P7_TA(2014)0150

Railway safety ***I

European Parliament legislative resolution of 26 February 2014 on the proposal for a directive of the European Parliament and of the Council on railway safety (recast) (COM(2013)0031 — C7-0028/2013 — 2013/0016(COD))

(Ordinary legislative procedure — recast)

(2017/C 285/55)

The European Parliament,

having regard to the Commission proposal to Parliament and the Council (COM(2013)0031),

having regard to Article 294(2) and Article 91(1) of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union, pursuant to which the Commission submitted the proposal to Parliament (C7-0028/2013),

having regard to Article 294(3) of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union,

having regard to the reasoned opinions submitted, within the framework of Protocol No 2 on the application of the principles of subsidiarity and proportionality, by the Lithuanian Parliament, the Romanian Senate and the Swedish Parliament, asserting that the draft legislative act does not comply with the principle of subsidiarity,

having regard to the opinion of the European Economic and Social Committee of 11 July 2013 (1) ,

having regard to the opinion of the Committee of the Regions of 8 October 2013 (2) ,

having regard to the Interinstitutional Agreement of 28 November 2001 on a more structured use of the recasting technique for legal acts (3) ,

having regard to the letter from the Committee on Legal Affairs to the Committee on Transport and Tourism in accordance with Rule 87(3) of its Rules of Procedure,

having regard to Rules 87 and 55 of its Rules of Procedure,

having regard to the report of the Committee on Transport and Tourism (A7-0015/2014),

whereas, according to the Consultative Working Party of the legal services of the European Parliament, the Council and the Commission, the proposal in question does not include any substantive amendments other than those identified as such in the proposal and whereas, as regards the codification of the unchanged provisions of the earlier acts together with those amendments, the proposal contains a straightforward codification of the existing texts, without any change in their substance;

Adopts its position at first reading hereinafter set out, taking into account the recommendations of the Consultative Working Party of the legal services of the European Parliament, the Council and the Commission;

Calls on the Commission to refer the matter to Parliament again if it intends to amend its proposal substantially or replace it with another text;

Instructs its President to forward its position to the Council, the Commission and the national parliaments.

(1) OJ C 327, 12.11.2013, p. 122.

(2) OJ C 356, 5.12.2013, p. 92.

(3) OJ C 77, 28.3.2002, p. 1.

P7_TC1-COD(2013)0016

Position of the European Parliament adopted at first reading on 26 February 2014 with a view to the adoption of Directive 2014/…/EU of the European Parliament and of the Council on railway safety (recast)

(Text with EEA relevance)

THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT AND THE COUNCIL OF THE EUROPEAN UNION,

Having regard to the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union, and in particular Article 91 (1) thereof,

Having regard to the proposal from the European Commission,

After transmission of the draft legislative act to the national parliaments,

Having regard to the opinion of the European Economic and Social Committee (1),

Having regard to the opinion of the Committee of the Regions (2),

Acting in accordance with the ordinary legislative procedure (3),

Whereas:

(1) Directive 2004/49/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council (4) have been substantially amended. Since further amendments are to be made, it should be recast in the interests of clarity.

(1a) Rail is already the safest mode of transport in the Union and has further improved its safety performance over the past decades. Whilst its transport performance has increased from about 200 billion passenger kilometres in 1970 to over 300 billion now, the mean annual number of train passenger deaths has been reduced from about 400 in the early 1970s to below 100 now. [Am. 1]

(1b) Safety should be ensured not only for passengers and employees, including the staff of contractors, but also for users of level crossings and persons residing near railway lines. [Am. 2]

(1c) In line with technical and scientific progress, railway safety should be further improved, taking into account the expected improvement in the competitiveness of rail transport. [Am. 3]

(1d) The railway environment in the Union has been undergoing profound changes, triggered inter alia by the three Union Railway Packages adopted since the early 1990s. The gradual creation of the single European railway area is characterised by a multiplication of actors, increased recourse to subcontractors and more frequent market entries. In this context of higher complexity, rail safety is critically dependent on the interaction between all players, namely railway undertakings, infrastructure managers, the railway industry and safety authorities. Safety legislation should take account of these developments and put in place appropriate information, management and emergency procedures and tools. [Am. 4]

(2) Directive 2004/49/EC established a common regulatory framework for railway safety, through harmonisation of the content of safety rules, the safety certification of railway undertakings, the tasks and roles of the national safety authorities and the investigation of accidents. Nevertheless, to pursue efforts to establish The ongoing establishment of a single market for rail transport services results in a multiplication of different actors and communication interfaces. In order to guarantee railway safety within this environment , that Directive needs thorough revision. [Am. 5]

(2a) Given the subsisting differences between safety requirements, which affect the optimal functioning of rail transport in the Union, it is of particular importance to continue the process of harmonising operational and safety rules as well as the rules on the investigation of accidents. [Am. 6]

(2b) Harmonisation should not, however, jeopardise any Member State’s present safety level. [Am. 7]

(2c) Proper enforcement and further improvement of Council Directive 96/49/EC (5) and Directive 2008/68/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council (6) are of the highest importance for rail safety and the protection of human lives, public health and the environment. [Am. 8]

(3) Metros, trams , tram-trains and other light rail systems are subject in many Member States to local or regional safety rules and are often supervised by local or regional authorities and not covered by the requirements for interoperability or licensing within the Union. Trams are furthermore often subject to road safety legislation and could therefore not be fully covered by railway safety rules. For these reasons such local rail systems should be excluded from the scope of this Directive. This does not prevent Member States from applying the provisions of this Directive to local rail systems on a voluntary basis if they deem this appropriate. [Am. 9]

(4) Safety levels in the Union’s rail system are generally high, in particular compared to road transport. In line with technical and scientific progress, safety should be further improved, when so far as is reasonably practicable and taking into account the expected improvement in the competitiveness of rail transport. [Am. 10]

(4a) Safety is critically dependent on the interaction between rail infrastructure, operations, manufacturers and safety authorities. Appropriate tools should be used and developed in order to ensure and develop safety. [Am. 11]

(5) The main All the actors in the rail system, infrastructure managers and railway undertakings, should bear full responsibility for the safety of the system, each for their own part. Whenever appropriate, they should cooperate in implementing risk control measures. Member States should make a clear distinction between this immediate responsibility for safety and the national safety authorities’ task of providing a national regulatory framework and supervising the performance of all operators. [Am. 12]

(6) The responsibility of infrastructure managers and railway undertakings for operating the rail system does not preclude other actors such as manufacturers, carriers, consignors, fillers, loaders , unloaders, consignees, entities in charge of maintenance, maintenance suppliers, wagon vehicle owners, vehicle keepers, service providers and procurement entities from assuming responsibility for their products or services and for implanting risk control measures . To avoid the risk that the responsibilities are not properly assumed, each relevant actor should be made responsible for its particular process through contractual agreements . Each actor in the rail system should be responsible in respect to the other actors , including relevant authorities, for complete and truthful communication of all relevant information to check if the vehicles are fit to run. In needed to ensure the safe operation of a vehicle, in particular that concerns information on the status and history of the vehicle, maintenance files, traceability of loading operations, and consignment notes. [Am. 13]

(6a) The occurrence of heavy accidents involving freight wagons has shown that mandatory rules, harmonised at Union level, on frequency and intervals of maintenance of rail freight wagons, passenger rolling stock and locomotives are necessary. [Am. 14]

(7) Each railway undertaking, infrastructure manager and entity in charge of maintenance should ensure that its contractors and other parties implement risk control measures. To this end, they should apply the methods for monitoring set out in the common safety methods (CSMs). Their contractors should apply this process through contractual arrangements. Because such arrangements are an essential part of the safety management system of railway undertakings and infrastructure managers, railway undertakings and infrastructure managers should disclose their contractual arrangements on request of the European Union Agency for Railways (hereafter ‘the Agency’) or the national safety authority in the context of supervision activities.

