On 30 January 2015, the UIC project team attended the kick-off meeting for the EU funded study “User-friendly access to information about last-mile infrastructure for rail freight”.

The structure of the European rail freight market has profoundly changed over the past decades with the separation of network management and train operation in most countries, new market entrants appearing etc. Rail freight is also increasingly competing with road.

This situation is particularly challenging for last-mile operation. Easy and quick access to information about last-mile infrastructure for rail freight would improve service planning, in particular across borders. DG Move has therefore taken the step to help the market with a customer-oriented web-based portal offering all the necessary information on last-mile infrastructure, be it terminals, industrial sidings, stations, shunting yards etc.

In the context of this study UIC will run a series of stakeholder workshops in order to assess market needs. These workshops will help identify user needs, supplier needs, as well as potential constraints.