Furture competitiveness – on the line

Andrzej Harassek a key Adviser in the ERA’s Interoperability Unit, on reinforcing the safety and interoperability of railways.

The European Railway Agency was created by the European Commission with the aim of reinforcing the safety and interoperability of railways throughout the region, thereby adding strong new momentum towards the shared vision of a truly integrated, competitive European railway area. EU Infrastructure caught up with Andrzej Harassek a key Adviser in the ERA’s Interoperability Unit and formerly of PKP Polish Railways, to find out more about how to achieve that vision and the benefits to Europe of doing so.

INFRA. I understand the EC has adopted legislation as part of its common transport policy. Can you tell me more?
AH. This legislation aims to pave the way for the gradual establishment of an integrated European railway area, both legally and technically. This involves the development and implementation of technical specifications for interoperability and a common approach to questions concerning railway safety. The Agency’s main task is to manage the preparation of these measures.

We are currently in the process of a progressive set-up, scheduled to be completed by mid 2006. After this short phasing-in period, however, the Agency will be fully operational, with initially about 100 members of staff, mostly professionals from the European railway sector.

INFRA. What currently are the biggest technical challenges in achieving greater interoperability between the railways?
AH. The biggest challenge is developing the capability of the trans-European rail system to allow the safe and uninterrupted movement of trains, whilst at the same time accomplishing the required and specified levels of performance. Achieving this is reliant on all the regulatory, technical and operational conditions being met in order to satisfy the essential requirements.

The technical fragmentation of Europe’s rail networks is a major handicap, hindering the development of this mode of transport. Although many technical parameters are already unified there is still much to be done. The main aim of this activity is the creation of a unified, harmonised railway network in Europe, which will ease international railway traffic by eliminating the technical and operational barriers on the borders between national networks.

INFRA. How can these problems be overcome?
AH. It was in order to address these challenges that the European Parliament and European Commission adopted in 1996 the directive 96/48/EC on interoperability of the European high speed railway system, followed in 2001 by the directive 2001/16/EC on interoperability of the European conventional railway system. Both directives were later modified by the directive 2004/50/EC and the corrigendum amending the 96/48/EC and 2001/16/EC directives.

So-called Technical Specifications for Interoperability (TSIs) are being gradually implemented, which will gradually lead to the harmonisation of the technical and operational parameters of the main European railway lines, belonging to the Trans-European transport Network – Rail (TEN-R) and later other railway lines.

INFRA. What progress has been made and what work is ongoing?
AH. The first set of TSIs was adopted in 2002 for high speed systems. These TSIs, which related to infrastructure, energy, rolling stock, control-command and signalling, maintenance and operation, came into force on 1 December 2002. Specifications for conventional systems still need to be developed, with priority given to freight. Foundations for this work have been laid by the European Association for Railway Interoperability (AEIF), which groups together the various players in the sector.

For conventional railways (CR) the priority TSIs related to freight wagons, telematic applications for freight, control-command and signalling, noise emitted by the rolling stocks, and traffic operation and management were adopted in late 2004 and mid-2005. The TSI, related to telematic applications for freight was adopted as a Commission Regulation No 62/2006 of 23 December, and so applies directly to all member states. The Commission Decisions concerning TSI Noise as well as Control/command and signalling were adopted on 23 December 2005 and 28 March 2006 respectively. These will become applicable six months after the date of their notification. The second group of CR TSIs, related to safety in railway tunnels and accessibility for people with reduce mobility, are in the latter stages of adoption and will be adopted during 2006.

It is now one of the major responsibilities of the European Railway Agency to draw up and revise the TSIs, on the basis of work completed or at least commenced by the AEIF. The Agency is now in charge of developing the third group of Conventional Rail Technical Specification for Interoperability in the domain of infrastructure, energy, passenger carriages, locomotives and traction units, and telematic applications for passengers.

We have commenced work on drafting of the TSIs concerning infrastructure, energy, traction units and locomotives, and passenger carriages. Drafting the TSI concerning telematic applications for passenger services will start later this year.

The Mandate to the Agency for the development of the third TSI group also made provision for the establishment of a relationship with the 1520/1524 mm railway network. The Agency will evaluate technical and operational aspects, the possibility of future convergence between the two systems, and the pertinence as well as technical and economical feasibility of a separate specific TSI valid for the 1520/1524mm railway system.

INFRA. What role does the ERTMS play in this – can you give an overview to this project?
AH. The deployment of ERTMS will provide the possibility of a single European solution for the control and command system in place of the current panoply of national systems. It will also contribute to the technical interoperability of the European railway network. ERTMS will provide favourable conditions for cost reduction in terms of installation of equipment onboard and trackside, and will spur competition in the signalling market. In addition, according to a recent EC publication: “ERTMS is a major European industrial project (similar to Galileo for satellite navigation or SESAR in air traffic management) and provides increased export opportunities for the EU. Indeed, recently awarded railway contracts – particularly in south-east Asia – have included the use of ERTMS, demonstrating that it is the most effective signalling and speed-control solution on the market.”

The GSM-R deployment in Europe is at a well-advanced stage. The German, Dutch and Swedish networks are now almost entirely equipped with GSM-R, and in most countries the old analogue radios systems are earmarked for replacement with GSM-R. This system, based on public GSM standards, offers a quality and a cost which surpasses previous systems, most of which were developed at national level.

ETCS deployment is much slower, but there are currently lines in commercial service with ETCS in many European countries, based both on the more traditional level 1 application and also on the more advanced level 2 application.

