General
The second railway package was adopted in 2004. The purpose of the
package is to speed up the liberalisation of international freight
traffic. The result of the package is that rail freight traffic in
the EU was opened for competition from 1 January 2006, instead of
during 2008, which was the target date of the first railway
package.
A further aim of the second railway package – consisting
of four directives – was to go further with the opening of
the market that began with the first railway package. The duties of
official bodies should be performed by official bodies; railway
undertakings should focus on developing their businesses and
providing an ever better service to their customers.
The second railway package gives the green light for foreign
operators to operate domestic freight traffic and for
“cabotage”, that is, loading and unloading in a country
where the railway undertaking does not have its registered office,
in international traffic. The rules are to apply over the entire
rail network. In order that the free market does not affect safety
within the systems, the package contains a directive on railway
safety (2004/49/EG). Developments in the sector have contributed to
the member states seeing the need to move forward issues of
technical harmonisation at a faster rate and with greater
professionalism. The directives on interoperability were updated
and a new European rail authority (the European Railway Agency,
ERA) for interoperability and safety, was established.
In the light of Sweden’s obligation to incorporate the
directives of the second railway package into Swedish legislation,
on 1 March 2007 the Swedish government tabled a bill (2006/07:45)
proposing changes to the Railway Act (2004:519), the Accident
Investigation Act (1990:712) and Undergrounds and Tramways Safety
Act (1990:1157). It is proposed that the changes to the Act should
come into force on 1 June 2007.
EC legal acts in the second railway package