A network statement is the document in which an infrastructure manager sets out the conditions for using its network: which infrastructure is available, how capacity is allocated, what access costs and which deadlines apply. Railway undertakings and other applicants base their requests for train paths on it.
Article 27 of the Recast Directive (2012/34/EU) requires every infrastructure manager to publish a network statement after consulting interested parties. It must be available in at least two official EU languages and free of charge in electronic form.
The statement must be published at least four months before the deadline for annual timetable requests. Infrastructure managers such as ProRail and Bane NOR publish it about 12 months before the timetable period it covers, which starts at midnight on the second Saturday in December.
Without a published statement, an operator has no fixed basis for planning or pricing a service. The national regulatory body hears complaints about the statement’s content, in both its draft and final versions.
Content and common structure
Annex IV of the directive lists the minimum content. It covers the infrastructure available and its characteristics, the charging principles and tariffs, and the rules for allocating capacity when requests conflict.
The statement also sets out the conditions for access to service facilities connected to the network, such as freight terminals, marshalling yards and maintenance depots. It can instead refer to a website where that information is published free of charge.
Members of RailNetEurope (RNE), the association of European infrastructure managers and allocation bodies, follow a common structure for their statements, revised every year. An applicant planning a cross-border service finds the same information in the same chapter in each country.
Under the capacity regulation
Regulation (EU) 2026/1184, adopted on 20 May 2026, moves capacity management towards multiannual planning and closer cross-border coordination. The network statement remains the document in which infrastructure managers publish their access conditions.
When preparing the statement, infrastructure managers must take the utmost account of a European framework for capacity management drawn up by the European Network of Infrastructure Managers (ENIM). Any deviation from the framework’s common tools and procedures must be explained in the statement.
For applicants, differences between national procedures become visible in the statements themselves. They can be raised with the regulatory body.