Essential requirements, TSIs and national rules
Classification of national rules – vehicles
Workshop on Technical Specifications for Interoperability
Athens, 16 December 2014
Gianvittorio TAVOLA

Legal Framework
› Directive 2008/57/EC
The Agency shall draw up a recommendation for a reference document crossreferencing all the national rules applied by the MSs for placing vehicles in service.
In order to facilitate the procedure for authorising the placing in service of vehicles referred to in Article 25, national rules shall be classified pursuant to
Annex VII.
› Decision 2009/965/EC
The reference document referred to in Article 27 of Directive 2008/57/EC shall be drawn up on the basis of the list of parameters set out in the Annex to this
Decision.
It shall also contain, for each Member State, some basic information on the national legal framework applicable to placing railway vehicles in service.

Reference Document
› BASED ON
Commission Decision 2011/155/EU
› PURPOSE facilitate procedure for authorising the placing in service of vehicles.
› HOW
1) makes the vehicle authorisation regime transparent
2) facilitates cross acceptance
› COMPOSED OF
Part 1: Application Guide
Part 2: 28 National Reference Documents (NRD)
Part 3: 28 National Legal Frameworks (NLF)

Cross-Acceptance benefits
›
›

Cross-Acceptance stages
›
›
›

Classification
› Group A indicates that “national rules deemed to be equivalent, in railway safety terms, to national rules of other Member
States”; or that the rule is an “international standard”.
› Group C “covers rules that are strictly necessary and are associated with technical infrastructure characteristics, in order to ensure safe and interoperable use in the network concerned”.
› Group B “covers all rules that do not fall within the scope of
Group A or Group C, or that it has not yet been possible to classify in one of these groups”.

Classification and Geographical Interest Groups (GIG)
Example of Baltic GIG
›
›
›
›
›
›
›

Reference Document: Part 1. Application Guide
›
›
›

Reference Document: Part 2. National Reference Documents (NRD)
Part 3. National Legal Framework (NLF)
NRD
› in PDF format
› published on ERA website
NLF
› To facilitate vehicle authorisation by m aking the NLF for authorisation of placing in service of vehicles transparent to all involved parties
› Comparing the NLFs applicable to the authorisation of placing in service of vehicles between MSs and also with the
Directive 2008/57/EC
› Being a tool to facilitate the legal harmonisation of decision making for
National Safety Authorities (NSA)

Migration from Reference Documents to the
Reference Document Database (RDD)
• Upload of existing information from
National Reference
Documents into RDD:
Rules acc. Parameters;
Remarks and other information
→ ERA (information has to be verified and published by the MS)
• Publish and maintain/update the information on rules and classifications
• Uploading of additional information: description of rule, relationship to national legal framework, supporting documentation, checking methods, checking bodies, certificates,
→ Member State with ERA support
• Additional information e.g. structures (e.g. functional or system based decomposition)
→ railway sector

RDD Main Features
› Management of National Rules and their classification for the Authorisation of vehicles
› Management of National Legal Framework
› Reports
› Integration
› Easy of use
› Single point of availability
› Easy extendibility to other Countries

› 319 parameters describing all aspects considered within the authorisation of a railway vehicle
› Mainly derived from the Basic parameter of TSI Loc&Pas
› Additional Parameter
(e.g. for Onboard Control
Command System of the vehicle)
List of Parameters: present state

List of Parameters (LoP): New needs
› From NSAs
› During five years after publication of this Decision, ERA has gather valuable comments from the NSAs based on their experience in authorisation of railway vehicles
› From TSIs
› Additionally, the process of the revision of TSIs is ongoing (in particular with the extension of their scope on the whole network)
› Applicants
› Feedback from the processes of requests for authorisation

List of Parameters (LoP): managing the revision
ERA Recommendation to EC -> Railway Interoperability and Safety Committee based on contribution:
› National Safety Authorities
(Geographical Interest Groups)
› Electro Magnetic Compatibility
› ERTMS Focus Group
› inside ERA

List of Parameters (LoP): Overview of changes
Parameter modifications (besides 8.4 & 12)
4%
8%
Added or redefined
No change
Deleted
88%

List of Parameters: Implementation strategy
ERA will support MSs in the implementation of the revised LoP:
› Cross reference tables between old & revised LoP
› Explaining the meaning of each parameter (including TSI clauses)
› Revision of National Rules providing on demand also a draft of the National
Reference Document according to the revised list of parameters
› Assistance for implementation in RDD
(rdd@era.europa.eu)

WHERE? (Access to RDD and RDD related documents)

Access from the ERA main web page
1.
ERA main web page: http://www.era.europa.eu
› Databases&Registers
› RDD ( https://rdd.era.europa.eu/RDD/Default.aspx
)
2.
ERA main web page: http://www.era.europa.eu
› Core Activities
› Cross Acceptance
› Reference Document
Part 1: Application guide . This part refers to the elements included in the
Commission Decision 2011/155/EU, and any other information relevant for the management, understanding and use of the reference document.
Part 2: National Reference Document . This includes all national reference documents listing and classifying the equivalence of national rules, one for each Member State, as referred to in Article 3 of Decision
2011/155/EU.
Part 3: National Legal Framework . In accordance with Article 1 of Decision
2009/965/EC, it includes information on the national legal framework applicable to the authorisation of placing in service of vehicles.

RDD – home page 1/2

RDD – home page 2/2

RDD - Reports Page

Please visit RDD and give us your feedback:
A test version of RDD is available at: