4th Railway Package
The 4th Railway Package is the set of six legislative texts adopted by the EU in 2016 that completed the Single European Railway Area by strengthening ERA’s role, harmonising vehicle authorisation and safety certification, and mandating competitive tendering for domestic passenger contracts.
Technical pillar
The technical pillar, adopted in April 2016, comprises three acts: Regulation (EU) 2016/796 on the European Union Agency for Railways, Directive (EU) 2016/797 on interoperability, and Directive (EU) 2016/798 on railway safety.
The central effect was to make ERA the single European authorising entity for vehicle authorisation and single safety certificates — replacing fragmented national processes across 28 national safety authorities. This directly addressed one of the sector’s most persistent cost drivers: manufacturers and operators having to repeat authorisation processes in each Member State.
Market pillar
The market pillar, adopted in December 2016, comprises three further acts covering PSO contracts, infrastructure governance, and railway accounts. It established the general right for railway undertakings to operate all types of domestic passenger services across the EU, introduced mandatory competitive tendering for public service contracts as the default, and tightened requirements for the financial and managerial independence of infrastructure managers.
Implementation
The technical pillar entered force on 16 June 2019 for the eight Member States that transposed on time: Bulgaria, Finland, France, Greece, Italy, the Netherlands, Romania, and Slovenia. The remaining Member States joined by June or October 2020. The governance reforms around infrastructure manager independence proved politically contentious, with the integrated holding company model — used by DB, SNCF, and others — retained as a permissible structure following negotiation, rather than being prohibited outright.