Last December, UIC in partnership with Hacon were granted a contract to carry out 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. This situation is particularly challenging for last-mile operation. 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 ran two stakeholder workshops designed to assess market needs as well as information accessibility. The workshops helped identify user needs, supplier needs, as well as the potential constraints that may be faced in the development of a pilot information portal.

In order to complement the findings gathered through the workshops, an online survey of user requirements has just been launched. Answering the questionnaire which can be accessed from the following link (http://www.uic.org/spip.php?article3381) will only take a few minutes!