EN Official Journal of the European Union L 150/11

COMMISSION DECISION

of 5 June 2009

on the adoption of a common safety method for assessment of achievement of safety targets, as referred to in Article 6 of Directive 2004/49/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council

(notified under document number C(2009) 4246)

(Text with EEA relevance)

(2009/460/EC)

THE COMMISSION OF THE EUROPEAN COMMUNITIES,

Having regard to the Treaty establishing the European Community,

Having regard to Directive 2004/49/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 29 April 2004 on safety on the Community’s railways and amending Council Directive 95/18/EC on the licensing of railway undertakings and Directive 2001/14/EC on the allocation of railway infrastructure capacity and the levying of charges for the use of railway infrastructure and safety certification (Railway Safety Directive) (1) and in particular Article 6(1) thereof,

Having regard to the recommendation of the European Railway Agency on the common safety methods for calculation, assessment and enforcement to be used in the framework of the first set of common safety targets, delivered to the Commission on 29 April 2008,

Whereas:

(1) In accordance with Directive 2004/49/EC, common safety targets (CSTs) and common safety methods (CSMs) should be gradually introduced to ensure that a high level of safety is maintained and, when and where necessary and reasonably practicable, improved.

(2) Pursuant to Article 6(1) of Directive 2004/49/EC, the European Commission should adopt CSMs. These should describe, amongst others and in accordance with Article 6(3) of Directive 2004/49/EC, how the safety level and achievement of CSTs are assessed.

(3) In order to ensure that the current safety performance of the railway system is not reduced in any Member State, the first set of CSTs should be introduced. It should be based on an examination of existing targets and safety performance of railway systems in the Member States.

(4) Furthermore, in order to maintain the current safety performance of the railway system, a harmonisation, in terms of risk acceptance criteria, of safety levels for the whole national railway systems is necessary. The compliance with safety levels should be monitored in the different Member States.

(5) In order to establish the first set of CSTs in compliance with Article 7(3) of Directive 2004/49/EC, it is necessary to quantitatively identify the current safety performance of railway systems in Member States by means of national reference values (NRVs), to be calculated and utilised by the European Railway Agency (the Agency) and the Commission. These NRVs should be calculated only in 2009, with a view to developing the first set of CSTs, and in 2011, with a view to developing the second set of CSTs.

(6) In order to ensure consistency of the NRVs and to avoid undue burden, light rail systems, functionally separate networks, privately owned railway infrastructures solely used by the owner, heritage, museum and tourist railways should be exempted from this Decision.

(7) Due to the lack of harmonised and reliable data on safety performance of parts of the railway system referred to in Article 7(4) of Directive 2004/49/EC, it has been ascertained that the development of the first set of CSTs, expressed in risk acceptance criteria for specified categories of individuals and for society as a whole, is at the moment feasible only for the railway system in its entirety and not for its parts.

(8) Following the progressive harmonisation of national statistical data on accidents and related consequences, in compliance with Regulation (EC) No 91/2003 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 16 December 2002 on rail transport statistics (2) and Directive 2004/49/EC, the development of common methods for monitoring and targeting safety performance of railway systems in Member States should take account of statistical uncertainties and the need for an element of judgement in deciding whether a Member State’s safety performance is maintained.

(9) To allow a fair and transparent comparison of railway safety performance amongst Member States, Member States should perform their own assessments on the basis of a common approach for identifying the safety targets of the railway system and for demonstrating compliance with them.

(10) The measures provided for in this Decision are in accordance with the opinion of the Committee established in compliance with Article 27(1) of Directive 2004/49/EC,

HAS ADOPTED THIS DECISION:

Article 1

Subject matter

This Decision establishes a common safety method to be used by the European Railway Agency (hereafter ‘the Agency’) for calculating and assessing the achievement of common safety targets (CSTs), in application of Article 6(1) of Directive 2004/49/EC.