(7a) The intensity of cooperation between manufacturers, maintenance suppliers and railway undertakings has decreased over past decades. This necessitates the harmonisation of minimum maintenance intervals and quality requirements to ensure the safety of the entire rail system. [Am. 15]

(8) Common safety targets (CSTs) and CSMs have been gradually introduced to ensure that safety is maintained at a high level and, when necessary and where reasonably practicable, improved. They should provide tools for assessment of the safety and performance of operators at Union level as well as in the Member States. Common safety indicators (CSIs) have been established in order to assess whether systems comply with the CSTs and to facilitate the monitoring of railway safety performance. [Am. 16]

(9) National rules, which are often based on national technical standards, have been are gradually being replaced by rules based on common standards, established by CSTs, CSMs and technical specifications for interoperability (TSIs). In order to eliminate the obstacles to interoperability, the amount of national rules should be reduced as a consequence of extending the scope of the TSIs to the whole Union’s rail system and of closing open points in the TSIs. For this purpose the Member States should must keep their system of national rules updated, delete obsolete rules and thereof inform the Commission and the the Agency thereof without delay . [Am. 17]

(10) In view of the gradual approach to eliminating obstacles to the interoperability of the rail system while maintaining a high level of railway safety, and of the time consequently required for the adoption of TSIs, steps should be taken to avoid a situation where Member States adopt new national rules or undertake projects that increase the diversity of the present system. The safety management system is the a recognised tool for preventing accidents . Member States, the Agency and railway undertakings are responsible for taking immediate corrective action to prevent re-occurrence of accidents. Member States should not decrease the responsibility of the railway undertakings by establishing new national rules immediately after an accident. [Am. 18]

(10a) Train control and signalling systems play a critical role in ensuring railway safety. The harmonised development and deployment of the ‘European Rail Traffic Management System’ (ERTMS) on the Union railway network constitutes an important contribution to improving safety levels. [Am. 19]

(11) In carrying out their duties and fulfilling their responsibilities, infrastructure managers and railway undertakings should implement a safety management system meeting Union requirements and containing common elements. Information on safety and the implementation of the safety management system should be submitted to the Agency and to the national safety authority in the Member State concerned.

(11a) Railway undertakings and infrastructure managers should establish, within their safety culture, a ‘just culture’ in order to actively encourage personnel to report safety-related accidents, incidents and near misses without being subject to punishment or discrimination. A fair culture enables the railway industry to learn lessons from accidents, incidents and near misses and thereby improve safety on the railway for workers and for passengers. [Am. 20]

(12) To ensure a high level of railway safety and equal conditions for all railway undertakings, the latter should be subject to the same safety requirements. A licensed railway undertaking should hold a safety certificate in order to obtain access to the railway infrastructure. The safety certificate should provide evidence that the railway undertaking has established its safety management system and is able to comply with the relevant safety standards and rules in all Member States in which the undertaking operates . For international transport services, it should be enough to approve the safety management system only once at Union level or for the territory the rail infrastructure of which the railway undertaking will use . [Am. 21]

(13) Minimum harmonised methods based on Directive 2004/49/EC have been established to be applied to the railway undertakings and the national safety authorities on monitoring, conformity assessment, supervision and on risk evaluation and assessment. This regulatory framework is sufficiently mature to move progressively towards a ‘single safety certificate’, valid throughout the Union within the specified areas of operation . The move to a single safety certificate should make the rail system more effective and efficient by reducing admistrative burdens for the railway undertakings , thereby making railway transport more competitive in intermodal competition . [Am. 22]

(14) The single safety certificate should be issued on the basis of the evidence that the railway undertaking has established its safety management system. Establishing this evidence may require not only on-site inspections to the railway undertaking but also the supervision aimed to assess that the railway undertaking continues to apply duly its safety management system after having been granted the single safety certificate.

(15) Infrastructure manager should have a key responsibility for the safe design, maintenance and operation of its rail network. The infrastructure manager should be subject to safety authorisation by the national safety authority concerning its safety management system and other provisions to meet safety requirements.

(16) Training and qualification of train staff is a critical factor for railway safety. Railway undertakings should ensure that their staff are adequately qualified, certified and trained, including when operating on the network of another Member State. National safety authorities should monitor and enforce the requirements in this regard. The certification of train staff is often an insurmountable can be a barrier to new entrants. Member States should ensure that facilities for the training and certification of train staff necessary to meet requirements under national rules are available to railway undertakings intending to operate on the relevant network. [Am. 23]

(17) The entity in charge of maintenance should be certified for freight wagons. Where the entity in charge of maintenance is an infrastructure manager, this certification should be included in the procedure for safety authorisation. The certificate issued to such an entity should guarantee that the maintenance requirements of this Directive are met for any freight wagon for which the entity is in charge. This certificate should be valid in the whole Union and should be issued by a body able to audit the maintenance system set up by the entity. As freight wagons are frequently used in international traffic and as the entity in charge of maintenance may want to use workshops established in more than one Member State, the certification body should be able to implement its controls throughout the Union.

(17a) The Agency should develop with the sector experts a common safety method for identifying the critical safety components, taking into account the experience of the aviation sector. [Am. 24]

(18) The national safety authorities should be fully independent in their organisation, legal structure and decision making from any railway undertaking, infrastructure manager, applicant and or procurement entity. They should carry out their tasks in an open and non-discriminatory way and cooperate with the Agency to create a single rail area with a high level of railway safety and coordinate their decision-making criteria. In order to fulfil their tasks, the national safety authorities must have sufficient budgetary resources and a sufficient number of well-trained staff . To increase efficiency, two or more Member States may decide to merge the staff and resources of the respective national safety authorities. [Am. 25]

(18a) In order to create a Single European Railway Area and to improve railway safety, the introduction of a single safety certificate is essential. This requires a clear distribution of tasks and responsibilities between the Agency and the national safety authorities. The Agency should become a one-stop shop for safety certificates in the Union, using the valuable expertise, local knowledge and experience of national safety authorities. It should delegate specific tasks and responsibilities to national safety authorities on the basis of contractual agreements as referred to in Regulation … [Regulation on the European Railway Agency], but should have exclusive competence to issue, renew, amend or revoke safety certificates for both railway undertakings and infrastructure managers. [Am. 26]

(19) When a national safety authority is requested to supervise a railway undertaking established in different Member States, the other relevant national safety authorities should be informed by the Agency and the latter should ensure the necessary coordination of supervision activities.

