The impossibility of satisfying two or more mutually exclusive applications for train paths.
A process to resolve a conflict between applications. The train path allocation body and the infrastructure managers in question look jointly with the railway undertakings involved for reasonable alternative train paths.
Contract between a railway undertaking and an infrastructure manager. The infrastructure manager guarantees the railway undertaking capacity over and above one timetable year; the railway undertaking undertakes to apply for this capacity. The capacity does not consist of precisely defined train paths but rather the guarantee to receive offers of train paths within a time band to be agreed.
A train path (comparable to a slot for airlines) is the right to run a train defined in terms of its weight, length and loading gauge over a particular section of the rail network at a given time.
“Initial application” denotes the application for train paths submitted on the second Monday in April of the relevant year as part of the annual timetable process.
“Definitive application” means the confirmation of the offer of train paths in the provisional allocation as part of the annual timetable process together with applications for ad-hoc train paths made during the year.
Ancillary services are services offered by infrastructure managers over and above the use of a train path which a railway undertaking may request. Examples are stabling of trains, shunting in marshalling yards, etc.