Considerations on COM(2013)30 - Interoperability of the rail system within the EU (Recast) - Main contents
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This page contains a limited version of this dossier in the EU Monitor.
| dossier | COM(2013)30 - Interoperability of the rail system within the EU (Recast). |
|---|---|
| document | COM(2013)30  |
| date | May 11, 2016 |
| (2) | In order to enable citizens of the Union, economic operators and competent authorities to benefit to the full from the advantages deriving from the establishment of a single European railway area, it is appropriate, in particular, to improve the interlinkage and interoperability of the national rail networks as well as access to those networks and to implement any measures that may be necessary in the field of technical standardisation as provided for in Article 171 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union (TFEU). |
| (3) | The pursuit of interoperability within the Union rail system should lead to the definition of an optimal level of technical harmonisation and make it possible to facilitate, improve and develop international rail transport services within the Union and with third countries, and contribute to the progressive creation of the internal market in equipment and services for the construction, renewal, upgrading and operation of the Union rail system. |
| (4) | In order to contribute to the completion of the single European railway area, reduce the costs and duration of authorisation procedures and improve railway safety it is appropriate to streamline and harmonise authorisation procedures at Union level. |
| (5) | Metros, trams and other light rail systems are subject in many Member States to local technical requirements. Such local public transport systems are usually not subject to licensing within the Union. Trams and light rail systems are furthermore often subject to road legislation because of shared infrastructure. For those reasons, such local systems do not need to be interoperable and should therefore be excluded from the scope of this Directive. This does not prevent Member States from applying the provisions of this Directive to local rail systems on a voluntary basis if they deem this appropriate. |
| (6) | A tram-train is a public-transport concept which allows for a combined operation on both light-rail infrastructure and heavy-rail infrastructure. Member States should be permitted to exclude from the scope of the measures implementing this Directive those vehicles primarily used on light-rail infrastructure but equipped with some heavy-rail components necessary to enable transit to be effected on a confined and limited section of heavy-rail infrastructure for connectivity purposes only. When tram-trains use railway infrastructure, compliance with all essential requirements should be ensured, as well as compliance with the expected safety level on the relevant lines. For cross-border cases, competent authorities should cooperate. |
| (7) | The commercial operation of trains throughout the rail network requires, in particular, excellent compatibility between the characteristics of the infrastructure and those of the vehicles, as well as efficient interconnection of the information and communication systems of the different infrastructure managers and railway undertakings. Performance levels, safety, quality of service and cost depend upon such compatibility and interconnection, as does, in particular, the interoperability of the Union rail system. |
| (8) | The railway regulatory framework at Union and Member State level should set clear roles and responsibilities for ensuring compliance with the safety, health and consumer protection rules applying to the railway networks. This Directive should not lead to a reduced level of safety or increase costs in the Union rail system. To that end, the European Union Agency for Railways (‘the Agency’) established by Regulation (EU) 2016/796 of the European Parliament and of the Council (5) and the national safety authorities should take full responsibility for the authorisations they issue. |
| (9) | Major differences exist between national regulations, internal rules and technical specifications applicable to rail systems, subsystems and components, since they incorporate techniques that are specific to the national industries and lay down specific dimensions and devices as well as special characteristics. That situation may prevent trains from running without hindrance throughout the Union. |
| (10) | In order to enhance their competitiveness at world level, the Union railway industries require an open and competitive market. |
| (11) | It is therefore appropriate to define essential requirements relating to rail interoperability for the whole of the Union which should apply to its rail system. |
| (12) | The development of technical specifications for interoperability (‘TSIs’) has shown the need to clarify the relationship between the essential requirements and TSIs on the one hand, and the European standards and other documents of a normative nature on the other. In particular, a clear distinction should be drawn between the standards or parts of standards which should be made mandatory in order to achieve the objectives of this Directive, and the harmonised standards that have been developed in accordance with Regulation (EU) No 1025/2012 of the European Parliament and of the Council (6). Where strictly necessary, the TSIs may make an explicit reference to European standards or specifications, which become mandatory from the moment the TSI is applicable. |