(19a) Adherence to working, driving and rest time rules for train drivers and train staff performing safety tasks is crucial for railway safety and fair competition. The national safety authorities should be responsible for enforcing and checking the application of those rules, as well as for cross-border operations. The Agency should develop an on-board device for registering the driving and rest times of train drivers. National safety authorities should have competence to monitor driving and rest times across borders. [Am. 27]

(20) Serious accidents on the railways are rare. However, they can have disastrous consequences and raise concern among the public about the safety performance of the rail system. All such accidents should, therefore, be investigated from a safety perspective to avoid recurrence and the results of the investigations should be made public and included in regular reports . Other accidents and incidents should also be subject to safety investigations when they could be significant precursors to serious accidents. In order to identify such precursors, railway undertakings and infrastructure managers shall establish a ‘just culture’ as defined in Article 3 . [Am. 28]

(20a) The rail safety system is based on feedback and lessons learned from accidents and incidents which require the strict application of rules on confidentiality in order to ensure the future availability of valuable sources of information. In this context, sensitive safety information should be afforded appropriate protection. [Am. 29]

(20b) Accidents involve a number of different public interests such as the need to prevent future accidents and the proper administration of justice. Those interests go beyond the individual interests of the parties involved and beyond the specific event in question. The right balance among all interests is necessary in order to guarantee the overall public interest. [Am. 30]

(21) A safety investigation should be kept separate from the judicial inquiry into the same incident and should be granted access to evidence and witnesses. It should be carried out by a permanent body that is independent of the actors of the rail sector. The body should function in a way which avoids any conflict of interest and any possible involvement in the causes of the occurrences that are investigated; in particular, its functional independence should not be affected if it is closely linked to the national safety authority or regulator of railways for organisational and legal structure purposes. Its investigations should be carried out under as much openness as possible. For each occurrence the investigation body should establish the relevant investigation group with necessary expertise to find the immediate causes and underlying causes.

(21a) The rail sector should likewise promote a non-punitive environment facilitating the spontaneous reporting of occurrences and thereby advancing the principle of a ‘just culture’. [Am. 31]

(21b) It is important for the prevention of accidents and incidents that relevant information, including in particular reports and safety recommendations resulting from safety investigations, be communicated as rapidly as possible. [Am. 32]

(21c) In the rail sector, it is difficult to identify victims and contact persons and/or family members following an accident, since in general the operator does not know the victims' identities. Nevertheless, in some of the Union's rail services where advance reservation is compulsory or security checks are carried out on passengers before they board the train, it would be appropriate if the operator could have a list of the passengers and crew on board for the sole purpose of being able to communicate quickly with family members and/or contact persons. The Agency should therefore be mandated to develop systems to integrate such information in passenger reservation systems. National agencies also need to draw up emergency plans providing for emergency services, access plans and assistance at the site of the accident, and also including a plan for the provision of care for victims. The Agency will be able to cooperate and assist in the drawing-up of such plans, taking account of best practice. The operator should also have a plan for the provision of assistance to victims. [Am. 33]

(22) In order to improve the efficiency of activities of an investigation body and to help it in discharging its duties, the investigation , as well as the Agency if it so requests, body should have timely access to the site of an accident, where necessary in good cooperation with the judicial authority. All parties involved, including the Agency, should provide all relevant information necessary in order to enable the investigation body to carry out its activities. The reports on investigations and any findings and recommendations provide crucial information for the further improvement of railway safety and should be made publicly available at Union level. Safety recommendations should be acted upon by the addressees and actions reported back to the investigating body. [Am. 34]

(23) The Member States should lay down rules on penalties applicable to infringements of the provisions of this Directive and ensure that they are implemented. Those penalties should be effective, proportionate and dissuasive.

(24) Since the objectives of the actions proposed in this Directive, namely coordinating activities in the Member States in order to regulate and supervise safety, investigating accidents and establishing common safety targets, common safety methods, common safety indicators and common requirements for single safety certificates cannot be sufficiently achieved by the Member States and can be better achieved at Union level, the Union may adopt measures in accordance with the principle of subsidiarity as set out in Article 5 of the Treaty on European Union. In accordance with the principle of proportionality, as set out in that Article, this Directive does not go beyond what is necessary in order to achieve those objectives.

(25) In order to supplement and amend certain non-essential elements of this Directive, the power to adopt acts in accordance with Article 290 of the Treaty should be delegated to the Commission in respect of common safety methods and their revision, and revision of common safety indicators and common safety targets. It is of particular importance that the Commission carry out appropriate consultations during its preparatory work, including at expert level , with social partners and especially with national safety authorities . The Commission, when preparing and drawing up delegated acts, should ensure a simultaneous, timely and appropriate transmission of relevant documents to the European Parliament and to the Council. [Am. 35]

(26) In order to ensure uniform conditions for the implementation of this Directive, the implementing powers should be conferred on the Commission relating to the requirements for the safety management system and its elements, review of the system for certification of the entities in charge of maintenance for freight wagons and extension to other rolling stocks and the principal content of the accident and incident investigation report. Those powers should be exercised in accordance with Regulation (EU) No 182/2011 of the European Parliament and of the Council (7).

(27) The obligation to transpose this Directive into national law should be confined to those provisions representing a substantive change as compared with the earlier Directive. The obligation to transpose the provisions that are unchanged arises under the earlier Directive.

(28) This Directive should be without prejudice to the obligation of the Member States relating to the time-limits for transposition into national law of the Directives set out in Annex IV, part B,

HAVE ADOPTED THIS DIRECTIVE:

CHAPTER I

GENERAL PROVISIONS

Article 1

Subject matter

This Directive lays down minimum provisions , beyond which Member States may legislate only in accordance with Article 8, to ensure the development and further improvement of safety of the Union’s railways and improved access to the market for rail transport services by: [Am. 36]

(a) harmonising the regulatory structure in the Member States;

(b) defining responsibilities between the actors of the rail system;

(c) developing common safety targets and common safety methods with a view to gradually removing the need for greater harmonisation of national rules at a high safety level ; [Am. 37]

(d) requiring the establishment, for each Member State, of a national safety authority and an accident and incident investigating body;

(e) defining common principles for the management, regulation and supervision of railway safety;

(ea) introducing a single safety certificate that is valid and recognised in all Member States within the specified areas of operation. [Am. 38]

(eb) requiring the Agency to publish guidelines on railway safety and safety certification, including lists of examples of good practice, in particular for cross-border transport. [Am. 39]

Article 2

Scope

1. This Directive applies to the rail system in the Member States, which may be broken down into subsystems for structural and functional areas. It covers safety requirements on the system as a whole, including the safe management of infrastructure and of traffic operation and the interaction between railway undertakings, infrastructure managers and other actors of the rail system.

