One fleet, one set of rules: Swiss court backs Europe’s approach to rail freight safety

The Swiss Federal Administrative Court has published its final ruling on 21 August 2026 regarding the unilateral regulations implemented by the Federal Office of Transport (FOT) in 2025. The Court “upholds the appeals of the affected companies and revokes the measures in question, referring the case back to the FOT for further consideration”.

For UIP, the judgments provide important legal clarity and reinforce the principle that one European freight wagon fleet must operate under one common set of rules.

Following the Gotthard Base Tunnel accident, wagon keepers have worked alongside national safety authorities and other railway actors within the Joint Network Secretariat (JNS), coordinated by the European Union Agency for Railways (ERA), to develop harmonised European risk control measures addressing broken wheels. The latest JNS recommendations published on 7 August 2026 establish this common European approach which wagon keepers are turning into practice.

To ensure that the agreed timelines are both ambitious and achievable, they must be grounded in the ongoing JNS feasibility work. The sector is collecting Europe-wide data on fleet and workshop capacity to that end, which will inform the further works and decisions of the JNS.

Please read the UIP press statement for further details to the right of this page.