CEF support to European Railway Traffic Management System (ERTMS)- May 2020
TEN-T support to European Railway Traffic Management System (ERTMS) - April 2018
CEF Transport projects by country
The European Railway Traffic Management System (ERTMS) is a single interoperable system to replace the more than 20 different national train control and command systems currently in operation throughout Europe. Implementation of the system will deliver enhanced cross-border interoperability, creating a seamless, Europe-wide railway system.
ERTMS is a major industrial project co-developed by eight UNIFE members (Alstom Transport, Ansaldo STS, AZD Praha, Bombardier Transportation, CAF, Mermec, Siemens Mobility and Thales) in close cooperation with the European Union, railway stakeholders and members of the Global System for Mobile Communications – Railways (GSM-R) industry.
ERTMS is made up of two main components:
European Train Control System (ETCS): A single automatic train protection system (ATP) to replace the more than 20 train control systems currently in use throughout Europe
Global System for Mobile Communications – Railways (GSM-R): A radio system for providing voice and data communication between the track and the train, based on standard GSM using frequencies specifically reserved for rail application
Currently all systems in operation across Europe are stand-alone and non-interoperable, requiring extensive integration and engineering efforts to achieve compatibility, raising total delivery costs for cross-border traffic. This combination of factors restricts competition and hampers the competitiveness of the European rail sector vis-à-vis road transport by creating technical barriers to international journeys.
The implementation of ERTMS is therefore key to improving cross-border connections, increasing international freight and passenger capacity, delivering higher reliability rates, opening up the supply market, and most critically—improving standards of safety.
By improving rail sector competitiveness, ERTMS can also help to level the playing field between rail and road and ultimately provide significant environmental gains, with passengers and freight moving from road to rail.
In January 2015, the European Commission launched an implementation support program for ERTMS, to be steered by a Deployment Management Team (DMT). The programme was introduced to ensure the efficient, synchronised and timely implementation of ERTMS along all Core Network Corridors and ensure consistency with other parts of the Core and Comprehensive Networks.
The DMT is responsible for providing support to stakeholders involved in ERTMS projects, in the form of technical knowledge, economic and financial guidance and technical information sessions. To further broaden its reach, the DMT also offers a regular newsletter through which it disseminates current news and updates of relevance to stakeholders engaged in the deployment of ERTMS.
With ERTMS now in a deployment phase across Europe, these close links between the DMT and the different ERTMS projects around Europe allow the DMT to provide a valuable feedback loop, with important incoming knowledge and experience disseminated back to stakeholders, providing an important framework for lessons to be learned and improvements made.
European Coordinator for ERTMS, Matthias Ruete
Matthias Ruete was appointed European Coordinator for ERTMS from January 2019, following on from Karel Vinck.
As European ERTMS Coordinator for the European Commission, he now leads the ERTMS deployment. In this role, he supervises the implementation of ERTMS on the nine Core Network Corridors. Matthias Ruete has dealt with ERTMS and Transeuropean Networks for over ten years, first as Commission Transport Director and then as Director General.
As Director-General, he was the most senior civil servant dealing with Transport for over eight years (2006 to 2014). In parallel, he was responsible for Energy and Galileo for four years (2006 to 2010). Most recently, he was Director-General for Migration and Home Affairs (2014 to 2018).
He joined the European Commission services in 1986. Tasks were as Director for Competitiveness (2005), Director coordinating the enlargement negotiations (2000 to 2004) and as Director in International Transport, Galileo and trans-European Infrastructure Networks (1998 to 2000). He also worked in Internal Market, Industry, Energy, Media, Education as well as in Innovation and Research.
Matthias Ruete was born on 29 August 1950 in Marburg, Germany and was educated in schools in Japan, USA, India and Germany. He studied law and political sciences in Marburg, Cologne, Berlin, Giessen and London. He holds a Master in Law (London) and a doctorate in intellectual property law (Giessen) and both German state exams in law. Before joining the European Commission, Matthias Ruete lectured in Constitutional, European and International Public Law at Warwick University, Justus Liebig University Giessen and Philipps University Marburg.
Academic qualifications
1984: Dr. juris., University of Giessen, Law faculty
1978 - 1979: LLM (Lon), University of London
1975 - 1978: Assessor iuris (Second State Exam in Law), Government of Hessen
1968 - 1975: Law degree and bar studies, university of Marburg, Köln, Berlin, Giessen
Professional experience in the European Institutions
2018: Advisor 'hors classe' , Secretariat General, European Commission
2014 – 2018: Director general DG "Migration and Home Affairs" (HOME)
2010 - 2014: Director general DG "Mobility and Transport" (MOVE)
Under his responsibility: Transport White Paper, Recast of the first railway package, proposal for the fourth railway package, merger of high speed and conventional rail specifications; interoperability of rail systems, TEN-T guidelines, Connecting Europe facility etc
2006 - 2009: Director general DG "Energy and Transports" (TREN)
Under his responsibility: first ERTMS deployment plan, New interoperability directive:, regulation amending the framework for the European Rail Agency, Third railway package, Public service regulation, Guidelines for state aid railways etc
2005: Director DG "Enterprise and Industry", "Coordination for Competitiveness" (ENTR)
July 2003 - December 2004: Director DG "Enlargement", "Bulgaria, Romania, Turkey and coordination" (ELARG)
May 2000 - July 2003: Director DG "Enlargement", "Coordination of negotiations, pre-accession and financial instruments" (ELARG)
1998 - 2000: Director DG "Transport", "International relations, trans-European transport and infrastructure networks"
Under his responsibility as director: Development of ERTMS, Interoperability directive for high speed rail, TEN-T and development of the TINA network
1995 - 1998: Member, afterwards Deputy Head of Cabinet - Cabinet of the Commissioner for Research, Innovation and Education
1993 - 1995: Head of Unit DG "Industry", "Industrial co-operation"
1987 - 1993: Administrator, afterwards Assistant to Director general Ricardo Perissich DG "Internal Market and industrial Affairs"
1986 - 1987: Administrator DG "Social Affairs"
1982 - 1985: Visiting Lecturer in Law, University of Warwick, Coventry, UK
1979 - 1982: Scientific Collaborator/Assistant/lecturer at the two Institutes for Public Law (Constitutional; European; International Public Law)
Mr Matthias Ruete, European Coordinator
To contact Mr Ruete, please use the advisor email below
Mr Marcin Wójcik, Adviser of the European Coordinator
Marcin [dot] Wojcik
ec [dot] europa [dot] eu (Marcin[dot]Wojcik[at]ec[dot]europa[dot]eu)
+32 (0) 2 29 87596
Postal address:
European Rail Traffic Management System (ERTMS) / TEN-T
Directorate-General for Mobility and Transport
Rue de Mot 28
1049 Brussels
Belgium