2. The following systems are excluded Member States may exclude from the scope measures they adopt in implementation of this Directive: [Am. 103]

(a) metros, trams , tram-trains and light rail systems; [Am. 40]

(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;

3. Member States may exclude from the scope of the measures implementing this Directive:

(a) privately owned railway infrastructure and vehicles exclusively used on such infrastructure where this exists solely for use by the owner for its own freight operations;

(b) infrastructure and vehicles reserved for strictly local, historical or tourist use;

(ba) light rail infrastructure occasionally used by heavy rail vehicles under the operational conditions of the light-rail systems, where such use by such vehicles is necessary for connectivity purposes only; [Am. 41]

(bb) rolling stock which has lost its authorisation and is being moved to a terminal or site to allow it to be reauthorised. [Am. 42]

Article 3

Definitions

For the purpose of this Directive, the following definitions apply:

(a) ‘ Union rail system’ means the conventional and high-speed Union rail system as defined in Article 2 of Directive … [Railway Interoperability Directive]; [Am. 43]

(b) ‘infrastructure manager’ means an infrastructure manager as defined in Article 2 3 of Directive 2001/14/EC 2012 / 34 / EU of the European Parliament and of the Council (8); [Am. 44]

(c) ‘'railway undertaking’' means railway undertaking as defined in Article 2 of Article 3 of Directive 2001/14/EC 2012 / 34 / EU , and any other public or private undertaking, the activity of which is to provide transport of goods and/or passengers by rail on the basis that the undertaking must ensure traction, including undertakings which provide traction only; [Am. 45]

(ca) ‘area of operation’ means a network or networks within a Member State, or a group of Member States, on which a railway undertaking intends to operate;

(cb) ‘isolated rail network’ means the rail network of a Member State, or a part thereof, with a track gauge of 1 520 mm, which is geographically or technically detached from the European network with the standard nominal track gauge (1 435 mm — hereafter ‘standard gauge’) and well integrated in the rail network of 1 520 mm track gauge together with third countries, but isolated from the Union's standard network. [Am. 46]

(d) ‘technical specification for interoperability (TSI)’ means a specification by which each subsystem or part of a subsystem is covered in order to meet the essential requirements and ensure the interoperability of the rail system as defined in Article 2 of Directive … [Railway Interoperability Directive];

(e) ‘common safety targets (CSTs)’ means the safety levels that must at least be reached by different parts of the rail system (such as the conventional rail system, the high speed rail system, long railway tunnels or lines solely used for freight transport) and by the system as a whole, expressed in risk acceptance criteria;

(f) ‘common safety methods (CSMs)’ means the methods describing the assessment of safety levels and achievement of safety targets and compliance with other safety requirements;

(fa) ‘Common Safety Indicators (CSIs)’ means a common set of rail safety data, gathered to facilitate the monitoring of railway safety performance as well as the achievement of Common Safety Targets (CSTs); [Am. 48]

(g) ‘national safety authority’ means the national body entrusted with the tasks regarding railway safety in accordance with this Directive or any body entrusted by several Member States with these tasks in order to ensure a unified safety regime;

(h) ‘national rules’ means all binding rules containing that have been notified by a Member State and that contain railway safety , operational or technical requirements imposed at Member State level and applicable to railway undertakings actors , irrespective of the body issuing them; [Am. 49]

(i) ‘safety management system’ means the organisation and arrangements procedures established by an infrastructure manager or a railway undertaking to ensure the safe management of its operations; [Am. 50]

(j) ‘investigator-in-charge’ means a person responsible for the organisation, conduct and control of an investigation;

(k) ‘accident’ means an unwanted or unintended sudden event or a specific chain of such events which have has harmful consequences; accidents are divided into the following categories: collisions, derailments, level-crossing accidents, accidents to persons, including those not falling within the definition of passengers, caused by rolling stock in motion, including in shunting yards and during track maintenance works, fires and others;

(l) ‘serious accident’ means any train collision or derailment of trains, resulting in the death of at least one person or serious injuries to five or more persons or extensive damage to rolling stock, the infrastructure or the environment, and any other similar accident with an obvious impact on railway safety regulation or the management of safety; ‘extensive damage’ above means damage that can immediately be assessed by the investigating body to cost at least EUR 2 million in total;

(m) ‘incident’ means any occurrence, other than accident or serious accident, associated with the operation of trains and affecting the safety of operations;

(n) ‘investigation’ means a process conducted for the purpose of accident and incident prevention which includes the gathering and analysis of information, the drawing of conclusions, including the determination of causes and, when appropriate, the making of safety recommendations;

(na) ‘reasonably practicable’, when applied to any activity, means that, following a cost-benefit analysis, the activity in question does not lead to a disproportionate contribution in terms of cost and/or implementation timing, in relation to the safety target to be achieved; [Am. 52]

(nb) ‘other parties’ means any party that performs external activities at the interfaces with the rail system which may introduce risks that have a direct impact on operations and that have to be controlled by infrastructure managers and railway undertakings; [Am. 53]

(o) ‘causes’ means actions, omissions, events or conditions, or a combination thereof, which led to the accident or incident;

(p) ‘light rail’ means an urban and/or sub-urban rail transport system with lower capacity and lower speeds than heavy rail and metro systems, but higher capacity and higher speeds than tram systems. Light rail systems may have their own right-of-way or share it with road traffic and usually do not exchange vehicles with long-distance passenger or freight traffic;

(pa) ‘cross-border rail systems’ means rail systems that provide transport services between the nearest urban nodes on each side of a border; [Am. 54]

(q) ‘notified bodies’ means the bodies which are responsible for assessing the conformity or suitability for use of the interoperability constituents or for appraising the ‘EC’ procedure for verification of the subsystems;

(r) ‘interoperability constituents’ means any elementary component, group of components, subassembly or complete assembly of equipment incorporated or intended to be incorporated into a subsystem upon which the interoperability of the rail system depends directly or indirectly, as defined in Article 2 of Directive … [Railway Interoperability Directive];

(s) ‘keeper’ ‘owner’ means the person or entity that, being the owner of a vehicle or having the right to use it, exploits the vehicle as a means of transport and is registered as such in the national vehicle register registers referred to in Article 43 and Article 43a of Directive … [Railway Interoperability Directive]; [Am. 55]

(t) ‘entity in charge of maintenance’ means an entity in charge of maintenance of a vehicle, and registered as such in the national vehicle register;

(u) ‘vehicle’ means a railway vehicle suitable for circulation on its own wheels on railway lines, with or without traction in a fixed or variable composition . A vehicle is composed of one or more structural and functional subsystems; [Am. 56]

(v) ‘manufacturer’ means any natural or legal person who manufactures an interoperability constituent , component or subsystem or has it designed or manufactured, and markets it under his name or trademark; [Am. 57]

(w) ‘consignor’ means the enterprise which consigns goods either on its own behalf or for a third party;

(x) ‘loader’ means any enterprise that loads packaged goods, including dangerous goods, small containers or portable tanks onto a wagon or a container or which loads a container, bulk-container, multiple-element gas container, tank-container or portable tank onto a wagon;

(xa) ‘unloader’ means the enterprise which removes a container from a wagon, or unloads packaged goods out of or from a wagon or a container, or discharges goods from a tank, a wagon or a container; [Am. 58]

(y) ‘filler’ means any enterprise that loads goods, including dangerous goods, into a tank (tank-wagon, wagon with demountable tank, portable tank or tank-container) into a wagon, large container or small container for carriage in bulk, or into a battery-wagon or multiple-element gas container.

(ya) ‘just culture’ means a procedure to be established to actively encourage personnel to report safety-related accidents, incidents and near misses while still being accountable for wilful violations and gross negligence. Such individuals should not be subject to punishment or discrimination for unintended errors or for disclosure of such information. A just culture enables the railway industry to learn lessons from accidents, incidents and near misses and thereby improve safety on the railway for workers and passengers; [Am. 59]

(yb) ‘consignee’ means any natural or legal person who is identified as such in the consignment note and who receives the goods and the consignment note; [Am. 60]

(yc) ‘carrier’ means any enterprise with whom the consignor or the passenger has concluded the contract of carriage or a successive carrier who is liable on the basis of that contract; [Am. 61]

CHAPTER II

DEVELOPMENT AND MANAGEMENT OF SAFETY

Article 4

Role of the actors of the rail system in developing and improving railway safety

1. Member States and the Agency shall ensure , each within their respective fields of responsibility, that railway safety is generally maintained and, where reasonably practicable, continuously improved, taking into consideration the impact of human factors, the development of Union and international legislation and technical and scientific progress and giving priority to the prevention of serious accidents.