| (13) | In order to genuinely increase the competitiveness of the Union railway sector without distorting competition between key actors of the Union rail system, the TSIs and the recommendations of the Agency related to these TSIs should be drafted by respecting the principles of openness, consensus and transparency as defined in Annex II to Regulation (EU) No 1025/2012. |
| (14) | The quality of rail services in the Union depends, inter alia, on excellent compatibility between the characteristics of the network (in the broadest sense, i.e. the fixed parts of all the subsystems concerned) and those of the vehicles (including the on-board components of all the subsystems concerned). Performance levels, safety, quality of service and cost depend upon that compatibility. |
| (15) | TSIs have a direct or potential impact on the staff involved in the operation and maintenance of subsystems. When preparing TSIs, therefore, the Agency should consult social partners, where appropriate. |
| (16) | A TSI should set out all the conditions with which an interoperability constituent is to conform, and the procedure to be followed in assessing conformity. In addition, it is necessary to specify that every constituent should undergo the procedure for assessing conformity and suitability for the use indicated in the TSIs and should have the corresponding certificate, comprising either the assessment of the conformity of an interoperability constituent, considered in isolation, to the technical specifications to be met, or the assessment of the suitability for use of an interoperability constituent, considered within its railway environment, in relation to the technical specifications. |
| (17) | In the development of new TSIs, the aim should always be to ensure compatibility with the existing subsystems. This will help to promote the competitiveness of rail transport and prevent unnecessary additional costs through the requirement of upgrading or renewal of existing subsystems to ensure backward compatibility. In those exceptional cases where it will not be possible to ensure compatibility, it should be possible for TSIs to establish the framework necessary to decide whether the existing subsystem needs a new decision or authorisation for placing in service or placing on the market, and the corresponding deadlines. |
| (18) | If certain technical aspects corresponding to the essential requirements cannot be explicitly covered in a TSI, those aspects which still need to be addressed should be identified in an annex to that TSI as open points. For those open points, as well as for specific cases, and with the aim of compliance with the existing systems, national rules that may be adopted in a Member State by any competent national, regional or local authority should apply. To avoid redundant verifications and unnecessary administrative burdens, national rules should be classified to establish the equivalence between national rules of different Member States covering the same topics. |
| (19) | The procedure to be followed in the case of essential requirements applicable to a subsystem which have not yet been covered in the corresponding TSI should be specified. In such a case, the bodies responsible for the conformity assessment and verification procedures should be the designated bodies referred to in this Directive. |
| (20) | This Directive should apply to the entire Union rail system and the scope of the TSIs should be extended to cover the vehicles and networks not included in the trans-European rail system. Therefore, Annex I to Directive 2008/57/EC should be simplified. |
| (21) | The functional and technical specifications to be met by subsystems and their interfaces may vary according to the use of the subsystems concerned, for example according to the categories of lines and vehicles, in particular for ensuring coherence between high-speed and conventional rail systems. |
| (22) | In order to ensure the progressive implementation of rail interoperability within the whole of the Union and to gradually reduce the diversity of legacy systems, the TSIs should specify the provisions to be applied in the event of renewal or upgrading of existing subsystems and may include proposals for the staged completion of the target system. However, in order to keep the railway sector competitive and to prevent undue costs, the entry into force of new or amended TSIs should not lead to an immediate adaptation of vehicles and infrastructure to the new specifications. |
| (23) | TSIs should indicate when the upgrade and renewal of infrastructure and vehicles requires a new authorisation. In all cases for the upgrade and renewal of infrastructure, the applicant should submit, through the one-stop shop referred to in Regulation (EU) 2016/796, a file to the national safety authority so that it can decide whether a new authorisation is needed on the basis of the criteria set out in this Directive. In the case of the upgrade and renewal of vehicles which have an authorisation to place on the market, the applicant should be able to decide whether it needs to seek a new authorisation from the national safety authority or the Agency on the basis of the criteria set out in this Directive. |
| (24) | In view of the gradual approach to eliminating obstacles to the interoperability of the Union rail system and of the time consequently required for the adoption of TSIs, steps should be taken to avoid a situation where Member States adopt new national rules or undertake projects that increase the diversity of the present system. |
| (25) | In order to eliminate the obstacles to interoperability, and as a consequence of extending the scope of the TSIs to the whole of the Union rail system, the volume of national rules should be progressively reduced. National rules strictly relating to existing systems should be differentiated from those needed to cover open points in TSIs. Rules of the latter type should be progressively removed as a result of closure of open points in the TSIs. |
