The Commission presented a Communication on a progress report on the implementation of Directive 2004/49/EC of the European Parliament and the Council on railway safety. This Communication sets out the progress that has been made since the Commission adopted its second report in September 2009.

Developments in the legal framework : in the course of the last five years, secondary legislation in the railway safety sector has been developed and the implementing acts required by the Railway Safety Directive have entered into force. The European Railway Agency (ERA) has made a major contribution in drafting legislation and providing the Commission with its recommendations.

Common safety indicators , methods and targets have been developed. The national safety authorities are now able to issue safety certificates/authorisations and perform supervision according to a harmonised methodology. A harmonised system has been established for the certification of entities in charge of maintenance for freight wagons . The overall safety legislative framework is therefore operational.

Some issues, however, remain problematic :

- Transposition of the Directive : several Member States have transposed the provisions of the Railway Safety Directive incorrectly or unclearly. This could lead to inconsistent application of safety requirements across the European rail system and unequal conditions for railway undertakings.

At present, there are still six procedures at EU-Pilot stage and 14 infringement cases ongoing. Following these procedures, the Member States concerned are expected to adapt their national legislations so they are compliant with the provisions of the Railway Safety Directive.

- National safety rules (NSRs) : because of the lack of transparency they engender, national safety rules (NSRs) are one of the major obstacles to the development of an internal market for rail. Although introduced for legitimate reasons, most NSRs are a legacy of old regulatory arrangements and are redundant in the safety system established by the Railway Safety Directive. Member States are expected to withdraw obsolete rules accordingly. A specific Task Force on National Safety Rules (2011-12) was set up to clarify some areas of uncertainty about NSRs and foster best practices.

New NSRs should be limited in scope and be no more prescriptive than is necessary to meet the safety objectives. Moreover, the national safety authorities should abstain from imposing prescriptive safety rules and rather oblige infrastructure managers and railway undertakings fully to shoulder their responsibilities for the safety of the system.

- Railway safety performance : over the last six years available railway safety has continued to improve across the EU, with accident figures falling considerably and casualty numbers seeing slight reductions.

More than 2 000 significant accidents occur each year on the Member States’ railways. Accidents to persons caused by rolling stock in motion and level-crossing accidents constitute more than three quarters of all railway accidents, excluding suicides. In these accidents, around 1 200 people are killed each year.

According to the report, safety performance is in general satisfactory and better than that of the other land transport modes, but it varies widely across Member States, with possible deterioration identified in a few. These Member States will receive particular attention from the Commission and ERA and are expected to send the Commission an explanation of the likely causes of the results.

In the coming years, with some Member States coming under greater scrutiny, more balanced results can be expected, with an overall rise in safety levels.

Also, recent Commission initiatives such as the technical pillar of the 4th Railway Package and the development of a Platform for Infrastructure Managers in Europe (PRIME) have real potential to bring further safety improvements.

COM(2014)0740
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EUR-Lex
SWD(2014)0355

SEC(2009)1157
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This progress report on the implementation of the Railway Safety Directive and of the Railway interoperability Directives describes the stage reached so far in implementing the Railway Safety Directive and in achieving interoperability of the European rail system since the first report adopted by the Commission in November 2006 (see COM(2006)0660 ). It responds to Article 31 of the Railway Safety Directive , Article 24 of the high-speed Interoperability Directive and Article 28 of the conventional rail Interoperability Directive .

Moreover, it builds on the findings of the first biennial report on the development of railway safety in the European Community issued by the European Railway Agency in 2008.

To prepare for this report, the European Commission commissioned a study analysing the degree of implementation of rail interoperability and safety legislation and progress in the field, and carried out a public consultation. The results of the consultation are summarised in the annex to this report.

It should be noted that recent amendments to the legal framework for railway safety and interoperability have not been considered in this report as they are still being transposed at national level (see COD/2006/0273 et COD/2006/0272 ).

