The railway environment in the European Union passes through significant changes triggered, among others, by the three European railway packages. The gradual creation of the single European railway area is characterised by a multiplication of actors, increased recourse to subcontractors and more frequent market entries. In this context of higher complexity, rail safety is critically dependent on the interaction between all players, namely railway undertakings, infrastructure managers, the railway industry and safety authorities. That is why, safety legislation should take account of these developments and put in place appropriate information, management and emergency procedures and tools.
“Safety is critically dependent on the interaction between rail infrastructure, operations, manufacturers and safety authorities. Thus, appropriate tools should be used and developed in order to ensure and develop safety. The intensity of cooperation between manufacturers, maintenance suppliers and railway undertakings has decreased over past decades. Therefore, it is necessary to harmonise the minimum maintenance intervals and quality requirements to ensure the safety of the entire rail system”, states the report on railway safety, one of the six legislative packages which form the Fourth Railway Package.
Also, the report proposes as necessary “the creation of the European Railway Agency’s (ERA) obligation to publish guidelines on railway safety and safety certificates, including lists of examples of good practice , especially for cross-border transport.
ERA will have to create a system through which any potential safety risk can be communicated and easily and anonymously notified to the agency and to national safety authorities.
The three basic pillars of the Fourth Railway Package clearly shape the establishment of consistent approval procedures for railway interoperability and safety (which actually form the Technical Pillar), the liberalisation of the domestic market of passenger transport and the establishment of better structures and authorities for infrastructure ma-nagers.
The lack of standardization, the existence of a highly specialised rolling stock, the investment costs resulted, as well as the input and output costs on the railway transport market, are significant problems for the single transport market. The authorization procedures are long and troublesome and the fees for safety certificates are high.
Last year in December, when the Fourth Railway Package was approved by the European Commission, important “voices” of the European railway sector including the European Rail Industry Association (UNIFE), the European Rail Freight Association (ERFA), International Union for Road-Rail Combined Transport (UIRR), the Community of European Railway and Infrastructure Companies (CER), the International Union of Private Wagon Owners (UIP), the International Association of Public Transport (UITP) and the International Union of Railways (UIC) confirmed their support for the Technical Pillar of the Fourth Railway Package.
Thus, the vote of transport ministers within the Council for Transport and Energy gathered in mid-March 2014 on the third and last part of the Pillar Technical – consolidation of the role of ERA – confirms the support for the European railway industry and market.
The European organizations mentioned above, along with a number of other national associations in the rail industry underline that the Technical Pillar represents one of the priorities of the European railway sector. The Technical Pillar contributes to increasing the competitiveness of railway transport as a sustainable mode of transport but also to the completion of its role as the main industry in and for Europe. The Technical Pillar of the Fourth Railway Package is a fundamental landmark in the way of establishing a Single European Railway Area and should be implemented unanimously by all the interested parties. The quick implementation of the Technical Pillar means a “green light” for the European railway sector and for the creation of the Single European Railway Area.
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