Rail industry: Not too few ETCS equipment suppliers
EU: Europe’s rail supply associations disagree with the European Commission’s explanation for why on-board signalling costs have doubled. The EU Commission believes there are too few suppliers and this is negatively affecting the market.
The European Railway Industry Association (UNIFE) and its signalling arm UNISIG argue that the real drivers are regulatory fragmentation and complexity in specifications – and point to at least seven active on-board ETCS equipment suppliers as evidence that the market is not dominated by a small number of players.
The report by UNIFE and UNISIG was presented on 24 April at the European Union Agency for Railways (ERA) ERTMS conference in Valenciennes.
Two diagnoses, one cost curve
The cost of fitting a train with European Train Control System (ETCS) on-board equipment has risen from around EUR 450,000 to EUR 900,000 per vehicle between 2018 and 2022. Both sides agree on that number. They disagree on what caused it.
The Commission’s position draws on a report by its ERTMS Deployment Management Team (DMT), which identified limited competition as one of several cost drivers behind the sharp rise in on-board costs.
The distinction matters
UNIFE and UNISIG reject that framing. Their paper argues that the cost curve reflects national specification variants, interface complexity and successive baseline changes — factors that force suppliers to rebuild their systems for each deployment rather than scale a standard product. Customer requirements that go beyond the baseline EU technical specification, they add, have the biggest single impact on cost.
The distinction matters because it determines the remedy. If concentration is the problem, the policy response points toward procurement rules, market access and potentially new entrants. If fragmentation is the problem, the response points toward harmonisation, specification discipline and stable baselines.
Rollout pressure sharpens the stakes
Around 10% of the TEN-T network is equipped with ETCS trackside infrastructure, according to the Commission’s third ERTMS work plan. The gap between that figure and the EU’s full deployment ambition by 2030 is large — and closing it requires either lower unit costs, higher public funding, or both.
If the Commission’s diagnosis holds, the implication is that the supply market needs structural intervention before costs will fall. If UNIFE and UNISIG’s diagnosis holds, the implication is that the regulatory framework itself is generating the cost — and that harmonisation, not market restructuring, is the remedy.
The paper sets out the industry’s position in that dispute. It will inform how the EU finances and regulates the next ERTMS deployment phase.