On 27th March 2026, the European Rail Infrastructure Managers (EIM), represented by its President Miguel Cruz, CEO of Infraestruturas de Portugal (IP) and Monika Heiming, Executive Director of EIM, exchanged with the Chair and Vice-Chair of the Independent Regulator’s Group – Rail (IRG-Rail): Martin Jones, of the Office of Rail and Road (UK) and Gaëlle Nguyen, of  Autorité de Régulation des Transports (FR).

The high-level exchange focused on major EU policy files with direct impact on the rail sector and in particular rail infrastructure managers, notably rail capacity management, certification of train drivers and related digitalisation aspects, military mobility and the European high-speed rail network. Participants exchanged in particular on regulatory trends and challenges, implementation perspectives and the need for coherent approaches to support capacity optimisation, cross-border operations and long-term infrastructure investment.

IRG-Rail also presented the main orientations of its 2026 work programme and confirmed that its annual Market Monitoring Report will be published in Spring 2026.

Both IRG-Rail and EIM emphasised the value of continued dialogue to ensure that evolving EU legislation is both effective and operationally workable.