| (26) | National rules should be drafted and published in such a way that any potential user of a national network can understand them. Such rules often refer to other documents such as national standards, European standards, international standards or other technical specifications which might be partly or fully protected by intellectual property rights. Therefore, the obligation of publication should not apply to documents referred to directly or indirectly in the national rule. |
| (27) | The adoption of a gradual approach satisfies the objective of interoperability of the Union rail system, which is characterised by old national infrastructure and vehicles requiring heavy investment for adaptation or renewal, and particular care should be taken to maintain the competitiveness of rail vis-à-vis other modes of transport. |
| (28) | In view of the extent and complexity of the Union rail system, it has proved necessary, for practical reasons, to break it down into the following subsystems: infrastructure, trackside control-command and signalling, on-board control-command and signalling, energy, rolling stock, operation and traffic management, maintenance and telematics applications for passenger and freight services. For each of those subsystems, the essential requirements need to be specified and the technical specifications determined, particularly in respect of constituents and interfaces, in order to meet those essential requirements. The same system is broken down into fixed and mobile elements comprising, on the one hand, the network, which is composed of the lines, stations, terminals, and all kinds of fixed equipment needed to ensure safe and continuous operation of the system and, on the other hand, all vehicles travelling on that network. Therefore, for the purposes of this Directive, a vehicle is composed of one subsystem (rolling stock) and where applicable other subsystems (mainly the on-board control-command and signalling subsystem). Although the system is divided into several elements, the Agency should retain an overview of the system, in order to promote interoperability and safety. |
| (29) | The United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, to which the Union is a party, establishes accessibility as one of its general principles and requires State Parties to take appropriate measures in order to ensure access for persons with disabilities on an equal basis with others, including by developing, promulgating and monitoring the implementation of minimum standards and guidelines for accessibility. Accessibility for persons with disabilities and persons with reduced mobility is therefore an essential requirement for the interoperability of the Union rail system. |
| (30) | No person is to be discriminated against, either directly or indirectly, on the basis of a disability. In order to ensure that all Union citizens can enjoy the benefits resulting from the establishment of single European railway area, Member States should promote a railway system accessible to all. |
| (31) | Implementation of the provisions on the interoperability of the Union rail system should not give rise to unjustified costs nor undermine the preservation of the interoperability of existing rail networks. |
| (32) | TSIs also have an impact on the conditions of use of rail transport by users, and it is therefore necessary to consult those users on aspects concerning them, including organisations of persons with disabilities, where appropriate. |
| (33) | Each Member State concerned should be allowed not to apply certain TSIs in a limited number of duly substantiated situations. Those situations and the procedures to be followed in cases of non-application of a given TSI should be clearly defined. |
| (34) | The drawing-up of TSIs and their application to the Union rail system should not impede technological innovation, which should be directed towards improving economic performance. |
| (35) | In order to comply with the appropriate provisions on procurement procedures in the rail sector and, in particular, those laid down in Directive 2014/25/EU of the European Parliament and of the Council (7), contracting entities are to include technical specifications in the general documents or in the terms and conditions for each contract. To that end, it is necessary to draw up a set of rules to serve as references for those technical specifications. |
| (36) | An international system of standardisation capable of generating standards which are actually used by those involved in international trade and which meet the requirements of Union policy would be in the Union's interest. The European standardisation organisations should therefore continue their cooperation with international standardisation bodies. |
| (37) | The contracting entity ordering the design, construction, renewal or upgrading of a subsystem could be a railway undertaking, an infrastructure manager, an entity in charge of maintenance, a keeper, or a concession-holder responsible for carrying out a project. Contracting entities should define the requirements needed to complete European specifications or other standards. Those specifications should meet the essential requirements that have been harmonised at Union level and which the Union rail system is to satisfy. |
| (38) | The procedures governing the assessment of conformity or of suitability of use of constituents should be based on the use of the modules for the procedures for assessment of conformity, suitability for use and ‘EC’ verification to be used in the technical specifications for interoperability adopted under this Directive. As far as possible, and in order to promote industrial development, it is appropriate to draw up the procedures involving a system of quality assurance. |
