Railway in Europe

Definition of Railway And Canal Commission

A Court established by the Railway and Canal Traffic Act, 1888. It consists of two non-judicial commissioners, and three cr officio commissioners, consisting of an English, Scotch and Irish Judge acting in their respective countries. The Commission has jurisdiction in matters directly relating to railways and canals, and also as regards the construction of telegraphs and the water supply of London. Questions arising under the Mines (Working Facilities and Support) Act, 1923, are referred to the Commission. [1]

European rail regulation

The EU has an ambitious strategy for rail: the creation of a single, efficient and competitive market for rail throughout Europe. It aims to achieve this through:

Opening rail markets;
Promoting competition;
Tackling barriers to market entry;
Harmonisation of technical specifications (interoperability); and
Armonisation of safety standards and certification.

The European Commission has put forward several legislative “packages”– successive steps towards a common legal framework for infrastructure management and operations.

The First Railway Package

The First Railway Package, adopted by the European Commission in 2001, is an important suite of European Directives. It is designed to:

open the international rail freight market;
establish a general framework for the development of European railways, and clarify the formal relationship between the State and the infrastructure manager on the one hand, and between the infrastructure manager and railway undertakings (train operators) on the other hand (Directive 2001/12/EC);
set out the conditions that freight operators must meet in order to be granted a licence to operate services on the European rail network (Directive 2001/13/EC);
introduce a defined policy for capacity allocation and infrastructure charging (Directive 2001/14/EC).

The Second Railway Package

The Second Railway Package was adopted by the European Commission in 2004. Its aim is to create a legally and technically integrated European railway area. The package contains four pieces of legislation and a recommendation:

Directive 2004/49/EC (the Railway Safety Directive, now amended by Directive 2008/110/EC) develops a common approach to rail safety. It lays down a clear procedure for granting the safety certificates which every railway company must obtain before it can run trains on the European network and harmonises safety levels across Europe by, among other things; specifying what infrastructure managers need to do in order to receive safety authorisation;
Directive 2004/50/EC which amended Directives 96/48 and 2001/16 on the interoperability of the European high speed and conventional rail systems respectively and now updated by Directive 2008/57/EC (the Interoperability Directive) harmonises and clarifies interoperability requirements;
Directive 2004/51/EC opens up both national and international freight services on the entire European network from 1 January 2007;
Regulation (EC) 881/2004 (now amended by Regulation 1335/2008) sets up an effective steering body, the European Railway Agency, to co-ordinate groups of technical experts seeking common solutions on safety and interoperability; and
A recommendation covering the accession of the European Community to the Intergovernmental Organisation for International Carriage by Rail (COTIF).

The Third Railway Package

The European Commission adopted a third package of measures on 26 September 2007, to open up international passenger services to competition within the EU by 2010. It consists of:

Directive 2007/58/EC on the allocation of railway infrastructure capacity and the levying of charges for the use of railway infrastructure: envisages opening the market for international passenger services to competition from 1 January 2010;
Directive 2007/59/EC on the certification of train drivers operating locomotives and trains on the railway system in the community: lays down conditions and procedures for the certification of train crews operating locomotives and trains; and
Regulation 1371/2007 on rail passengers’ rights and obligations: ensures basic rights for passengers, for example, with regard to insurance, ticketing, and for passengers with reduced mobility.

Recast of the first railway package

On 17 September 2010 the European Commission adopted a draft proposal to amend the First Railway Package directives. The recast aimed to simplify and consolidate the rules by merging three directives and their amendments into a single text. In addition, the Recast seeks to clarify existing provisions and tackle key problem areas which have been identified in the market over the last ten years, including:

Clear rules for the funding and management of infrastructure;
Access to rail-related facilities (depots, maintenance etc.); and
Independence and competence of regulatory bodies.

The Recast (Directive 2012/34/EC) was finalised in November 2012, and has been implemented by the Railways (Access, Management and Licensing of Railway Undertakings) Regulations 2016.

