PURPOSE: to initiate a programme for the integration of conventional railway systems, including a directive on the interoperability of the trans-European conventional rail network.
COMMUNITY MEASURE: Directive 2001/16/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council.
CONTENT: the Directive sets out to establish the conditions to be met to achieve interoperability within the Community territory of the trans-European conventional rail system. These conditions concern the design, construction, putting into service, upgrading, renewal, operation and maintenance of the parts of this system put into service after the date of entry into force of this Directive, as well as the professional qualifications and health and safety conditions of the staff who contribute to this operations.
The Directive shall apply to the provisions concerning, for each subsystem (due to complexity, it is necessary to break the trans-European conventional rail system down into subsystems), the interoperability constituents, the interfaces and procedures as well as the conditions of overall compatability of the trans-European conventional rail system required to achieve its interoperability. Against this background, the main provisions of the directive are the following:
- technical specifications for interoperability (TSIs);
- interoperability constituents;
- subsystems;
- notified bodies
The Commission shall be assisted by a Committee established by Article 21 of Directive 96/48/EC. The Member States shall ensure that registers of infrastructure and of rolling stock are published and updated annually. Those registers shall indicate the main features of each subsystem or part subsystem involved (e.g. the basic parameters) and their correlation with the features laid down by the applicable TSIs. To that end, each TSI shall indicate precisely which information must be included in the registers of infrastructure and of rolling stock.
ENTRY INTO FORCE: 20/04/01. �