| (39) | Conformity of constituents is linked mainly to their area of use in order to guarantee the interoperability of the system and not only their free movement in the Union market. The suitability for use of the most critical constituents as regards safety, availability or system economy should be assessed. It is therefore not necessary for a manufacturer to affix the ‘CE’ marking to constituents that are subject to this Directive. On the basis of the assessment of conformity and/or suitability for use, the manufacturer's declaration of conformity should be sufficient. |
| (40) | Manufacturers are nonetheless obliged to affix the ‘CE’ marking to certain components in order to certify their compliance with other Union law relating to them. |
| (41) | When a TSI enters into force, a number of interoperability constituents are already on the market. A transitional period should be provided for, so that those constituents can be integrated into a subsystem, even if they do not strictly conform to that TSI. |
| (42) | The subsystems constituting the Union rail system should be subject to a verification procedure. That verification should enable the entities responsible for their placing in service or placing on the market to be certain that, at the design, construction and placing into service stages, the result is in line with the regulations and technical and operational provisions in force. It should also result in manufacturers being able to count upon equality of treatment in all Member States. |
| (43) | After a subsystem is placed in service or on the market, care should be taken to ensure that it is operated and maintained in accordance with the essential requirements relating to it. In accordance with Directive (EU) 2016/798 of the European Parliament and of the Council (8), responsibility for meeting those requirements lies, for their respective subsystems, with the infrastructure manager, the railway undertaking or the entity in charge of maintenance, each for their own part. |
| (44) | When during operation it appears that a vehicle or a vehicle type does not meet one of the applicable essential requirements, the necessary corrective measures should be taken by the railway undertakings concerned in order to bring the vehicle(s) into conformity. In addition, if that non-conformity leads to a serious safety risk, it should be possible for the national safety authorities responsible for the supervision of the circulation of the vehicle to take the necessary temporary safety measures, including immediately restricting or suspending the relevant operation. If the corrective measures are insufficient and the serious safety risk generated by the non-conformity remains, national safety authorities or the Agency should be allowed to revoke or amend the authorisation. A serious safety risk in this context should be understood as being serious non-compliance with legal obligations or safety requirements, that may in itself or in a series of consequential events cause an accident or a serious accident. The process of revocation should be supported by an appropriate exchange of information between the Agency and the national safety authorities, including the use of registers. |
| (45) | The respective roles and responsibilities of all actors involved should be clarified in relation to the procedures for the placing on the market and use of vehicles, and for the placing in service of fixed installations. |
| (46) | The Agency and national safety authorities should cooperate and share competencies as appropriate for the issuing of authorisations with due regard to safety. To that end, cooperation agreements between the Agency and the national safety authorities should be established. |
| (47) | In order to ensure that European Rail Traffic Management System (ERTMS) equipment complies with the relevant specifications in force and to prevent additional requirements in relation to the ERTMS from undermining its interoperability, the Agency should act as the ERTMS system authority. To that end, the Agency should be in charge of assessing the technical solutions envisaged before any call for tenders relating to ERTMS trackside equipment is launched or published, in order to check whether those technical solutions are compliant with the relevant TSIs and are fully interoperable. Any overlap between this assessment by the Agency and the tasks of the notified bodies in the verification procedure should be avoided. The applicant should therefore inform the Agency if the verification procedure carried out by the notified body has already started or if any conformity certificate is already available. The applicant should be able to choose to request such an assessment from the Agency either for each individual ERTMS project or for a combination of projects, a line, a group of lines or a network. |
| (48) | The entry into force of this Directive should not delay the deployment of ERTMS projects for which the tendering or contracting process has been completed. |
| (49) | In order to facilitate the placing on the market of vehicles and to reduce administrative burdens, the notion of a vehicle authorisation for placing on the market that is valid throughout the Union should be introduced. While authorisations for placing on the market allow for commercial transactions of vehicles anywhere on the Union market, a vehicle may only be used within the area of use covered by its authorisation. In that context, any extension of the area of use should be subject to an updated authorisation for the vehicle. It is necessary that vehicles already authorised under earlier Directives also receive an authorisation for placing on the market if they are intended to be used on networks not covered by their authorisation. |