Article 2

Scope

This Decision shall apply to the whole railway system within each of the Member States. However it shall not apply to:

(a) metros, trams and other light rail systems;

(b) networks that are functionally separate from the rest of the railway system and intended only for the operation of local, urban or suburban passenger services, as well as railway undertakings operating solely on these networks;

(c) privately owned railway infrastructure that exists solely for use by the infrastructure owner for its own freight operations;

(d) heritage vehicles that run on national networks providing that they comply with national safety rules and regulations with a view to ensuring safe circulation of such vehicles;

(e) heritage, museum and tourist railways that operate on their own network, including workshops, vehicles and staff.

Article 3

Definitions

For the purposes of this Decision, definitions of Directive 2004/49/EC and Regulation (EC) No 91/2003 shall apply.

In addition, the following definitions shall apply:

(a) ‘national reference value (NRV)’ means a reference measure indicating, for the Member State concerned, the maximum tolerable level for a railway risk category;

(b) ‘risk category’ means one of the railway risk categories specified by Article 7(4)(a) and (b) of Directive 2004/49/EC;

(c) ‘safety enhancement plan’ means a schedule to implement the organisational structure, responsibilities, procedures, activities, capabilities and resources required to reduce the risk for one or more risk categories;

(d) ‘fatalities and weighted serious injuries (FWSIs)’ means a measurement of the consequences of significant accidents combining fatalities and serious injuries, where 1 serious injury is considered statistically equivalent to 0,1 fatalities;

(e) ‘level crossing users’ means all persons using a level crossing to cross the railway line by any means of transportation or by foot;

(f) ‘staff’ or ‘employees including the staff of contractors’ means any persons whose employment is in connection with a railway and is at work at the moment of the accident; it includes the crew of the train and persons handling rolling stock and infrastructure installations;

(g) ‘unauthorised persons on railway premises’ means any persons present on railway premises where such presence is forbidden, with the exception of level crossing users;

(h) ‘others (third parties)’ means all persons not defined as ‘passengers’, ‘employees including the staff of contractors’, ‘level crossing users’ or ‘unauthorised persons on railway premises’;

(i) ‘risk to the society as a whole’ means the collective risk to all categories of persons listed in Article 7(4)(a) of Directive 2004/49/EC;

(j) ‘passenger train-km’ means the unit of measure representing the movement of a passenger train over one kilometre; only the distance on the national territory of the reporting country shall be taken into account;

(k) ‘track-km’ means the length measured in kilometres of the railway network in Member States where each track of a multiple track railway line is to be counted.

Article 4

Methodologies to calculate NRVs and CSTs and to assess their achievement

1. The methodology described in the Annex shall apply for calculating and assessing the achievements of NRVs and CSTs.

2. The Agency shall propose to the Commission NRVs calculated in accordance with section 2.1 of the Annex and CSTs derived from the NRVs, in accordance with the methodology set out in section 2.2 of the Annex. After adoption of NRVs and CSTs by the Commission, the Agency shall assess their achievement by Member States in compliance with chapter 3 of the Annex.

3. The assessment of the estimated costs and benefits of CSTs referred to in Article 7(3) of Directive 2004/49/EC shall be limited to those Member States whose NRVs, for any of the risk categories, are found to be higher than the corresponding CSTs.

Article 5

Enforcement actions

In accordance with the different final results of the assessment of achievement, referred to in point 3.1.5 of the Annex, the following enforcement actions shall be taken:

(a) in case of ‘possible deterioration of safety performance’: the Member State/s concerned shall send to the Commission a report explaining the likely causes of the results obtained;

(b) in case of ‘probable deterioration of safety performance’: the Member State/s concerned shall send to the Commission a report explaining the likely causes of the results obtained and submit, if appropriate, a safety enhancement plan.

In order to evaluate any information and evidences provided by Member States in accordance with the process referred to in points (a) and (b), the Commission may ask the Agency to provide technical opinions.

Article 6

Addressees

This Decision is addressed to the Member States.

Done at Brussels, 5 June 2009. For the Commission Antonio TAJANI Vice-President

(1) OJ L 164, 30.4.2004, p. 44; corrected by OJ L 220, 21.6.2004, p. 16.

(2) OJ L 14, 21.1.2003, p. 1.