauge line, covering infrastructure characteristics, ERTMS Level 2 signalling and access conditions. The publication gives operators a formal basis to engage with the project ahead of commissioning.

A rulebook for a line still under construction

The Network Statement gives operators a single reference point for how the future line will work. It describes a standard-gauge (1,435 mm) corridor running through Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania, connecting onward to Poland, built to ERTMS Level 2 with FRMCS as the underlying communications layer.

For railway undertakings, this marks a shift in what Rail Baltica represents. Until now, the project has existed mainly as a construction site. A reference framework for access and operations turns it into something operators can plan around — track conditions, technical parameters, the rules they will eventually need to comply with.

The publication comes as Rail Baltica is also being discussed as a priority corridor for military mobility, as one of several cross-border routes flagged for troop and equipment movements.

Rules arrive before the money does

The timing creates a contrast. Rail Baltica’s own leadership has recently acknowledged that the original 2030 completion target is no longer realistic, with a 2035 horizon now under discussion. The European Commission has separately terminated funding for a bridge project on the line after construction failed to begin within the required timeframe.

A Network Statement does not require a finished railway to exist — it is a planning document for infrastructure managers and a reference for operators preparing years in advance. But its publication now means Rail Baltica is simultaneously defining how the line will operate and acknowledging that defining when it will operate is still unresolved.

For operators weighing future services on the corridor, the document answers the technical question. The financial and scheduling question remains open.

NIGHT TRAINS: European Sleeper has confirmed Arenaways as its Italian traction partner for the Brussels–Milan night train launching 9 September, completing the operational setup for the route ahead of a debut that was once expected in June.

Arenaways — the commercial brand of Longitude Holding, in which Renfe Proyectos Internacionales holds a 33% stake — will provide locomotive services on the Italian section of the route. The agreement was announced 11 June.

The train will depart from Milano Porta Garibaldi on Wednesdays, Fridays and Sundays, stopping in Como and several Swiss locations before reaching Cologne, Aachen, Liège and Brussels. From December 2026, the route extends to Antwerp, Breda and Eindhoven.

Same partner, different route

Arenaways, founded in 2021 — the same year as European Sleeper — provides traction services on the Italian network. A previous partnership with Arenaways for a Venice service did not proceed.

The December extension adds three Dutch cities to the network, connecting Milan with Eindhoven in a single overnight journey of around 17 hours.

The Fehmarnbelt tunnel — an 18 km fixed link carrying trains and cars beneath the Baltic Sea — will open in two stages, with rail following road by at least a year. Denmark is building it. The delay is on the German side.

By Dan Jensen

Femern A/S confirmed on 18 May that the road section will open first, with rail following once Germany’s own approach infrastructure is complete. The Fehmarnbelt crossing has two parts: an 18 km tunnel beneath the Baltic Sea between Rødbyhavn on the Danish island of Lolland and Puttgarden on the German island of Fehmarn, and a separate 1.7 km tunnel connecting Fehmarn to the German mainland.

The split follows a German assessment that the Fehmarnsund tunnel — the connection between Fehmarn and the German mainland — will not be ready before the end of 2032, a year after the main tunnel’s 2031 target. The large tunnel is on schedule; the small one is not.

What the tunnel actually is

The Fehmarnbelt tunnel is an immersed tunnel built from 89 prefabricated concrete elements. Four tubes run through each element: two for a four-lane motorway, two for an electrified double-track railway, plus a service corridor. When complete, it will be the longest immersed tunnel in the world.

The elements are cast in a purpose-built factory at Rødbyhavn, towed out and lowered into a trench dredged across the seabed.

Financing model similar to Great Belt and Øresund

Femern A/S, a subsidiary of the Danish state-owned Sund & Bælt, is building and will operate the tunnel. The financing model — state-guaranteed loans repaid through tolls — is the same used for the Great Belt fixed link and the Øresund crossing.

The Great Belt link is a purely Danish project; the Øresund crossing is a joint Danish-Swedish undertaking. The Fehmarnbelt tunnel is Danish-built and Danish-financed, with Germany responsible for its own hinterland connections.

The European Union has designated the link as one of the priority cross-border projects on the Scandinavian-Mediterranean Core Network Corridor, with the rail section receiving EUR 1.29bn through the Connecting Europe Facility.

Element by element

Construction began in 2021. The factory at Rødbyhavn where the tunnel elements are cast has been operating for years — each element takes months to produce before it is ready to be towed out and lowered into position on the seabed.

