The bible of the EU rail sector – Directive 2012/34: The First Railway Package, or FRP, (2001) reorganised the European railway sector from integrated state owned monopolies into clearly separated railway undertakings and rail infrastructure managers. The FRP has been recast a decade after its acceptance and integrated into a single piece of legislation, the Directive 2012/34 on establishing a single European railway area.
European Union Agency for Railways (ERA):
UIRR is member of the ERA Management Board representing the freight customers and is included in the ERA’s network of the representative bodies.
The European Union Agency for Railways (https://www.era.europa.eu/) is an agency of the European Union established by the Regulation (EU) 2016/796. Its purpose is to support the development of a Single European Railway Area (SERA), without frontiers, guaranteeing a high level of safety and interoperability.
The Agency, based in France (Valenciennes), is committed to achieve this by:
- Providing certifications, authorisations and approvals services to the railway sector;
- Developing a common approach to safety on the European Rail Traffic Management System (ERTMS);
- Monitoring National Safety Authorities (NSAs) and Notified Bodies;
- Assistance (e.g. dissemination, training) to member states, NSAs and stakeholders;
- Providing technical support to the European Commission, and
- Promoting simplified access for customers for the European rail sector.
ERA is responsible for the development and maintenance of technical specifications of interoperability (TSIs) necessary for the SERA. The TSIs define the technical and operational standards which must be met by each subsystem or part of subsystem in order to meet the essential requirements and ensure the interoperability of the railway system of the European Union. Directive (EU) 2016/797 defines the subsystems, either structural or functional, forming part of the railway system of the European Union. In total, 11 different TSIs have been developed for the sector covering topics such as infrastructure, freight wagons, noise and telematics. The overall coordination of this task is managed by ERA Working Parties and by the recent creation of multiple ‘Topical Working Groups’ (TWG) to address the individual actions in detail and formulate TSI amendments. A TWG on Combined Transport has been set up in which UIRR has been actively contributing to.
To facilitate the digital transformation of the railway system and to ease the access to safety -relevant information, ERA is responsible for the design, development and maintenance of registers. In total, 12 registers (infrastructure, certificates, wagon…) are accessible for any interested stakeholders.
In case of important events on the EU railway ecosystem, any railway stakeholder can submit a request for a JNS procedure to the JNS-panel using the notification form indicating which kind of procedure is intended. The JNS rules distinguish between an urgent and a normal procedure. The panel, consisting of ERA, together with NSA representatives and GRB representatives (1) decides about the admissibility of the submission; (2) decides which procedure is chosen and suggests key issues and questions to be considered by the task force. When a procedure has been started, ERA takes over the role of the JNS secretariat.
Network Statement: Each infrastructure manager is obliged to compile a document that details the technical parameters of the lines under its management, the possibilities and conditions for accessing these lines and the specific rules of access. Network Statements contain numerous technical rules for users of the railway infrastructure.
Rail Net Europe: European rail infrastructure managers have created Rail Net Europe, or RNE, with a mission to facilitate cross-border railway traffic throughout Europe: https://rne.eu/
Forum Train Europe: is the European platform for Railway Undertakings for Capacity Management and Timetabling https://www.forumtraineurope.eu/
National Regulatory Bodies: https://irg-rail.eu/
National Safety Authorities: https://www.era.europa.eu/agency-you/stakeholders/networks/national-safety-authorities_en
Akos Ersek
Chief Policy Advisor
