Unused facilities

1. Service facilities listed in point 2 of Annex II to Directive 2012/34/EU which have not been in use for at least two consecutive years shall be subject to expression of interest and lease or rent. Information on unused facilities shall be published in accordance with Article 5.

2. The two-year period referred to in paragraph 1 shall start on the day following the day on which a rail-related service was supplied in the service facility concerned for the last time.

3. An applicant interested in using a service facility listed in point 2 of Annex II to Directive 2012/34/EU which has not been in use for at least two consecutive years shall express its interest in writing to the operator of the facility concerned and inform the regulatory body thereof. Such an expression of interest shall demonstrate the needs of the railway undertaking concerned. The operator of the service facility may decide to resume operations in a way that satisfies the railway undertaking's demonstrated needs.

4. Where the owner of a service facility does not operate that facility, the operator of that facility shall inform the owner about the expression of interest within 10 days following its receipt. The owner of the facility shall publicise that the facility is available for lease or rent, as a whole or in part, unless the operator of the service facility has decided to resume operations after the expression of interest.

5. Before such publication is made, the owner of the service facility may allow the operator of the service facility to submit its observations on that publication within four weeks. The operator may object to that publication by submitting documents proving that there is an ongoing process of reconversion, launched before the expression of interest.

6. The regulatory body shall be informed by the owner about the reconversion process and may request documents from the operator in order to assess its plausibility.

If the assessment is unsatisfactory the regulatory body shall require the publication of the operation of the facility as being for lease or rent, as a whole or in part.

7. Without prejudice to applicable public procurement rules, the owner of a service facility listed in point 2 of Annex II to Directive 2012/34/EU shall publicise on its web portal a notice on the lease or rent of the service facility concerned and shall inform thereof the regulatory body and the infrastructure manager to whose network the facility is connected. The publication shall include all information necessary to enable interested undertakings to submit an offer to take over operation of the facility, as a whole or in part. This information shall include in particular:

the details of the selection procedure which shall be transparent and non-discriminatory and take into account the objective of ensuring an optimum effective use of the capacity of the facility;

the selection criteria;

main characteristics of the technical equipment of the service facility;

the address and time limit for submission of tenders which shall be at least 30 days from publication of the notice.

8. The infrastructure manager concerned shall also publish on its web portal the information referred to in paragraph 7.

9. Without prejudice to applicable public procurement rules, the owner of a service facility listed in point 2 of Annex II to Directive 2012/34/EU shall select the successful candidate and make a reasonable offer without undue delay.

10. Member States may apply existing procedures for the regulatory control of decommissioning of service facilities. In this case the regulatory body may grant exemptions from the application of the provisions of this Article.

COMMISSION IMPLEMENTING REGULATION (EU) 2017/2177 of 22 November 2017 on access to service facilities and rail-related services