The first element was placed on 7 May 2026, with 88 remaining. The marine works alone are expected to run well into 2027.

The main tunnel is targeted for completion in 2031, a date that has already slipped once from the original 2029 target. On current progress, the element-by-element assembly is the longest phase of what remains.

The German bottleneck

The Fehmarnsund bridge connects the island of Fehmarn to the German mainland. It carries two road lanes and a single rail track — and studies concluded as early as 2012 that it cannot handle the traffic volumes expected after the Fehmarnbelt tunnel opens.

Germany’s answer is a new tunnel at Fehmarnsund — 1.7 km of immersed tunnel for road and rail, under contract since late 2025 with construction scheduled to begin in 2026, but not expected to be complete before the end of 2032.

Legal challenges to the routing through Schleswig-Holstein have added further uncertainty to the German timeline. No new date for the rail opening has been set — only that it follows road, and that the German link is not expected before late 2032 at the earliest.

A corridor still being assembled

Once open, the tunnel cuts the rail journey between Copenhagen and Hamburg from around four and a half hours to roughly two and a half. That reduction holds regardless of the staged opening — it simply arrives later for trains than for road traffic.

The Fehmarnbelt link is part of the Scandinavian-Mediterranean Corridor, the EU’s designated spine connecting Scandinavia to central and southern Europe. The corridor already has one completed fixed link: the Øresund crossing between Denmark and Sweden, in operation since 2000.

The drawing board

A third link is on the drawing board. A Swedish government inquiry recommended in March 2026 that Denmark and Sweden develop a joint project basis for a new fixed connection across the Øresund — primarily a tunnel to Copenhagen — ahead of a possible formal investigation in 2027.

Vy, DSB and Deutsche Bahn announced a direct Oslo–Copenhagen–Berlin service in May 2026, targeting a 2028 launch — three years before the Fehmarnbelt tunnel’s road section opens, and well ahead of a rail connection that depends on a German link not expected before 2032.

The corridor between Scandinavia and continental Europe is being built in pieces — one finished, one under construction and now opening in stages, one still on paper.

British safety technology firm Tended has partnered with Dutch infrastructure provider Safelines BV to extend its geofencing system across the Netherlands’ rail network. The system replaces manual trackside marker boards with digital alerts.

Tended and Safelines BV, part of the ATR Group, announced the partnership on 9 June. It is Tended’s second Dutch tie-up, following a 2024 collaboration with Dual Inventive.

The system creates digital safety zones that alert workers and machinery operators via wearable devices when they cross a boundary, replacing physical marker boards. Tended says the change can save up to an hour per shift at each worksite.

A second route into the Dutch market

Safelines BV has worked in Dutch railway safety for more than two decades and is positioned by Tended as the country’s largest provider of trackside safety solutions. The new partnership builds on Tended’s earlier move into the Netherlands.

That earlier partnership, with Dual Inventive, followed a safety bulletin from RailAlert, the Dutch railway safety standards body, after a rise in on-track machines operating beyond their designated limits without authorisation. The same pressures — staff shortages and growing demand on the network — sit behind this second agreement.

Tended is headquartered in Lincoln. In the UK, its system is already used by Network Rail, Siemens Mobility and SPL Powerlines.

ROMANIA: A CRRC Sifang train ordered by private operator Astra Trans Carpatic has received type and placing-in-service authorisation from Romania’s rail safety authority ASFR. The approval clears nearly five years of legal disputes over China’s access to the Romanian market and opens the way for commercial service.

ASFR issued the authorisations to Astra Vagoane Călători, the Arad-based sister company of operator Astra Trans Carpatic. The CRRC Sifang SFEMU unit, fully compliant with EU interoperability standards (TSI), is now cleared to operate on the Romanian network.

Astra Trans Carpatic expects to begin commercial service in July, starting on the Bucharest–Brașov route via the Prahova Valley. Astra Vagoane Călători still needs a maintenance entity certificate from ASFR before passenger operations can start.

A five-year legal battle over market access

In 2021, a bidding consortium of CRRC Qingdao Sifang and Astra Vagoane Călători was excluded from a Romanian tender for up to 37 interregional electric multiple units. The exclusion came via a government ordinance barring firms from countries without public procurement agreements with Romania from EU- and nationally funded tenders.

CRRC and Astra Vagoane Călători challenged the exclusion in court. The Bucharest Court of Appeal ruled in July 2025 that Romania could not exclude the consortium from the tender, finding the restriction incompatible with EU procurement rules.

