E — Minimum standards for intermediate stations Europese Overeenkomst inzake belangrijke lijnen voor het internationaal gecombineerd vervoer en daarmee samenhangende installaties (AGTC)
Minimum standards for intermediate stations
12. Stops of trains of combined transport en route, necessary for technical or operational reasons, for example at wagon group exchange or gauge interchange stations, shall at the same time be used for carrying out work which otherwise would require additional stops (i.e. frontier controls, changing of the locomotive). The infrastructure of such intermediate stations shall comply with the following requirements:
Sufficient train capacity per day on feeder lines to avoid delays of trains in combined transport.
The entries and exits to and from the feeder lines shall allow the trains to filter in and out without delay. Their capacity shall be large enough to avoid delays of arriving and/or departing trains of combined transport.
Sufficient track capacity for the various types of track, as required for the specific work to be carried out in a station, in particular for arrival/departure tracks, train formation tracks, sorting lines and turn-out tracks, loading tracks and gauge interchange tracks.
The above-mentioned tracks shall have loading gauges that correspond to those of the railway lines to be used (UIC B or UIC C).
The length of track shall be sufficient to accommodate complete trains of combined transport.
In the case of electric traction the tracks shall be accessible by electric tractive units (at frontier stations: to electric tractive units of the connecting railway concerned).
The capacity for trans-shipment, wagon group exchange, gauge interchange and frontier control shall guarantee that necessary stops can be made as short as possible.
a) Stations for the exchange of wagon groups
13. Combined transport shall, if possible, be carried out by direct trains between the forwarding and the receiving stations. If this is not economical due to the low volume of consignments, and if the transfer of consignments of combined transport is therefore unavoidable, it should be done at least by wagon groups. Stop-over times to carry out these tasks shall not exceed 30 minutes each. This could be achieved by an appropriate formation of trains (which should run over as long distances as possible, also across borders) together with an adequate infrastructure of the wagon group exchange stations.
b) Border-crossing points
14. Trains of combined transport shall run as far as possible all the way across borders to a station where the exchange of wagon groups is necessary in any case or to their final point of destination, without having to stop en route. There shall be, if possible, no stops at the border or, if unavoidable, only very short stops (of no more than 30 minutes). This shall be achieved:
by not carrying out work normally effected at the frontier or, if this is not possible, by shifting this work to inland places where the trains have to stop in any case for technical and/or administrative reasons;
by stopping only once, if at all, at joint border stations.
c) Gauge interchange stations
15. To be able to fulfil future requirements, time saving and cost-effective procedures shall have to be developed. When transferring loading units to wagons of the other gauge, the requirements developed above for terminal trans-shipment shall be applied analogously. Stops at such gauge interchange stations should take as little time as possible. The available gauge interchange or transfer capacity shall be sufficient to guarantee short stops.
d) Ferry links/ports
16. Transport services shall correspond with the ferry services offered. Stops at the ports for consignments in combined transport should be as short as possible (if possible not more than one hour). In addition to an appropriate infrastructure of the ferry port station and appropriate ferry boats (see paragraph 17 below) this shall be achieved by the following measures:
For necessary frontier control measures the requirements mentioned in paragraph 14 shall apply;
Timetables for ferries and railways should be co-ordinated and advance information to accelerate the loading of ships and/or train formation shall be provided.
17. Ferry boats used for combined transport shall comply with the following requirements:
Appropriate sizes and types of vessels as required by the relevant loading units/goods wagons.
Quick loading and unloading of ferry boats and storage of loading units/wagons in accordance with the requirements of the subsequent carriage by rail (separation of combined transport from passenger and/or road transport, where appropriate).
If loading units stay on wagons during the crossing ferry boats shall be easily accessible, and time-consuming marshalling operations should not be necessary. Loading gauge, axle mass, etc. should comply with the line parameter described in annex III.
If the transfer of loading units has to be effected without wagons, the possibly necessary transport by road between ferry terminal and railway terminal should be characterized by short distances and good road connections.
- Regeling
- Europese Overeenkomst inzake belangrijke lijnen voor het internationaal gecombineerd vervoer en daarmee samenhangende installaties (AGTC)
- Soort
- Verdrag
- Geldend vanaf
- 11-12-2025
- BWB-id
- BWBV0003285
- Versie
- 2025-12-11_0