The Fourth Railway Package

The European Commission has now adopted a fourth package of measures: the technical pillar, which came into force on 15 June 2016 and consists of:

Regulation 2016/796 on the European Union Agency for Railways and repealing Regulation (EC) No 881/2004;
Directive (EU) 2016/797 on the interoperability of the rail system within the European Union; and
Directive (EU) 2016/798 on railway safety.

The European Commission has also adopted (in the fourth package of measures) the market pillar, which was adopted in December 2016 and consists of:

Directive (EU) 2016/2370 amending Directive 2012/34/EU as regards the opening of the market for domestic passenger transport services by rail and the governance of the railway infrastructure;
Regulation (EU) 2016/2337 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 14 December 2016 repealing Regulation (EEC) No 1192/69 of the Council on common rules for the normalisation of the accounts of railway undertakings; and
Regulation (EU) 2016/2338 amending Regulation (EC) No 1310/2007 concerning the opening of the market for domestic passenger services by rail.

European railway safety legislation

This section sets out the railway safety legislation that applies across the European Union either directly or by implementation through national laws and administrative arrangements.

The Railway Safety Directive

The objective of the Railway Safety Directive 2004/49/EC (as amended) is to create a common European regulatory framework for safety, in particular, the maintenance of safety management systems (SMS). It is intended that a common approach will help to break down barriers to the establishment of international transport operations and help create a single market for rail transport services in Europe.

The introduction of a certification scheme for entities in charge of maintenance (ECM) of freight wagons aims to improve the competitiveness of the freight sector in the UK and across the EU by reducing the administrative costs associated with establishing freight wagon safety. The purpose of the Railway Safety Directive is to:

harmonise railway safety regulatory structures across Europe;
define responsibilities between various players (operators, infrastructure, national safety authorities, ECMs, etc.);
develop common safety targets and common safety methods (developed by a European Commission agency called the European Union Agency for Railways (ERA);
establish safety authorities and accident investigation bodies; and
define common principles for the management, regulation and supervision of railway safety.

The Railway Safety Directive was implemented in the United Kingdom by:

the Railways and Other Guided Transport Systems (Safety) Regulations 2006 (ROGS);
the Railways (Access to Training Services) Regulations 2006;
the Railways (Safety Management) Regulations (Northern Ireland) 2006; and the Railways (Accident Investigation and Reporting) Regulations 2005.

In the UK, the Railways and Other Guided Transport Systems (Safety) Regulations 2006 provides a consolidated, coherent set of regulations for railways (including heritage, light rail, and metros); other guided transport systems, such as monorails; and tramways. Though this means some requirements similar to the Safety Directive exist on these systems, the Directive only applies to the mainline railway.

Directive (EU) 2016/798 was adopted by the European Commission on 11 May 2016 as part of the Fourth Railway Package. This is a recast of to revise the Railway Safety Directive and Member States have until 16 June 2019 to transpose the requirements into domestic legislation. ORR will be working with the Department for Transport to develop proposals for transposition in Great Britain and will be contacting stakeholders about out implementation plans in due course.

Common safety methods

Common safety methods (CSMs) are developed by the European Union Agency for Railways to help establish a single market for rail transport services and ensure that safety is maintained at a high level and, when and where necessary and reasonably practicable, improved. They aim to provide a common approach to assess the level of safety and performance of operators at EU level and in Member States.

Under the Railways and Other Guided Transport Systems (Safety) Regulations 2006, transport undertakings and infrastructure managers must comply with Common safety methods as part of their safety management systems. Common safety methods are adopted by the European Commission and published as Regulations, which are directly applicable in each Member State.

National Safety Rules

The Railway Safety Directive requires Member States to develop a system of national safety rules. A European-wide exercise is now underway to rationalise national safety rules using a risk management tool developed by the European Union Agency for Railways.

Other relevant EU legislation

These legislation include:

Regulation (EC) No 1370/2007 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 23 October 2007 on public passenger transport services by rail and by road.
Communication from the Commission — Community guidelines on State aid for railway undertakings.
Regulation (EC) No 352/2009 on the adoption of a common safety method on risk evaluation and assessment as referred to in Article 6(3)(a) of Directive 2004/49/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council.
Regulation (EU) No 913/2010 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 22 September 2010 concerning a European rail network for competitive freight.

Other relevant international legislation