That ruling cleared the legal path for CRRC Sifang’s train to proceed through technical authorisation in Romania — a separate process from the European Commission’s Foreign Subsidies Regulation cases, which examine state subsidies rather than procurement access.

The CRRC Sifang SFEMU-EU01 unit arrived in Romania via the port of Constanța in April 2024. A maintenance facility for the train has been set up at the Astra Vagoane Călători plant in Arad.

Ten EU states demand Commission action on rail delivery times

EU: Austria, backed by nine other EU member states, has asked the European Commission to draft a strategy for the European railway industry, placing the issue on the agenda of the Transport Council meeting in Luxembourg on 8 June.

The initiative arrives ahead of the Commission’s mandatory three-year FSR review, due 13 July, with potential implications for how the regulation applies to rail procurement.

Ten national governments backing a coordinated industry strategy signals delivery bottlenecks have moved from operator complaints to Council-level agenda items.

Germany’s co-signature stands out given Deutsche Bahn’s own fleet pressures, though the proposal stops short of naming specific operators or projects.

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Go-Ahead confirms it is leaving Norway

NORWAY: Go-Ahead’s rail division has confirmed it will not continue in Norway after 2027, ending the country’s first experiment with a foreign passenger operator.

Go-Ahead has run the Sørlandsbanen, Arendalsbanen and Jærbanen lines since December 2019 — the first foreign passenger contract in Norway. State operator Vy takes over from 2028.

The handover follows a direct award decided in 2024, without a tender. ESA is examining whether that award complies with fourth railway package exemption rules.

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Adif takes legal action against Siemens after Barcelona blackout

SPAIN: Adif and Catalonia’s Rodalies operator have both announced legal action against Siemens after two failures in the company’s traffic control system on 9 June brought the whole of Catalonia’s rail network to a standstill. It was the fourth such outage in recent months.

Both 9 June failures occurred during a Siemens maintenance operation on the centralised traffic control system at Barcelona’s Estació de França.

The intervention was part of a software upgrade tied to the operational merger of Renfe and Adif’s control centres.

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Europes rail capacity rules take effect

EU: A regulation overhauling how Europe allocates rail capacity entered into force on 11 June, starting a multi-year shift from national, annual planning to coordinated cross-border scheduling.

The Capacity Management Regulation creates two new bodies, ENIM and ERP, neither of which exists yet.

The first timetable under the new system is due in December 2030.

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Siemens turns the Vectron into a software-updatable platform

INDUSTRY: Siemens Mobility has launched the Vectron X, an unchanged Vectron locomotive fitted with a digital layer of apps, open interfaces and a cab touchscreen that lets the platform evolve after delivery.

Siemens unveiled the Vectron X on 10 June at its new Rail Service Center in Munich-Allach. All Vectron deliveries from that date carry the new specification.

The change applies to a platform with nearly 3,000 units sold across Europe.

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EU: Austria, backed by nine other EU member states, has asked the European Commission to draft a strategy for the European railway industry, placing the issue on the agenda of the Transport Council meeting in Luxembourg on 8 June.

Croatia, France, Germany, Greece, Italy, Luxembourg, Poland, Portugal and Romania co-signed the initiative alongside Austria. The proposal calls on the Commission to bring manufacturers, ministers and national authorities together to address delivery times across the sector.

The model draws on existing industrial action plans for the automotive and maritime sectors. The initiative lands five weeks before the Commission’s mandatory three-year review of the Foreign Subsidies Regulation, due 13 July, which could lead to changes affecting how the FSR applies to rail procurement.

What the ten member states are asking for

The ten states want the Commission to convene rolling stock manufacturers, transport ministries and national rail authorities to identify bottlenecks in the production chain. The proposal frames delivery times as a competitiveness issue: contracts for new trains can take years to translate into trains in service, leaving operators waiting for fleets they have already paid for.

The initiative comes amid growing pressure from individual member states on the same theme. Spain’s transport minister has previously argued that delivery times of up to eight years put European manufacturers at a disadvantage against faster producers such as China’s CRRC.

Germany’s signature is notable given Deutsche Bahn’s own fleet pressures, though the initiative does not name individual operators or projects.

Siemens Mobility has launched the Vectron X, an unchanged Vectron locomotive fitted with a digital layer of apps, open interfaces and a cab touchscreen that lets the platform evolve after delivery.

Siemens unveiled the Vectron X on 10 June at its new Rail Service Center in Munich-Allach. All Vectron deliveries from that date carry the new specification regardless of the original order.

