URF performs the following tasks:
a) Hears appeals on matters concerning the network statement
b) Regulates access to infrastructure ensuring it is free and non-discriminatory, and also the inherent process of acceptance of operators.
c) Establishes rules for prioritizing and allocating the capacity of the railway infrastructure, arbitrating and resolving in case of conflict.
d) Establishes the rules and criteria for the taxation of the use of railway infrastructure, and ratifies the tables of rates proposed by the respective management entities.
e) Monitors compliance by firms and entities subject to its powers of regulation, legal provisions and regulations, and also monitors the provisions relevant to the terms of regulation in their respective statutes, licences, concession contracts or other legal instruments that regulate their respective activity.
f) Defines or approves, in conformity with its regulatory mission, performance standards for the use of railway infrastructure and for the operators, especially regarding matters of reliability, timetable compliance and use of monitoring systems. These standards must be observed by all firms and entities that are subject to the URF`s regulation, being subject to penalties in case of sub standard performance.
g) Considers and decides on complaints from operators concerning the management of the infrastructure.
Cooperates with Autoridade da Concorrência (Office of Fair Trade) by identifying behaviours by operators and other entities that do not conform to established rules of fair trading. Organizes and instructs the respective cases against the offenders and verifies compliance with the decisions taken.