Who regulates european freight railroads?

Question

What agency or entity regulates the freight railroads of Europe? I mean decides coupler designs, railcar weights, shipping costs, etc.

Answer 1

The European Union. For full details see the UK Office of Rail Regulation site at:- http://www.rail-reg.gov.uk/server/show/n...

which gives details of all directives issued.

(Why don't people check before answering 'I don't know'. I wasn't sure of the precise position until I bothered to make two clicks and take 30 secs to find out)

Answer 2

As far as I know all different countries have their own systems and rules, and also ruling agencies, although there has been contact between the different countries for a long time.

Some countries have systems that are not compatible with the systems of the neighboring countries, in those cases at the borders the freight has to be moved from one train to the next.

With the European Union I suppose that there are official rulings, but I am not sure.

Added:

rdenig_male,

I agree that searching for an answer is mostly better than giving an half answer as I did above, but sometimes you do not know where to find that info but you want to give an answer to help the asker.

And while the European Union has a big say in a big part of Europe, there is still a lot of Europe that is not part of the EU.