The change applies to a platform with nearly 3,000 units sold across Europe. Leasing companies and operators with Vectron orders already in the pipeline will receive Vectron X locomotives instead of the standard model they ordered.

What changes inside the locomotive

The hardware stays the same. Siemens has added a software layer built on its Xcelerator platform, branded TrainPlay, running on an 11.6-inch Smart Screen in the driver’s cab.

The screen gives access to operational data, route information and apps from Siemens, the operator, or third-party providers. Open interfaces and standardised APIs allow the locomotive to exchange data with fleet management and operating systems.

A Remote Start function lets operators prepare the locomotive’s systems before the driver arrives. Siemens estimates this saves 7 to 12 minutes per start, rising to up to 30 minutes in winter conditions.

Existing fleet may follow

Siemens has signalled that retrofits could bring the Vectron X specification to existing locomotives, though the company says this option is still being evaluated. No pricing or timeline has been published.

The new Rail Service Center in Munich-Allach triples the site’s overhaul capacity for Vectron locomotives, supporting both new deliveries and any future upgrades.

An open platform raises a closed question

The app store model opens the Vectron to third-party software developers, turning the locomotive into a platform that can gain new functions after delivery. Siemens frames this as a benefit for operators, who gain flexibility without buying new hardware.

It also raises a question Siemens has not addressed: who controls access to the platform, and what happens to operators who don’t develop for it. Whether competing manufacturers — Stadler, Alstom — respond with their own software ecosystems, or whether Vectron’s installed base gives Siemens a structural advantage regardless, remains open.

EU: A regulation overhauling how Europe allocates rail capacity entered into force on 11 June, starting a multi-year shift from national, annual planning to coordinated cross-border scheduling.

The Capacity Management Regulation was published in the EU’s Official Journal on 8 June, with 11 June set as its date of entry into force. It creates two new bodies: the European Network of Infrastructure Managers (ENIM) and the European Railway Platform (ERP).

Neither institution exists yet. The bodies meant to deliver the reform now have to be built from scratch, while the clock runs toward the first timetable under the new system in December 2030.

What changes under the new framework

The current system allocates capacity nationally and annually, with each infrastructure manager planning its own network on its own timeline. Cross-border services have to fit around those separate national plans rather than being planned as part of them from the start.

ENIM brings infrastructure managers together to produce timetables that prioritise cross-border traffic alongside national needs. ERP gives infrastructure users — operators running freight or passenger services across multiple networks — a single point of engagement rather than separate national processes.

Cross-border freight and night trains are the services most exposed to the current model. Both depend on path agreements across multiple national networks, and neither has a structured mechanism today for handling disruptions that cross borders.

The regulation followed final adoption by the European Parliament on 19 May. Entry into force is a separate legal step, starting the implementation period that runs to the December 2030 timetable.

NORWAY: Go-Ahead’s rail division has confirmed it will not continue in Norway after 2027, ending the country’s first experiment with a foreign passenger operator.

Patrick Verwer, the Go-Ahead group’s managing director for rail, told Stavanger Aftenblad on 8 June that Go-Ahead has no plans in Norway beyond 2027. He said the company would likely not extend its contract even if offered the chance.

Verwer described operating conditions in Norway’s current market as very difficult. State operator Vy is set to take over the routes from 2028.

Verwer points to operating conditions

Verwer called the exit quiet and seamless. Go-Ahead has run the Sørlandsbanen, Arendalsbanen and Jærbanen lines since December 2019, the first time a foreign operator held a passenger rail contract in Norway.

Go-Ahead Nordic is the Norwegian arm of the UK-based Go-Ahead Group, which is headquartered in Newcastle and primarily operates buses and trains in the UK, alongside operations in Sweden, Ireland, Australia and Singapore.

The handover to Vy follows a direct award decided in autumn 2024, without a tender process. The European Free Trade Association Surveillance Authority (ESA) is examining whether that direct award complies with the fourth railway package’s exemption rules. No ruling has been issued.

A loss-making run

Go-Ahead has lost EUR 48m on its Norwegian operation. More than 1,000 departures were cancelled between September 2025 and February 2026 due to faults on trains running the Sørlandsbanen and Jærbanen.

A maintenance inspection in November 2025 found more than 2,000 deviations, 83 of them classified as serious.

Go-Ahead’s exit places Norway alongside other European markets where private operators have stepped back amid what they describe as unpredictable regulatory conditions — RegioJet’s withdrawal from Poland followed a similar pattern.