What is the equivalent to AAR in EU?

Or maybe the question should be: IS there an equivalent to the Association of American Railroads (AAR) in Europe? In particular, I'm quite interested to find out which governing authority(ies) control freight wagon-related mechanical standards and interchange rules. Any information would be greatly appreciated!

Each counrtry has its own rules but for equipment the UIC is probably closesed

http://www.uic.asso.fr/

Its a wonder the EU hasnt come up with a whole heap of extra standards to comply with .

David Benton wrote:Its a wonder the EU hasnt come up with a whole heap of extra standards to comply with .

There are. The European Commission is very interested in this topic. There is an "interoperability" Directive (law) requiring all new railway investment to allow trains to pass from one country to another, and also requiring free access to companies from different countries. The French, as always, are resisting this as much as they can, but last year Eurotunnel's freight subsidiary Europorte II gained access to France for its trains. Tne British freight company EWSR (originally a subnsidiary of Wisconsin, now of DB) also plans through trains.

When I have time I will do some research and post some links.

The UIC sets some standards but the European Commission backs them up with law.

Excellent - thanks for all the quick responses. Any further info anyone digs up is, again, really appreciated. Half the battle of dealing with the AAR and FRA in the US is understanding the organization and knowing the folks... they are typically very cooperative.

Cowford wrote:Excellent - thanks for all the quick responses. Any further info anyone digs up is, again, really appreciated. Half the battle of dealing with the AAR and FRA in the US is understanding the organization and knowing the folks... they are typically very cooperative.

Here is the Commission page about interoperability - the harmonisation of rail standards throughout the EU.
http://ec.europa.eu/transport/rail/index_en.html
Linked to it is all the information you might want.

Of course rail is a much bigger industry in Europe than in the US and is therefore worth a great deal of attention from the Commission.

Included in harmonisation are:

loading gauges (Britain's is smaller)
power supplies (many different voltages)
signal systems (ERTMS)
customs checks at frontiers
multi-voltage locos and EMUS
couplings
etc.