The main finding are as follows:

Transposition by Member States : all Member States have notified the Commission of their national measures implementing the Railway Safety Directive, except for Luxembourg, against which infringement proceedings are still open. However, in several cases transposition has been delayed and did not meet the legal deadline specified in the Directive (30 April 2006). The next step is to check that all provisions of the Directive have been correctly implemented; this includes conformity checks and detailed analyses to verify, for example, the capacity of the national bodies to perform the tasks required by the Directives. These analyses are still in hand and it is therefore too early to draw final conclusions on this issue. However, some initial results are available on the notification of national safety rules and the setting up of national bodies. National safety rules and notification : almost 5000 national safety rules have been notified. On request of the Commission the Agency has examined these notifications and recommended asking for clarification or renotification of national safety rules by most Member States. As for the question of publishing the national safety rules, in 2009 the Agency is expected to propose ways to improve access. Setting up of national authorities and bodies : the role of the national safety authorities (NSA) is critical both in maintaining safety and in ensuring that safety is not a barrier to market opening when developing interoperability. Most of the NSAs were established in 2006 and 2007. At the end of 2008 there was only one Member State that had not yet established its NSA. Member States must also set up independent investigation bodies charged with investigating serious railway accidents. By April 2009, only one Member State had not yet set up its national investigation body (NIB). The Agency has established networks to facilitate cooperation and sharing of views and experience by these national bodies. Development and implementation of secondary legislation at European level : t he Railway Safety Directive provides for a large amount of secondary legislation to be adopted by the Commission and drafted by the Agency based on mandates issued by the Commission. In 2007 the first instrument was adopted: Commission Regulation (EC) No 653/2007 on the use of a common European format for safety certificates and application documents in accordance with Article 10 of Directive 2004/49/EC and on the validity of safety certificates delivered under Directive 2001/14/EC. Common safety methods for risk assessment and to assess achievement of safety targets were respectively adopted on 24 April 2009 and 5 June 2009 while further legislation is in preparation. Safety Certification : f urther information on the status of safety certification, and a proposed strategy for migration towards a single Community safety certificate, will be produced by the Agency in 2010 based on an evaluation of the safety certification procedures in the Member States. Safety Reporting : NSAs must publish annual reports giving information on the railway safety situation. The Agency uses these reports to continuously monitor the development of railway safety in the EU. Overall, initial figures confirm that railways are very safe for rail users, with fewer than 100 fatalities annually compared to about 40 000 on EU roads. Furthermore, the development of railway safety in the EU Member States can be regarded as very positive, as the number of passenger fatalities went down from around 400 in 1970 to only 58 in 2006. However, figures show that there is high representation of third parties in fatal railway accidents such as trespassers and level crossing users (together around 1 500 fatalities per year). Suicides constitute another particular feature of rail accidents: these fatalities are not reported as accidents and they are seldom subject to press reports. In 2006 they accounted for about 2 300, i.e. more than 60% of all fatalities. Implementation of the Interoperability Directives : a ll Member States have notified national measures implementing the Interoperability Directives 96/48/EC (High-Speed), Directive 2001/16/EC (Conventional Rail) and Directive 2004/50 (alignment of High-Speed and Conventional Rail Directives and extension of the scope).

Main conclusions : the Commission considers that the progress made thanks to the Community regulatory framework for railway safety and interoperability should encourage further development of the internal rail market , helping the emergence of new businesses, the cutting of entry costs and, ultimately, the competitiveness of rail as compared to other modes of transport. The analyses carried out in this report show mixed results for the time being.

1) As for rail safety , statistics indicate that the railway system in the Community is safe and the organisational changes stemming from the Community framework not only had no negative impact on safety but are expected to raise safety levels in the short and medium terms. From the market perspective, safety requirements still impose significant entry barriers . These relate mainly to the cost and the duration of the procedures involved at national level, their disparity across Europe and the lack of transparency/predictability. Substantial progress in this field is expected, partly due to the harmonisation of safety certificates for railway undertakings and the introduction of Common Safety Methods , and partly due to the cross-acceptance of national rules when authorising the placing into service of rail vehicles.

