The second railway package of 2004 has accelerated the liberalization of rail freight services by fully opening the rail freight market to competition as from 1 January 2007. In addition, the package created the European Railway Agency situated in Valenciennes (France), introduced common procedures for accident investigation and established Safety Authorities in each Member State.
European Railway Agency
The European Railway Agency is a driving force in the policy for modernising the European railway sector. Mutually incompatible technical and security regulations in the twenty-five Member States (Malta and Cyprus do not have railways) are a major handicap to the development of the railway sector. The Agency will work to gradually align technical regulations and establish common safety objectives which all Europe's railways must achieve.