The system specifications for ERTMS are currently clearly defined and available, officially enforced. Ideally, a capability to evolve must be part of this new system, to avoid barriers for further improvement that will allow the exploitation of new business opportunities and deliver improved quality. However, given the long renewal cycles for the signalling installations, the fact that the ERTMS deployment across Europe will be achieved progressively over many years, and the requirement to preserve the investments in the system, it will be necessary to manage the compatibility between different versions of ERTMS.

For these reasons, the Agency, in its role as the System Authority for the technical specifications of ERTMS, is establishing the process to manage the system changes. This process is being developed in a transparent way in open cooperation with the representative organisations of the sector. All the resulting proposals for upgrading the system will be accompanied by the proper assessment of the costs and benefits, and then submitted to the EC for inclusion in the legal framework.

The Agency has submitted the work plan for the evolution of the specifications to the EC and the MS represented in the Interoperability Committee. In addition, we may be consulted directly by the Commission to give advice on the conformity of projects that request financial support from the EU concerning interoperability in general, and specifically ERTMS.

INFRA. How about achieving harmonisation in safety standards – why is this so important and what currently are the barriers to achieving this?
AH. Since the beginning of railway transport, safety has been an important concern for railway undertakings and so, in the past, different railway organisations supported by national authorities developed their own philosophies for accident prevention and safety. This resulted in a wide diversity of technical or operational requirements described through railway standards.

Comparing discrete national and European standards, it became clear that they focus on describing how compliance with requirements is achieved and lack a systematic and coherent approach to defining the required level of safety. The kinds of documents required by national authorities to prove the compliance and achievement of these requirements also vary.

To comply with the different technical requirements, the railway industry established a small-scale production with relatively high costs for development and production of railway products. The existence of these different requirements also made it complicated for railway operating companies to access different national railway infrastructures.

One of the obstacles to the opening of the railway market is the absence of a common approach for demonstrating the safety levels of the railway system. Without this common approach, the different national safety authorities will have to perform their own assessments in order to accept a system, or parts of it, which have been developed and proven safe in other member states. To facilitate this cross-acceptance of railway systems/sub-systems between member states, the methods used for the identification and the management of system hazards and risks have to be harmonised within all the organisations involved in the development and the operation of the railway systems in the territory of the European Union.

Aiming to promote railway transport in the European Community, the corresponding legislative bodies issued regulations e.g. to open the access to railway infrastructure. One of these regulations is the Safety Directive 2004/49, which aims to promote further progress on railway safety by e.g. harmonisation of safety approval processes for railway undertakings, services and products. It also aims to set up Common Safety Methods (CSM) and Common Safety Targets (CST). The expectation is that both activities together will help to reduce costs for the development and acceptance of railway enterprises, products and services. Furthermore, it is expected that CSM and CST will support the identification and harmonisation of safety based requirements and support the progress of railway transport in the 21st century.

INFRA. How does EU and individual national policy support or hinder the development of more integrated European railway system?
AH. EU legislation in general supports the integrated European railway system in aiming at technical, cultural and operational interoperability. At present, technical standards as well as requirements on staff and management organisation still differ from one member state to another and the process to approve rolling stock or certify staff or railway undertakings has not yet been fully adapted to the needs of an integrated European rail system. Implementing harmonised requirements defined at European level into national law, should lead to the disappearance of barriers set up by the member states.

For full integration, the rail system needs to harmonise the technical specifications by defining the level above which harmonisation is necessary and below which freedom for design and operation can be left to the operators and supplier industry. But in addition, the cultural differences in the railway area, mainly occurring as differences in the definition of safety requirements, require harmonisation. Even though many safety requirements emanate from technical and operational differences of the networks, there is still a lack of understanding of the different national approaches and sometimes mutual suspicion that has its origins in lack of knowledge and absence of transparency. Creating confidence through transparency and traceability in the set up of requirements is one of the main goals of the ERA.

INFRA. What are the wider advantages of a more integrated and interoperable European railway area, for example in improving the competitiveness of the region, etc?
AH. With the reduction of technical, cultural and legal barriers the railway area will gain much greater flexibility. This will certainly invite new market entries and thus create more competition, not only among the sector itself but also towards the other transport modes. It will allow, for instance, freight companies to carry out services from the north to the south of Europe. Improving railway transport capabilities from regions that may still be far away from consumer markets in the centres of Europe will certainly help to develop regions, reducing the pressure of concentration of workplaces in crowded centres by establishing plants and workspace on the countryside. And the railway sector will surely increase, especially in long-distance-transport, its part of the logistic chain.

The European Railway Agency
The European Railway Agency was created according to European Regulation No 881/2004. The activities of the Agency cover:

Railway safety
• Development of common safety methods (CSM), common safety targets (CST) and common safety indicators (CSI), on the basis of the safety directive.
• Facilitate cooperation among national safety authorities and among national investigating bodies.
• Harmonise issuing and assessment procedures of safety certificates and safety authorisations.
• Upon request by the commission, assessment of new national safety rules.
• Monitoring of safety performances and reporting to the commission every two years.
• Technical opinion on specific cases in the field of railway safety.

Railway interoperability
• Drafting the third group of TSIs for conventional rail.
• Revise existing TSIs.
• Organise and facilitate cooperation of the notified bodies.
• Address recommendations relating to the working conditions of staff executing safety-critical tasks.
• Monitor progress of interoperability in the railway system and reporting to the Commission every two years.
• At the request of the commission, examine railway infrastructure projects with EC-funding from the point of view of interoperability.
• Develop a European certification system for maintenance workshops.
• Draft recommendations for the determination of criteria for vocational competences and the assessment of the staff involved in operation and maintenance (priority: drivers and their trainers).
• Propose format of national vehicle registers.
• The Agency will also create and maintain the registers and databases related to interoperability.