European Railway Safety Directive

The European Railway Safety Directive (2004/49/EC) supports the development of open and transparent access to the European rail market. The Directive, which was introduced in 2004, establishes a common regulatory framework designed to ensure that safety does not present a barrier to the establishment of a single market for railways.  The key requirements of the Directive have been implemented in Great Britain by the Railways and Other Guided Transport Systems (Safety) Regulations 2006 (ROGS).

At the end of 2008 the Railway Safety Directive was amended, and the revised Railway Safety Directive (2008/110/EC) must be transposed into national law by 24 December 2010. The Office of Rail Regulation (ORR) is leading on the transposition of this Directive which will be transposed into domestic legislation for Great Britain via new regulations “The Railways and Guided Transport Systems (Miscellaneous Amendments) Regulations 2010”. ORR is launching a full public consultation on these draft regulations via its website which is scheduled to commence on 8 March 2010. For more information see the ORR website.

The key measures the Railway Safety Directive 2004 introduces are listed below.

National Safety Rules (NSRs)

Article 8 of the Railway Safety Directive (2004/49) requires Member States to notify the European Commission of all of their relevant safety rules. These should relate to:

• Rules setting out national safety targets and safety measures, i.e. rules that describe qualitative and quantitative national targets;
• Rules concerning requirements of Safety Management Systems and safety certification of Railway Undertakings (including the acceptance criteria, process and procedures);
• Rules for placing into service new and substantially-altered rolling stock not covered by Technical Specification for Interoperability (TSIs), including rules for exchange of rolling stock between railway undertakings covering registration and requirements on testing;
• Common operating rules, including those for signalling and traffic management;
• Rules covering requirements for safety critical work; and
• Rules concerning the investigation of accidents and incidents.

The European Railway Agency maintains, in its public database, a register of the notified NSRs accepted by the European Commission.

Common Safety Indicators (CSIs)

Common Safety Indicators are high level indicators of significant risks to the mainline rail network (e.g. signals passed at danger and broken rails). Each Member States' National Safety Authority (Office of Rail Regulator in GB) is required to collect information on indicators and supply this to the European Commission in the form of an Annual Report. The first reference year was 2006, with the information being reported to the European Commission in 2007. CSIs will inform the assessment and achievement of Common Safety Targets (CSTs).

Common Safety Methods (CSMs)

Common Safety Methods are the methods by which the accident/incident information from the CSIs are addressed (e.g. risk assessment) in order to develop measures to mitigate the risks in future. The first set of CSMs will be adopted by the European Commission in 2008.

Common Safety Targets (CSTs)

Common Safety Targets will define the minimum safety levels and safety performance that must at least be reached by the system as a whole in each Member State, expressed in risk acceptance criteria for individual risks to passengers, employees, level crossing users, ‘others’ and unauthorised persons on the railway. A CST for ‘societal risks’ will be also be developed.

The targets will measure only significant accidents arising from incidents involving rolling stock in motion and will be presented as a number of fatalities and weighted serious injuries (FWSIs), where 10 serious injuries are considered statistically equivalent to one fatality. CSTs will be derived from the recently developed ‘National Reference Values’ (NRVs) which are reference measures indicating, for each Member State, the maximum tolerable level for a railway risk category. NRVs are calculated by the European Railway Agency using Eurostat and CSI data from the four years 2004 to 2007. CSTs will be derived from the NRVs.

NRVs will form the benchmark for individual Member State performance. Member States whose safety performance, as measured by the NRVs, is better than or at least equal to that established by the common safety targets will have their safety performance assessed in subsequent years by reference to their respective NRVs.

The first set of NRVs required by the Railway Safety Directive will come into effect on 30th April 2009.

A first set will focus on the procedures and methods for risk evaluation and assessment of significant safety changes. The risk acceptability of a significant safety change should be evaluated by using one or more of the following risk acceptance principles: (i) the application of codes of practice; (ii) a comparison with similar parts of the railway system; or (iii) an explicit risk estimation.

This first set of CSMs will enter into force on 1 July 2010 for significant safety changes of a technical nature affecting vehicles and on 1 July 2012 for the whole scope, covering significant safety changes of a technical, operational or organisational nature.

The second set will focus on (i) assessing conformity with requirements in safety certificates; and (ii) checking conformity of operation and maintenance of structural subsystems with relevant essential requirements.

Safety Authorisations and Certificates

The European Rail Safety Directive (2004/49) requires the Member States' National Safety Authority (ORR in GB) to grant safety authorisations to mainline Infrastructure Managers (e.g. Network Rail) and safety certificates to mainline Railway Undertakings (e.g. train operating companies). The purpose of safety authorisations/certificates is to provide evidence that railway operators have established suitable Safety Management System (SMS) and is operating in accordance with them.  For more information see the ORR website

Investigation of Accidents

The Railway Safety Directive (2004/49) requires Member States to ensure that after a serious accident, an investigation is carried out by an investigating body with the objective of improving (where possible) railway safety and preventing future accidents. This is taken forward in the UK by the Rail Accident Investigation Branch (RAIB).

Railway Interoperability and Safety Committee

The Railway Interoperability and Safety Committee (‘RISC’) is a regulatory committee provided for under Article 29 of the Revised Interoperability Directive (2008/57/EC) and Article 27 of the Railway Safety Directive. The Committee is comprised of Member States' representatives including the UK. One of the roles of the Committee is to debate, discuss and approve the supporting processes and measures relating to European railway interoperability and safety, such as CSMs and CSTs.