The success of these activities will depend on two conditions:

the full establishment of the newly created bodies , especially national safety authorities (NSAs), operating at similar levels of competence and efficiency. This is necessary to create mutual trust between NSAs. The Commission will therefore continue to check that Community legislation has been correctly transposed as far as new structures and tools are concerned; the leading role of the European Railway Agency in gradually harmonising safety rules and procedures and progressively replacing them with common methods. This role may evolve even further in the future towards complementing or supplementing the activities of NSAs in the certification and authorisation processes;

2) The secondary legislation on interoperability is expected to be completed in 2010 as far as the TEN-T network is concerned. This is certainly a priority for the Commission, as no real interoperability can be achieved without technical specifications for interoperability (TSIs) for all sub-systems. Another priority for the Commission is to manage the transition from the old regime to the new regime created by the TSIs and the registers of infrastructure and rolling stock.

Moreover, the increasing number of conformity certificates issued for sub-systems and the limited number of derogations indicate that, overall, the existing TSIs are being successfully applied. This also underlines the importance of Notified Bodies and their role in increasing competence and mutual trust. However, residual open points in TSIs and the limited geographical scope of the TSIs may hamper the future integration of the European rail system as they constitute obstacles to interoperability. Therefore it will be essential to close the open points and to extend the scope of TSIs in a reasonably short period of time.

The Commission also notes that progress towards interoperability is a slow process . Because of the long lifetime of rail infrastructure and rolling stock and the need to keep investment costs for the sector at an acceptable level, radical changes towards harmonised solutions are not possible. That is why the Commission intends to concentrate efforts on implementing those technical specifications that will deliver significant benefits in the short and medium term, namely the CCS, TAF, TAP and OPE TSIs.

Lastly, it will also be necessary for future revisions of TSIs to give a higher consideration to the principles developed under the strategy for simplifying the regulatory environment and to ensure the relevance, effectiveness and proportionality of the railway legislation. For example, more use of voluntary European standards will be considered.

The Commission will continue to check how the legal framework for railway safety and interoperability is implemented in practice, ensuring that all the secondary legislation is introduced (mainly TSIs for conventional rail and common safety methods) and the new Directives are transposed. It then intends to prepare a Communication reviewing its policies on interoperability and the safety of the Community railway system.

COM(2009)0464
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PURPOSE: to accelerate the integration of the European Rail freight market. LEGISLATIVE ACT: Directive 2004/49/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council on safety on the Community's railways and amending Council Directive 95/18/EC on the licensing of railway undertakings and Directive 2001/14/EC on the allocation of railway infrastructure capacity and the levying of charges for the use of railway infrastructure and safety certification (Railway Safety Directive). (Corrigendum to the Regulation published in OJ L164 of 30 April 2004). CONTENT: this Directive has been adopted as part of the second railway package which was agreed upon in conciliation. The Second Railway Package will help to accelerate the integration of the market by removing important obstacles to cross-border services. It will guarantee a high level of safety for railway operation and will contribute to reducing costs and facilitating operations through a greater harmonisation of technical standards in the railway sector. This Directive concerns the definition of the essential features of safety systems for infrastructure managers and railway undertakings. The aim is to develop a common approach to safety and establish a common system for the issue, content and validity of safety certificates. Finally, as in other sectors, the principle of independent technical investigation in the event of accidents is to be introduced. The purpose of this Directive is to ensure the development and improvement of safety on the Community's railways and improved access to the market for rail transport services by:

harmonising the regulatory structure in the Member States; defining responsibilities between the actors; developing common safety targets and common safety methods with a view to greater harmonisation of national rules; requiring the establishment, in every Member State, of a safety authority and an accident and incident investigating body; defining common principles for the management, regulation and supervision of railway safety.