Member States and the Agency shall ensure that measures to develop and improve railway safety take account of the need to follow a system-based approach.

2. Member States and the Agency shall ensure that the responsibility for the safe operation of the rail system and the control of risks associated with it is laid upon the infrastructure managers and railway undertakings, obliging them:

(a) to implement necessary risk control measures, where appropriate in cooperation with each other,

(b) to apply Union and national rules,

(c) to establish safety management systems in accordance with this Directive.

Without prejudice to civil liability in accordance with the legal requirements of the Member States, each infrastructure manager and railway undertaking shall be made responsible for its part of the system and its safe operation, including supply of material and contracting of services, vis-à-vis users, customers, the workers concerned and third parties. The risks associated with the activities of third parties shall also be taken into account in the safety management systems of infrastructure managers and railway undertakings.

3. Each manufacturer, maintenance supplier, 1 keeper, service provider and procurement entity shall ensure that rolling stock , facilities , installations, accessories and equipment and services supplied by them comply with the specified requirements and conditions for use, so that they can be safely put into operation by the railway undertaking and/or infrastructure manager.

4. All actors having a relevant role in safety operations shall , each within their respective fields of responsibility, implement the necessary risk control measures, where appropriate in cooperation with the others , and shall bear the responsibility for the performance of their own duties . In addition to railway undertakings and infrastructure managers those actors include:

(a) the keepers and their entity or entities in charge of the maintenance of vehicles;

(b) the consignors, the loaders, the unloaders and the fillers, which have a role in safe loading operations,

(c) the manufacturers, which are responsible for the design and manufacturing of safe railway vehicles, parts, components or sub-assemblies of vehicle, railway infrastructure, energy and track side control command, as well as issuing of the preliminary maintenance documentation associated to with the vehicle.

5. Each railway undertaking, infrastructure manager and entity in charge of maintenance shall ensure that its contractors implement risk control measures. To this end, each railway undertaking, infrastructure manager and entity in charge of maintenance shall apply the common methods for monitoring processes set out in the Commission Regulation (EU) No 1078/2012 (9). Their contractors shall apply this process through contractual arrangements agreements . Railway undertakings, infrastructure managers and entities in charge of maintenance shall disclose their contractual arrangements agreements on request of the Agency or the national safety authority.

6. Any actor of the rail system who identifies a systemic safety risk related to defects and construction non-conformities or malfunctions of technical equipment, including those of structural sub-systems, shall report those risks , under a procedure that is harmonised throughout the Union, to the other parties involved and to the Agency in order to enable them to take any necessary corrective actions to ensure continuous achievement of the safety performance of the rail system.

6a. Member States, the Agency and all actors of the rail system shall establish a ‘just culture’ that ensures the consistent reporting of accidents, incidents and potential safety risks. In order to encourage such reporting, Member States shall set up a mechanism enabling such reporting to be done on a confidential basis.

7. In case the event of exchange of vehicles between railways railway undertakings, all actors shall exchange all information relevant to safe operation using the registers of vehicles referred to in Articles 43 and 43a of Directive… [Railway Interoperability Directive] . Such information shall include information on the status and history of the vehicle, elements of the maintenance files, traceability of loading operations, and safety-critical components as well as consignment notes. It shall be sufficiently detailed to allow an assessment of the risks of operating the vehicle by the railway undertaking. [Am. 62]

Article 5

Common safety indicators

1. In order to facilitate the assessment of the achievement of the CST and to provide for the monitoring of the general development of railway safety Member States shall collect information on common safety indicators (CSIs) through the annual reports of the national safety authorities as referred to in Article 18.

The CSIs shall be established as set out in Annex I.

1a. Member States shall support the Agency in its work of monitoring the development of railway safety on a Union level. [Am. 63]

2. The Commission shall be empowered to adopt delegated acts in accordance with Article 26 concerning the revision of Annex I, in particular to update the CSIs taking into account of the technical progress and to adapt the common methods for calculating accident costs.

Article 6

Common safety methods

1. The CSMs shall describe how the safety levels, the achievement of safety targets and compliance with other safety requirements are assessed, by elaborating and defining:

(a) risk evaluation and assessment methods,

(b) methods for assessing conformity with requirements in safety certificates and safety authorisations issued in accordance with Articles 10 and 11,

(c) methods for supervision to be applied by national safety authorities and methods for monitoring to be applied by railway undertakings, infrastructure managers and entities in charge of maintenance;

(ca) methods for monitoring the development of safety at national and Union level; [Am. 64]

(d) any other methods covering a process of the safety management system which need to be harmonised at Union level.

2. The Commission shall issue mandates to the Agency to draft the new CSMs referred in point 1(d), to review and update all CSMs to take account of developments in technology or social requirements and to make the relevant recommendations to the Commission as quickly as possible . [Am. 65]

When drafting the recommandations recommendations , the Agency shall take account of the opinion of the users , national safety authorities, the social partners and of the other stakeholders. The recommendations shall enclose a report on the results of this consultation and a report assessing the impact of the new CSM to be adopted. [Am. 66]

3. The CSMs shall be revised at regular intervals, taking into account the experience gained from their application and the global development of railway safety and in view of generally maintaining and where , so far as is reasonably practicable, continuously improving safety. [Am. 67]

4. The Commission shall be empowered to adopt delegated acts laying down CSMs and revised CSMs in accordance with Article 26.

5. Member States shall promptly make any necessary amendments to their national rules in the light of the adoption of CSMs and revisions to them. [Am. 68]

Article 7

Common safety targets

1. The CSTs shall define the minimum safety levels that shall be reached by different parts of the rail system and by the system as a whole in each Member State, expressed in risk acceptance criteria for:

(a) individual risks relating to passengers, staff including the staff of contractors, level crossing users and others, and, without prejudice to existing national and international liability rules, individual risks relating to unauthorised persons on railway premises;

(b) societal risks.

2. The Commission shall issue a mandate to the Agency to draft revised CSTs as soon as possible and to make the relevant recommendations to the Commission. [Am. 69]

3. The CSTs shall be revised at regular intervals, taking into account the global development of railway safety. The revised CSTs shall reflect any priority areas where safety needs to be further improved.

4. The Commission shall be empowered to adopt delegated acts laying down revised CSTs in accordance with Article 26.

5. Member States shall make any necessary amendments to their national rules in order to achieve at least the CSTs, and any revised CSTs, in accordance with the implementation timetables attached to them. They shall notify these rules to the Commission in accordance with Article 8.

Article 8

National rules

1. Member States may lay down draft new national rules after the entry into force of this Directive only in the following cases:

(a) where rules concerning existing safety methods are not covered by a CSM;

(b) as an urgent preventive measure, in particular following an accident.

Member States shall ensure that national rules are non-discriminatory and that they take account of the need for a system-based approach.

Member States may decide to achieve a higher safety level than that defined in the relevant CST provided that such higher safety level is fully compatible with the existing CST.

2. If a Member State intends to introduce a new national rule, it shall promptly notify the draft of that rule to the Agency and the Commission using the appropriate IT system in accordance with article Article 23 of Regulation … [Regulation on Agency for Railways] and enclosing a report assessing the impact of the new rule to be adopted . Save in the cases described in point (b) of paragraph 1, such notification shall be made at least three months before the planned adoption of the rule .

