RAG
Growing together
The Railway undertakings Advisory Group (RAG) of RFC North Sea – Rhine – Mediterranean is open to all freight RUs as well as freight forwarders that operate on the lines of the Corridor.
Railway undertakings Advisory Group
Working together for rail freight
What is the aim of the RAG?
The participating railway undertakings operating freight trains on the Rail Freight Corridor will develop a common position on corridor-related topics and advise Infrastructure Managers, national ministries, and the EU Coordinator.
When needed, they will issue opinions on proposals by the management board that affect railway undertakings, submit input during consultations on draft implementation plans, and provide sufficiently justified opinions on infrastructure development and investment needs. They will contribute to the Corridor Forum for Rail Freight Governance, take part in regular consultations on the European Coordinator’s work plan, cooperate closely with the European Coordinator
to identify and prioritize investment needs for rail freight along the European Transport Corridors, and work together to monitor administrative, operational, and interoperability aspects of freight traffic, including the performance of rail freight services. Topics addressed by the Rail Freight Advisory Group (RAG) include temporary capacity restrictions and affected traffic, operational and technical harmonisation, interoperability, and the implementation of TEN-T parameters.
How do we work
Organisation of the RAG
The Rail Freight Advisory Group (RAG) organizes its meetings according to clear principles. All member railway undertakings (RUs) are invited to RU-internal RAG meetings at least once a year.
Additional meetings—such as QCO formats, regional working groups, or other sessions—are convened as needed and organized by the relevant parties from the Infrastructure Manager (IM)/corridor and/or the RUs involved. The RAG Speaker will encourage the Rail Freight Corridor to provide documentation in a timely manner and in a format that is technically readable by all RUs,
and to make meeting dates public to ensure transparency. The RAG Speaker will also request that the organizers publish the minutes of these meetings within four weeks. Those minutes can be found in the Resources section of this website. Currently, the RAG of RFC NSRM meets up to 4 times a year, with 2 meetings held in person.
The RAG speakers
Meet our RAG
The RAG Speaker represents the collective opinion of all member railway undertakings, and any minority views are explicitly noted. If the Speaker is presenting the position of their own undertaking, they will make this clear. In general, each corridor has one RAG Speaker and one deputy; alternatively, co-speakers may be appointed to share responsibilities or better reflect geographical differences along the corridor. On RFC NSRM, the RAG decided to elect two Speakers to better share the workload.
Lieven Goethals
Mail: lieven.goethals@lineas.net
Paul Hodgson
Mail: paul.hodgson@cflcargo.lu
Meeting calendar 2026
Join us here
All meetings of the Railway undertakings Advisory Group are either held online or with the possibility to attend online (hybrid). At the moment, two of those meetings are planned as hybrid meetings per year.
March 4 – Rotterdam (hybrid)
June 2 – online
If you want to join, please contact Ms Shadi Daeerezaee:
shadi.daeerezaee@prorail.nl
October 14 – Rome (hybrid)
December 3 – online
Downloads
Meeting notes and the MoU
Please find down below all meeting minutes as well as the Memorandum of Understanding of our RAG.
Memorandum of Understanding
Meeting Minutes 2025