This Directive applies to the railway system in the Member States, which may be broken down into subsystems for structural and operational areas. It covers safety requirements on the system as a whole, including the safe management of infrastructure and of traffic operation and the interaction between railway undertakings and infrastructure managers. The Common Safety Targets shall define the safety levels that must at least be reached by different parts of the railway system and by the system as a whole in each Member State, expressed in risk acceptance criteria for:

individual risks relating to passengers, staff including the staff of contractors, level crossing users and others, and, without prejudice to existing national and international liability rules, individual risks relating to unauthorised persons on railway premises; societal risks.

In application of this Directive, Member States shall establish binding national safety rules and shall ensure that they are published and made available to all infrastructure managers, railway undertakings, applicants for a safety certificate and applicants for a safety authorisation in clear language that can be understood by the parties concerned.

The Commission shall immediately inform the Member State concerned, which shall suspend the adoption, entry into force or implementation of the rule until a Decision is adopted, within a period of six months.

Each year all infrastructure managers and railway undertakings shall submit to the safety authority before 30 June an annual safety report concerning the preceding calendar year. The safety report shall contain: information on how the organisation's corporate safety targets are met and the results of safety plans; the development of national safety indicators, and of the CSIs laid down in Annex I, as far as it is relevant to the reporting organisation; the results of internal safety auditing; observations on deficiencies and malfunctions of railway operations and infrastructure management that might be relevant for the safety authority.

Each Member State shall establish a safety authority. This authority may be the Ministry responsible for transport matters and shall be independent in its organisation, legal structure and decision making from any railway undertaking, infrastructure manager, applicant and procurement entity. The safety authority shall carry out its tasks in an open, non-discriminatory and transparent way. In particular it shall allow all parties to be heard and give reasons for its decisions. On the issue of investigations, Member States shall ensure that an investigation is carried out by the investigating body after serious accidents on the railway system, the objective of which is possible improvement of railway safety and the prevention of accidents. In addition to serious accidents, the investigating body may investigate those accidents and incidents which under slightly different conditions might have led to serious accidents, including technical failures of the structural subsystems or of interoperability constituents of the trans-European high-speed or conventional rail systems. Member States shall define, in the framework of their respective legal system, the legal status of the investigation that will enable the investigators-in-charge to carry out their task in the most efficient way and within the shortest time. Each Member State shall ensure that investigations of accidents and incidents are conducted by a permanent body, which shall comprise at least one investigator able to perform the function of investigator-in-charge in the event of an accident or incident. This body shall be independent in its organisation, legal structure and decision-making from any infrastructure manager, railway undertaking, charging body, allocation body and notified body, and from any party whose interests could conflict with the tasks entrusted to the investigating body. It shall furthermore be functionally independent from the safety authority and from any regulator of railways. Member States shall make provision that railway undertakings, infrastructure managers and, where appropriate, the safety authority, are obliged immediately to report accidents and incidents to the investigating body. The investigating body shall be able to respond to such reports and make the necessary arrangements to start the investigation no later than one week after receipt of the report concerning the accident or incident. ENTRY INTO FORCE: 30/04/2004.

IMPLEMENTATION: 30/04/2006.

Directive 2004/49
OJ L 164 30.04.2004, p. 0044
Corrigendum to final act 32004L0049R(01)
OJ L 164 30.04.2004, p. 0044-0113

T5-0356/2004
OJ C 104 30.04.2004, p. 0743-0948 E

T5-0356/2004

Debate in Parliament

3638/2004

3638/2004

A5-0245/2004

A5-0245/2004

COM(2003)0719
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T5-0454/2003
OJ C 082 01.04.2004, p. 0320-0506 E

T5-0454/2003

Debate in Parliament

A5-0325/2003

A5-0325/2003

CES0918/2003

SEC(2003)0754
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08557/2/2003
OJ C 270 11.11.2003, p. 0025-0047 E

10840/2003

08557/2/2003

10587/1/2003

10587/2003

T5-0005/2003
OJ C 038 12.02.2004, p. 0016-0092 E

Debate in Parliament

T5-0005/2003

2472

A5-0424/2002

A5-0424/2002

CDR0097/2002

2452

CES1028/2002
OJ C 061 14.03.2003, p. 0131

2420

PURPOSE : to establish a common regulatory framework for railway safety in Europe and thereby facilitate interoperability on the European rail system.