After receipt of the draft national rule, the Agency shall initiate a coordination process involving all national safety authorities in order to ensure the highest possible degree of harmonisation across the Union.

The new national rule may not remain in force or enter into force if the Commission, upon a recommendation of the Agency, objects to it, providing a statement of reasons for its objection.

3. If the Agency becomes aware of any national rule notified or not which that has become redundant or is in conflict with the CSMs or any other Union legislation adopted after the application of the national rule the procedure established in article Article 22 of Regulation … [Regulation on Agency for Railways] shall apply.

In relation to matters concerning training, occupational health and safety for rail professionals responsible for safety critical tasks, the Agency may only apply this paragraph if the national rule in question is discriminatory and a higher safety level is ensured by the CSMs or by any other Union legislation.

4. Member States shall ensure that national rules , including those covering the interfaces between vehicles and the network, are made available free of charge and in a language that can be understood by all parties concerned at least two official languages of the Union .

5. National rules notified in accordance with this Article are not subject to the notification procedure set out in Directive 98/34/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council (10).

5a. The Agency shall establish and publish common guidelines for the adoption of new, or the amendment of existing, national rules. [Am. 70]

Article 9

Safety management systems

1. Infrastructure managers and railway undertakings shall establish their safety management systems to ensure that the rail system can achieve at least the CSTs, is in conformity with safety requirements laid down in the TSIs, and that the relevant parts of CSMs and rules notified under Article 8 are applied.

2. The safety management system shall meet the requirements, adapted to the character, extent and other conditions of the activity pursued. It shall ensure the control of all risks associated with the activity of the infrastructure manager or railway undertaking, including proper qualification and training of staff as well as the supply of maintenance and material and the use of contractors. Without prejudice to existing national and international liability rules, the safety management system shall also take into account, where appropriate and reasonable, the risks arising as a result of activities by other parties. Consequently, infrastructure managers and railway undertakings shall have procedures to identify those potential risks which arise from external activities at the interfaces with the rail system and which have a direct impact on operations. [Am. 71]

The Commission shall establish, by means of implementing delegated acts, elements of the safety management system , including an internally approved and communicated safety policy; qualitative and quantitative safety targets and procedures to reach those targets; procedures to meet technical and operational standards; risk evaluation procedures and implementing risk control measures; staff training and information measures; procedures ensuring communication and documentation of safety-related information; procedures for reporting and analysing incidents and accidents and other safety occurrences and for developing preventive measures; provisions in respect of emergency plans which are agreed with public authorities; and provisions for the internal auditing of the safety management system . Those implementing delegated acts shall be adopted in accordance with the examination procedure referred to in Article 27(2) 26 . [Am. 72]

2a. As far as railway personnel are concerned, the safety management system shall include measures for the provision of programmes for the training of staff and systems to ensure that the competence of staff is maintained and that tasks are carried out accordingly. [Am. 73]

2b. The safety management system shall include provisions for a ‘just culture’ as defined in Article 3. [Am. 74]

3. The safety management system of any infrastructure manager shall take into account the effects of operations by different railway undertakings on the network and make provisions to allow all railway undertakings to operate in accordance with TSIs and national rules and with the conditions laid down in their safety certificate. The safety management systems shall be developed with the aim of coordinating the emergency procedures of the infrastructure manager with all railway undertakings that operate on its infrastructure , with the emergency services, so as to guarantee the rapid intervention of rescue services, and with any other party that could be involved in an emergency situation . For cross-border infrastructure, and in particular for cross-border tunnels, specific safety management systems shall be developed and improved in order to ensure the necessary coordination and preparedness of the competent emergency services on both sides of the border . [Am. 75]

3a. Infrastructure managers shall also establish a system for coordination with managers in neighbouring countries with which the network is linked. That system shall include mechanisms for the provision of information in the event of incidents or accidents on the network or delays that could disrupt cross-border traffic, and cooperation procedures to restore traffic between the two infrastructures whilst guaranteeing network safety at all times. Infrastructure managers in both countries shall notify operators, stakeholders and the corresponding national authorities of any relevant information that could affect traffic between the two States. [Am. 76]

4. Each year all infrastructure managers and railway undertakings shall submit to the national safety authority before 30 June an annual safety report concerning the preceding calendar year. The safety report shall contain:

(a) information on how the organisation’s corporate safety targets are met and the results of safety plans;

(b) the development of national safety indicators, and of the CSIs laid down in Annex I, as far as it is relevant to the reporting organisation;

(c) the results of internal safety auditing;

(d) observations on deficiencies and malfunctions of railway operations and infrastructure management that might be relevant for the national safety authority.

CHAPTER III

SAFETY CERTIFICATION AND AUTHORISATION

Article 10

Single safety certificate

1. Access to the railway infrastructure shall be granted only to railway undertakings which hold the single safety certificate.

2. The single safety certificate shall be granted by the Agency , save in the cases referred to in paragraph 2a, on the basis of the evidence that the railway undertaking has established its safety management system in accordance with Article 9 and meets the requirements laid down in TSIs, and in other relevant legislation and in any specific operational rules relevant for the service operated by the railway undertaking in order to control risks and provide transport services safely on the network.

2a. Safety certificates for railway undertakings operating exclusively on an isolated network may also be granted by a national safety authority of those Member States which possess such a network. In such cases, the applicant may choose between applying to the Agency or to the national safety authorities of the Member States concerned.

Within the transition period provided for in Article 30, the national safety authorities of those Member States that possess an isolated network shall establish common safety certification procedures and ensure mutual recognition of safety certificates issued by them. In the case of conflicting decisions of the national safety authorities or in the absence of a mutually acceptable decision, the Agency shall take a decision in accordance with Article 12 of Regulation… [Regulation on Agency for Railways].

If by the end of the transitional period provided for in Article 30 those national safety authorities have not established arrangements for common procedures and mutual recognition of safety certificates, the authorisations referred to in this Article shall be granted only by the Agency.

If by the end of the transitional period provided for in Article 30 the arrangements for common certification procedures and mutual recognition of safety certificates are established, the national safety authorities of those Member States that possess isolated networks may continue to issue safety certificates and the applicant may choose to apply for a safety certificate to the Agency or to the relevant national safety authorities after the end of the transition period provided for in Article 30.

Ten years after the entry into force of this Directive, the Commission shall present to the European Parliament and the Council a report on the progress achieved towards the establishment of common procedures and the mutual recognition of safety certificates on the isolated rail network and shall, if necessary, make appropriate legislative proposals.

3. The single safety certificate shall specify the type and, extent and area of operation of the railway operations covered. It shall be valid and recognised throughout or in parts of the Union for equivalent operations in conformity with the conditions laid down by the Agency .

4. Three months before Before the start of operation of any new service that is not covered by its single safety certificate , the railway undertaking shall notify send to the Agency or, in the cases referred to in paragraph 2a, to the relevant national safety authority authorities, the additional documentation confirming necessary to confirm that:

(a) the railway undertaking will follow the operating rules, including national rules made available to them in accordance with Article 8(4), and assess the safety of their operation, taking into account the requirements in Commission Regulation (EC) No 352/2009 (11) and ensuring that they are managing all risks through their safety management system and that they are making all necessary arrangements to operate safely;

(b) the railway undertaking has made the arrangements necessary for cooperation and coordination with the infrastructure manager(s) of the network(s) where it proposes to operate;

(c) the railway undertaking has taken any action necessary to ensure the safe operation of the service;

(d) the railway undertaking has a licence issued in accordance with Council Directive 95/18/EC (12);

(e) the type and, extent and area of operation of its intended operation corresponds to that specified in its single safety certificate.

