Page 51 - RFC Rhine-Alpine_Annual Report 2016

CORRIDOR RHINE-ALPINE – Annual Report 2016 Regulatory Authorities
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In order to facilitate cross-acceptance of vehicle authori- sations, TFI set up a database (IRL) containing all national technical requirements for locomotives, trainsets and coaches. Referring to that list, an item that could be cross-accepted is categorised as “A”. In a vehicle’s autho- risation process performed by a NSA, an “A” item could be certified as assessed by another NSA and this certification would be accepted by the first NSA without any further checks.
In 2014, the TFI decided to close the IRL; in 2016, the database was still available, but not updated.
To replace the IRL, the NSAs worked to insert their national technical rules related to the vehicle authorisation in RDD, the database developed by ERA containing all technical requirements for locomotives, trainsets and coaches of all member states of the European Union (plus Switzerland and Norway); the data entry is not completed yet. After having finished the data entry in RDD; the NSAs will define the classification A, B, C in a similar way as done for IRL.
In 2016, the focus of the work was set on the following projects based on cross-acceptance procedures:
Siemens Vectron, multi-system locomotive Bombardier Traxx, multi-system locomotive Stadler FLIRT, EC250, multi-system EMU
In addition to the vehicle authorisation processes, the TFI dealt among other things with the following subjects:
The 2016 meetings were dedicated as well to the prob- lems related to ETCS in the context of the authorisation of vehicles equipped with ETCS. Experts of other groups attended one meeting and a list of items was identified and discussed further subsequently. Besides, the fruit- ful exchange on the multitude of upgrade and renewal processes (due to the installation of ETCS equipment on existing vehicles, or to the update of software releases) is still ongoing.
Discussions about current and future processes/activ- ities related to the mutual recognition – also in context of following the fourth RWP on Vehicle Authorisation with regards to e. g. type definition, handling of upgrade and renewal, cross-acceptance issues in this new legal framework and the cooperation ERA/NSA taking real projects to work on.
The implementation of the CCS TSI 2016 and of their different baselines, compared to the transitional period permitted by the TSI Loc&Pas 2014.
3 Driving licences and other bilateral agreements
The Directive 2007/59/EC on the certification of train drivers has been transposed into national legislation in the corridor countries. The Directive was amended in June 2014 by the train driver Directive 2014/82/EU.
The mutual agreements of recognition of drivers between Germany, Austria and the Netherlands are valid only dur- ing the transition periods according to Art. 37 Directive 2007/59/EC.
The mutual agreement of recognition of drivers between Germany and Switzerland has been adapted to the German Train Drivers Licence Regulation as from 1 May 2015 and is valid until 29 October 2018 due to Art. 8 of the Directive 2007/59/EC.
Since 2010, the dialogue between Switzerland and Italy has been continued. On 8 July 2014, BAV and ANSF signed a bilateral agreement regarding the authorisation process for border sections, IM authorisations, driving licenses and vehicle authorisation.
Furthermore, Decision No 2/2016 of the Community/ Switzerland Inland Transport Committee of 10 June 2016 amending Annex 1 to the Agreement between the Euro- pean Union and the Swiss Confederation on the carriage of goods and passengers by rail and road [2016/122] entered into force on 1 July 2016. From then on train driv- ing licences are cross-accepted in the EU and Switzerland.