PROPOSED ACT : Directive of the European Parliament and of the Council.

CONTEXT : this proposal is part of a package to revitalise the Community railway system by creating an integrated European railway system. The directive aims at completing the regulatory structure for a single European rail system and is linked to other proposals in this same package, in particular the proposal to amend the directives on interoperability and the proposal to create a European Rail Agency. It applies a gradual approach to harmonisation and the development of common principles, taking into account the great differences that exist between the Member States. The other measures in the package relate to interoperability, the establishment of a European Railway Agency, and the integration of the rail freight market.

CONTENT : The proposal on the regulation of safety and investigation of accidents and incidents on the Community's railways addresses four main problem areas related to the development of safe railways in Europe: harmonisation of the safety regulatory structure and the content of safety rules; remaining obstacles to further market opening; the provision of transparency and information on safety; and investigation of serious accidents and incidents.

The purpose of this Directive is to ensure the development and improvement of safety on the Community's railways by:

-harmonising the regulatory structure in the Member States,

-defining responsibilities between the actors,

-developing common safety targets and common safety methods,

-requiring the establishment, in every Member State, of national safety authorities and independent national bodies for accident investigation,

-defining common principles for the management, regulation and supervision of railway safety.

The proposal also establishes a clear procedure for granting safety certificates. The safety certificate as outlined in the current directives consists of different parts: certification of the railway undertakings internal organisation; its commitment to adhere to national rules for the operation; the certification of its rolling stock; and the certification of the staff used in the operation. All railway undertakings must possess a safety certificate before using the European network. The concept of different national safety certificates is, however, still an impediment to the development of a single European rail system. Ultimately there should be one single Community certificate subject to recognition by all Member States. The directive imposes on the Agency an obligation to develop a migration strategy to reach this goal.

COM(2002)0021
EUR-Lex
OJ C 126 28.05.2002, p. 0332 E

PURPOSE : to establish a common regulatory framework for railway safety in Europe and thereby facilitate interoperability on the European rail system.

PROPOSED ACT : Directive of the European Parliament and of the Council.

CONTEXT : this proposal is part of a package to revitalise the Community railway system by creating an integrated European railway system. The directive aims at completing the regulatory structure for a single European rail system and is linked to other proposals in this same package, in particular the proposal to amend the directives on interoperability and the proposal to create a European Rail Agency. It applies a gradual approach to harmonisation and the development of common principles, taking into account the great differences that exist between the Member States. The other measures in the package relate to interoperability, the establishment of a European Railway Agency, and the integration of the rail freight market.

CONTENT : The proposal on the regulation of safety and investigation of accidents and incidents on the Community's railways addresses four main problem areas related to the development of safe railways in Europe: harmonisation of the safety regulatory structure and the content of safety rules; remaining obstacles to further market opening; the provision of transparency and information on safety; and investigation of serious accidents and incidents.

The purpose of this Directive is to ensure the development and improvement of safety on the Community's railways by:

-harmonising the regulatory structure in the Member States,

-defining responsibilities between the actors,

-developing common safety targets and common safety methods,

-requiring the establishment, in every Member State, of national safety authorities and independent national bodies for accident investigation,

-defining common principles for the management, regulation and supervision of railway safety.

The proposal also establishes a clear procedure for granting safety certificates. The safety certificate as outlined in the current directives consists of different parts: certification of the railway undertakings internal organisation; its commitment to adhere to national rules for the operation; the certification of its rolling stock; and the certification of the staff used in the operation. All railway undertakings must possess a safety certificate before using the European network. The concept of different national safety certificates is, however, still an impediment to the development of a single European rail system. Ultimately there should be one single Community certificate subject to recognition by all Member States. The directive imposes on the Agency an obligation to develop a migration strategy to reach this goal.

COM(2002)0021
EUR-Lex