If the Agency or, in the cases referred to in paragraph 2a, the national safety authority has doubts concerning the fulfilment of one or more conditions it shall request more information from the railway undertaking. However, this exchange may not have any suspensive or delaying effect on the start of operation. If the in accordance with the time limits laid down in Article 11(1). If the Agency or, in the cases referred to in paragraph 2a, the national safety authority finds evidence that one or more conditions are not met, it shall refer the matter to the Agency, which shall take the appropriate measures, including the amendment, suspension or revocation of the certificate.

5. The single safety certificate shall be renewed upon application by the railway undertaking at intervals not exceeding five years. It shall be wholly or partly updated whenever before the type or extent or area of the operation is substantially altered modified.

The holder of the single safety certificate shall inform the Agency or, in the cases referred to in paragraph 2a, the national safety authority, without delay of any major changes in the conditions of the single safety certificate. It shall furthermore notify the Agency or, in the cases referred to in paragraph 2a, the national safety authority, whenever new categories of safety-critical staff or new types of rolling stock are introduced. The time limits laid down in Article 11(1) shall likewise apply in such cases.

The Agency may require that the single safety certificate be revised following substantial changes to the safety regulatory framework.

6. If a national safety authority finds that a holder of a single safety certificate no longer satisfies the conditions for certification, it shall ask the Agency to revoke it. The Agency or, in the cases referred to in paragraph 2a, the national safety authority may revoke the single safety certificate, giving reasons for its decision. The Agency or, in the cases referred to in paragraph 2a, the national safety authority shall immediately inform all the national safety authorities of the networks on which the railway undertaking operates.

7. The Agency or, in the cases referred to in paragraph 2a, the national safety authority, shall inform the national safety authorities within one month of the issue, renewal, amendment or revocation of a single safety certificate . It shall state the name and address of the railway undertaking, the issue date, the scope and validity of the certificate and, in the case of revocation, the reasons for its decision.

8. The Agency shall continuously monitor the effectiveness of the measures for the issuing of single safety certificates and the supervision by national safety authorities and, where appropriate, shall make recommendations to the Commission for improvement. These may include a recommandation recommendation for a CSM covering a process of the safety management system which needs to be harmonised at Union level, as referred to in point (d) of Article 6(1)(d) 6(1).

8a. Any natural or legal person may appeal against a decision addressed to that person by the Agency pursuant to Articles 12, 16, 17 and 18 of Regulation … [Regulation on Agency for Railways] or against a failure by the Agency to respond within the prescribed time limits. These rights shall also apply to bodies representing persons referred to in Article 34(2) of Regulation … [Regulation on Agency for Railways], as duly authorised in accordance with their statutes. [Am. 77]

Article 11

Applications for single safety certificates

1. Applications for single safety certificates shall be submitted to the Agency. The Agency shall take a decision on an application without delay and in any event not more than four three months after all required information and any supplementary information requested by the Agency has been submitted receipt of the application . If the applicant is requested to submit supplementary information, such information shall be submitted promptly supplied within a reasonable period set by the Agency that shall not exceed one month unless, in exceptional circumstances, the Agency agrees to, and authorises, a time-limited extension. Negative decisions shall be duly supported by a statement of reasons .

In the case of an application for an extension, to operate in an additional Member State, the Agency shall likewise take its decision within three months from receipt of the application.

2. The Agency shall provide detailed guidance on how to obtain the single safety certificate. It shall list all requirements that have been laid down for the purpose of Article 10(2) and shall publish all relevant documents.

3. An application guidance document describing and explaining the requirements for the single safety certificates and listing the required documents shall be made available to applicants free of charge and in all official languages of the Union . The national safety authorities shall cooperate with the Agency in disseminating such information. [Am. 78]

Article 12

Safety authorisation of infrastructure managers

1. In order to be allowed to manage and operate a rail infrastructure, the infrastructure manager shall obtain a safety authorisation from the national safety authority in the Member State where it is established. In the case of cross-border infrastructures with a single infrastructure manager, the Agency shall be in charge of the tasks laid down in this Article.

2. The safety authorisation shall comprise authorisation confirming acceptance of the infrastructure manager’s safety management system laid down in Article 9, which shall include the procedures and provisions for meeting the requirements necessary for the safe design, maintenance and operation of the railway infrastructure, including, where appropriate, the maintenance and operation of the traffic control and signalling system , as well as procedures for action in the event of a serious accident in order to guarantee emergency assistance and restore infrastructure safety .

The safety authorisation shall be renewed upon application by the infrastructure manager at intervals of five years. It shall be wholly or partly updated whenever substantial changes are made to the infrastructure, signalling or energy supply or to the principles of its operation and maintenance. The holder of the safety authorisation shall without delay promptly inform the national safety authority and the Agency of all such changes.

The national safety authority , or for cross-border infrastructures as referred to in paragraph 1 the Agency, may require that the safety authorisation be revised following substantial changes to the safety regulatory framework.

If the national safety authority , or for cross-border infrastructures as referred to in paragraph 1 the Agency, finds that an authorised infrastructure manager no longer satisfies the conditions for a safety authorisation it shall revoke the authorisation, giving reasons for its decisions.

3. The national safety authority shall take a decision on an application for safety authorisation without delay and in any event not more than four three months after all the information required and any receipt of the application. If the applicant is requested to submit supplementary information requested has been submitted , such information shall be supplied within a reasonable period set by the national safety authority or the Agency that shall not exceed one month unless, in exceptional circumstances, the national safety authority or the Agency agrees to, and authorises, a time-limited extension. Negative decisions shall be duly justified .

An application guidance document shall be made available, describing and explaining the requirements for the safety authorisations and listing the documents required. [Am. 79]

4. The national safety authority shall inform the Agency within one month of the safety authorisations that have been issued, renewed, amended or revoked. It shall state the name and address of the infrastructure manager, the issue date, the scope and validity of the safety authorisation and, in case of revocation, the reasons for its decision.

Article 13

Access to training facilities

1. Member States shall ensure that railway undertakings have fair and non-discriminatory access to training facilities for train drivers and staff accompanying the trains, whenever such training is necessary for operating services on their network or, for fulfilling requirements to obtain the safety certificate and requirements to obtain licences and certificates under Directive 2007/59/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council (13).

The services offered shall include training on necessary route knowledge, assistance to persons with disabilities, operating rules and procedures, the signalling and control command system and emergency procedures applied on the routes operated. [Am. 80]

Member States shall also ensure that infrastructure managers and their staff performing vital safety tasks have fair and non-discriminatory access to training facilities.

If the training services do not include examinations and granting of certificates, Member States shall ensure that railway undertakings have access to such certification.

The national safety authority shall ensure that the provision of training services or, where appropriate, the granting of certificates meets the requirements laid down in Directive 2007/59/EC, in TSIs or national rules referred to in Article 8 .

2. If the training facilities are available only through the services of one single railway undertaking or the infrastructure manager, Member States shall ensure that they are made available to other railway undertakings at a reasonable and non-discriminatory price, which is cost-related and may include a profit margin.