| (50) | When the area of use is limited to a network or networks within one Member State, the applicant should be able to choose whether it submits its application for vehicle authorisation, through the one-stop shop referred to in Regulation (EU) 2016/796, to the national safety authority of that Member State or to the Agency. The choice made by the applicant should be binding until the application is completed or terminated. |
| (51) | An appropriate procedure should be available to enable the applicant to appeal against a decision of, or a failure to act by, the Agency or the national safety authorities. In addition, clear procedural and dispute resolution provisions should be established to address situations where the Agency and the national safety authorities disagree on assessments made in relation to the issuing of vehicle authorisations. |
| (52) | Specific measures, including cooperation agreements, should take account of the specific geographical and historical situation of certain Member States, while ensuring the proper functioning of the internal market. |
| (53) | Where operation is limited to networks requiring specific expertise for geographical or historical reasons, and where such networks are isolated from the rest of the Union rail system, it should be possible for the applicant to fulfil the necessary formalities locally by interacting with the relevant national safety authorities. To that end, for the purpose of reducing administrative burdens and costs, it should be possible for the cooperation agreements that are to be concluded between the Agency and the relevant national safety authorities to provide for the appropriate allocation of tasks, without prejudice to the assumption by the Agency of final responsibility for issuing the authorisation. |
| (54) | The railway networks located in the Baltic States (Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania) have 1 520 mm track gauge, which is the same as in neighbouring third countries, but is different from that of the main rail network within the Union. These Baltic networks have inherited common technical and operational requirements, which provide de facto interoperability between them, and, in this respect, the vehicle authorisation issued in one of these Member States might be valid for the rest of these networks. To facilitate the efficient and proportionate allocation of resources for vehicle authorisation for placing on the market or a type authorisation of vehicles, and to reduce the financial and administrative burden for the applicant in such cases, the specific cooperation arrangements between the Agency and relevant national safety authorities should include, where necessary, the possibility of contracting tasks to these national safety authorities. |
| (55) | Member States with an important share of rail traffic with third countries having the same railway gauge which is different from that of the main rail network within the Union should be able to maintain different vehicle authorisation procedures for freight wagons and passenger coaches which are in shared use with those third countries. |
| (56) | For traceability and safety reasons, Member States' competent authorities should assign a European vehicle number to a vehicle when requested to do so by the vehicle's keeper. The vehicle information should then be entered in a vehicle register. The vehicle registers should be open to consultation by all Member States and by certain economic players within the Union. The vehicle registers should be consistent as regards the data format. They should therefore be covered by common operational and technical specifications. In order to reduce administrative burdens and undue costs, the Commission should adopt a specification for a European Vehicle Register that would incorporate national vehicle registers, with a view to creating a common tool, while, at the same time, allowing for the maintenance of additional functions relevant to Member States' specific needs. |
| (57) | To ensure traceability of vehicles and their history, the references of the vehicle authorisations for placing on the market should be recorded together with other vehicle data. |
| (58) | Procedures should be established for checking the compatibility between vehicles and the routes on which they are to be deployed after delivery of the vehicle authorisation for placing on the market and before the use by a railway undertaking of a vehicle in its area of use as specified in the vehicle authorisation for placing on the market. |
| (59) | The notified bodies responsible for examining the procedures for assessment of conformity and suitability for use of constituents, together with the procedure for the assessment of subsystems, should, in particular in the absence of any European specification, coordinate their decisions as closely as possible. |
| (60) | Transparent accreditation, as provided for in Regulation (EC) No 765/2008 of the European Parliament and of the Council (9), ensuring the necessary level of confidence in conformity certificates, should be considered by the national public authorities throughout the Union to be the preferred means of demonstrating the technical competence of notified bodies and, mutatis mutandis, of the bodies designated to check compliance with national rules. However, national authorities should be able to consider that they possess the appropriate means of carrying out this evaluation themselves. In such cases, in order to ensure the appropriate level of credibility of evaluations carried out by other national authorities, they should provide the Commission and the other Member States with the necessary documentary evidence demonstrating the compliance of the conformity assessment bodies evaluated with the relevant regulatory requirements. |
