Why become an FTE member?
FTE has a very long and rich history, when it served as a conference forum for integrated railway companies to coordinate their cross-border trains. Nevertheless, the new important function of FTE has emerged since the vertical separation of rail infrastructure management and train operation, but also the decision to create a single European railway market.
The liberalised market has brought many opportunities, but also many challenges when it comes to capacity management. Problems that were in the past easily solved within a single integrated company are now subject to many different interests and actors. The capacity conflicts between track maintenance, passenger traffic and freight traffic are growing, and transparent processes are needed to solve them. Furthermore, the number of Railway Undertakings (RUs) in Europe increases as well, they are having similar problems, and they are getting under high market pressure from their customers.
There was a high need for a competent capacity management platform where the issues of all RUs can be discussed, aligned between companies of different sizes and businesses, and transferred to a single stronger voice towards IMs and other stakeholders. Besides others, FTE means:
- Discussion platform for both passenger and freight to evaluate and consolidate the positions towards projects, IM-processes and to key stakeholders,
- Coordinated promotion of European-wide standardisation of processes and tools to increase the competitiveness of railways,
- Opportunity to codevelop European capacity related processes (incl. TTR) and IT systems (such as PCS and ECMT),
- Coordination platform for international trains and trains operated in partnerships,
- Networking platform.
How to become an FTE member?
At present, Forum Train Europe has more than 80 members operating in 30 European countries handling passenger and freight traffic. The members are incumbents, new entrants and companies that provide important services for passengers (sleeping-car and rail catering companies).
FTE is fully open to new members at any time, and the possession of a valid rail operation licence is not a condition. The time from the initial application to the full access to FTE services takes maximum of 2 months. Below you can download the necessary documents incl. a short FTE presentation. Note also the oportunity for new companies under startup membership offer.
In case you are considering your membership and you would like to discuss it more in detail, please contact us via info@forumtraineurope.eu, we can arrange a meeting together.
Downloads
FTE Introduction (PDF)
FTE Membership Application (PDF)
FTE Startup Membership & Application (PDF)
FTE Statutes EN (PDF)