| (61) | This Directive should be limited to establishing the interoperability requirements for interoperability constituents and subsystems. In order to facilitate compliance with those requirements, it is necessary to provide for a presumption of conformity for interoperability constituents and subsystems which are in conformity with harmonised standards that are adopted in accordance with Regulation (EU) No 1025/2012 for the purpose of expressing detailed technical specifications relating to those requirements. |
| (62) | Measures adopted pursuant to this Directive should be complemented by initiatives aimed at providing financial support to innovative and interoperable technologies in the Union rail sector. |
| (63) | In order to supplement non-essential elements of this Directive, the power to adopt acts in accordance with Article 290 TFEU should be delegated to the Commission in respect of the specific objectives of each TSI. It is of particular importance that the Commission carry out appropriate consultations during its preparatory work, including at expert level. The Commission, when preparing and drawing up delegated acts, should ensure a simultaneous, timely and appropriate transmission of relevant documents to the European Parliament and to the Council. |
| (64) | In order to ensure uniform conditions for the implementation of this Directive, implementing powers should be conferred on the Commission relating to: TSIs and amendments to TSIs, including those amendments needed to remedy deficiencies in TSIs; the template of the ‘EC’ declaration of conformity or suitability for use of interoperability constituents and the accompanying documents; the information to be included in the file which should accompany the request for non-application of one or more TSIs or parts of them, the format and the transmission methods of that file and, where appropriate, the decision on non-application of TSIs; the classification of the notified national rules in different groups with the aim of facilitating the compatibility checks between fixed and mobile equipment; the details of the ‘EC’ verification procedure and the verification procedure in the case of national rules and the templates for the ‘EC’ declaration of verification and the templates for documents of the technical file that should accompany the declaration of verification as well as the templates for certificates of verification; the practical arrangements for the purposes of vehicle authorisation; the model of the declaration of conformity to type and, where appropriate, ad hoc modules for conformity assessment; the national vehicle registers, the European Vehicle register and the register of authorisation to place types on the market; and the common specifications relating to content, data format, functional and technical architecture, operating mode and rules for data input and consultation for the register of infrastructure. Those powers should be exercised in accordance with Regulation (EU) No 182/2011 of the European Parliament and of the Council (10). |
| (65) | The TSIs should be revised at regular intervals. When deficiencies are discovered in the TSIs, the Agency should be asked to issue an opinion which, under certain conditions, might be published and used by all stakeholders (including industry and notified bodies) as an acceptable means of compliance pending the revision of the TSIs concerned. |
| (66) | Implementing acts establishing new TSIs or amending TSIs should reflect the specific objectives set out by the Commission by way of delegated acts. |
| (67) | Certain organisational steps are necessary in order to prepare the Agency for its enhanced role under this Directive. Accordingly, an appropriate transitional period should be provided for. During that period, the Commission should review the progress made by the Agency in preparing for its enhanced role. Thereafter, the Commission should report periodically on the progress made in implementing this Directive. In particular, the report should evaluate the vehicle authorisation process, the cases where the TSIs are not applied and the use of registers. The Commission should also report on actions taken regarding the identification and traceability of safety-critical components. |
| (68) | It is necessary to allow Member States, national safety authorities and stakeholders sufficient time in which to prepare to implement this Directive. |
| (69) | Since the objective of this Directive, namely interoperability within the rail system on a Union-wide scale, cannot be sufficiently achieved by the Member States but can rather, by reason of its scale and effects, be better achieved at Union level, the Union may adopt measures, in accordance with the principle of subsidiarity as set out in Article 5 of the Treaty on European Union. In accordance with the principle of proportionality, as set out in that Article, this Directive does not go beyond what is necessary in order to achieve that objective. |
| (70) | The obligation to transpose this Directive into national law should be confined to those provisions which represent a substantive amendment as compared to Directive 2008/57/EC. The obligation to transpose the provisions which are unchanged arises under Directive 2008/57/EC. |
| (71) | This Directive should be without prejudice to the obligations of the Member States relating to the time limits for transposition into national law of the Directives set out in Part B of Annex V, |