3. When recruiting new train drivers, staff on board trains and staff performing vital safety tasks, railway undertakings shall be able to take into account any training, qualifications and experience acquired previously from other railway undertakings. For this purpose, such members of staff shall be entitled to have access to, obtain copies and communicate all documents attesting to their training, qualifications and experience.

4. Railway undertakings and infrastructure managers shall be responsible for the level of training and qualifications of its staff carrying out safety-related work, including on-board staff .

Article 14

Maintenance of vehicles

1. Each vehicle, before it is placed in service or used on the network, shall have an entity in charge of maintenance assigned to it and this that entity shall be registered in the national vehicle register registers in accordance with Article 43 of Directive … [Railway Interoperability Directive].

2. A railway undertaking, an infrastructure manager or a keeper may be an entity in charge of maintenance.

3. Without prejudice to the responsibility of the railway undertakings and infrastructure managers for the safe operation of a train as provided for in Article 4, the entity shall ensure that the vehicles for which it is in charge of maintenance are in a safe state of running by means of a system of maintenance. To this end, the entity in charge of maintenance shall ensure that vehicles are maintained in accordance with:

(a) the maintenance file of each vehicle;

(b) the requirements in force including maintenance rules and TSI provisions.

The entity in charge of maintenance shall carry out the maintenance itself or make use of contracted maintenance workshops.

4. In the case of freight wagons, each entity in charge of maintenance shall be certified by a body accredited or recognised in accordance with Commission Regulation (EU) No 445/2011 (14), or by a national safety authority. The recognition process shall also be based on criteria of independence, competence and impartiality.

Where the entity in charge of maintenance is an infrastructure manager, compliance with Regulation (EU) No 445/2011 shall be checked by the relevant national safety authority pursuant to the procedures referred to in Article 12 of this Directive and shall be confirmed on the certificates specified in those procedures.

5. The certificates granted in accordance with paragraph 4 shall be valid and automatically recognised throughout the Union.

The Agency shall set up and make public, and subsequently update without delay, a register of certified entities in charge of maintenance. It shall be linked with the national vehicle registers or the vehicle registers in accordance with Article 43(1) and (4) and Article 43a(1) and (4) of Directive… [Railway Interoperability Directive].

The Commission shall adopt implementing acts laying down common specifications for those registers relating to content, data format, functional and technical architecture, operating mode and rules for data input and consultation. Those implementing acts shall be adopted in accordance with the examination procedure referred to in Article 27(3).

5a. When drafting or amending TSIs, the Agency shall harmonise rules on minimum maintenance requirements in order to ensure the safety of the entire rail system. In so doing, it shall take account of the various parameters (use, age, material, mileage, weather conditions, type of track, etc.) that affect wear and tear. Companies may continue to use their own maintenance system, provided that the Agency considers that that system provides an equivalent or higher safety level.

6. By 31 May 2014 No later than two years after this Directive comes into force , the Agency shall evaluate the system of certification of the entity in charge of maintenance for freight wagons and shall consider the opportunity for an extension of that system to all vehicles and shall submit a report to the Commission. That report shall contain a recommendation on whether that system of certification should be extended to other types of vehicles. The Commission shall then take appropriate measures on the basis of that recommendation.

6a. No later than six months after this Directive comes into force, the Agency shall identify railway components that are critical for railway safety and shall develop a system that enables those components to be traced.

7. On the basis of the Agency's recommendation and no later than 36 months after this Directive enters into force, the Commission shall, by means of implementing acts delegated acts in accordance with Article 26 , adopt common conditions for certification of the entity in charge of maintenance for all vehicles by 24 December 2016.

Those implementing acts shall be adopted in accordance with the examination procedure referred to in Article 27 (2).

The certification system applicable to freight wagons adopted by Regulation (EU) No 445/2011 shall continue to apply until the implementing delegated acts referred to in the first subparagraph are adopted. [Am. 82]

Article 15

Derogations from the system of certification of the entities in charge of maintenance

1. Member States may decide to fulfil the obligations to identify the entity in charge of maintenance and to certify it through alternative measures respect to the system of certification established in article 14 , in the following cases:

(a) vehicles registered in a third country and maintained according to the law of that country;

(b) vehicles which are used on networks or lines the track gauge of which is different from that of the main rail network within the Union and for which fulfilment of the requirements referred to in Article 14(3) is ensured by international agreements with third countries;

(c) vehicles covered by Article 2, and military equipment and special transport requiring an ad hoc national safety authority permit to be delivered prior to the service. In this case derogations shall be granted for periods not longer than five years.

2. Alternative measures referred to in paragraph 1 shall be implemented through derogations to be granted by the relevant national safety authority or the Agency:

(a) when registering vehicles pursuant to Article 43 of Directive … [Railway Interoperability Directive] , as far as the identification of the entity in charge of maintenance is concerned;

(b) when delivering safety certificates and authorisations to railway undertakings and infrastructure managers pursuant to Articles 10 and 12 of this Directive, as far as the identification or certification of the entity in charge of maintenance is concerned.

3. Such derogations shall be identified and justified in the annual safety report referred to in Article 18. Where it appears that undue safety risks are being taken on the Union rail system, the Agency shall immediately inform the Commission thereof. The Commission shall make contact with the parties involved and, where appropriate, request the Member State to withdraw its derogation decision.

CHAPTER IV

NATIONAL SAFETY AUTHORITIES

Article 16

Tasks

1. Each Member State shall establish a safety authority. Member States may also decide to jointly establish a safety authority competent for their territories. This authority shall be independent in its organisation, legal structure and decision making from any railway undertaking, infrastructure manager, applicant and or procurement entity. The authority shall have the necessary expertise and the necessary staff resources in order to discharge its duties. It may be the Ministry responsible for transport matters, provided it meets the independence requirements laid down in this paragraph.

2. The national safety authority shall be entrusted with at least the following tasks:

(a) authorising the placing in service of the energy and infrastructure subsystems constituting the rail system in accordance with Article 18(2) of Directive … [Railway Interoperability Directive] , with the exception of cross-border infrastructures with a single infrastructure manager, for which the Agency shall be in charge of the tasks laid down in this subparagraph ;

(b) supervising ensuring that the interoperability constituents are in compliance with the essential requirements as required laid down by Article [x] of Directive … [Railway Interoperability Directive];

(c) assigning a European national vehicle numbering in accordance with Article 42 Articles 20a and 43 of Directive … [Railway Interoperability Directive];

(d) on request of by the Agency and on the basis of contractual agreements as referred to in Regulation… [Regulation on Agency for Railways] , supporting it in the issue, renewal, amendment and revocation of single safety certificates granted in accordance with Article 10 and checking that the conditions and requirements laid down in them are met and that railway undertakings are operating in accordance with the requirements of Union or national law;

(e) issuing, renewing, amending and revoking safety authorisations granted in accordance with Article 12 and checking that the conditions and requirements laid down in them are met and that infrastructure managers are operating in accordance with the requirements of Union or national law;

(f) monitoring, promoting, and, where appropriate, enforcing and updating the safety regulatory framework including the system of national rules;

(g) supervising the railway undertakings in accordance with Annex IV to Commission Regulation (EU) No 1158/2010 (15) and with Commission Regulation (EU) No 1077/2012 (16);

(h) supervising ensuring that vehicles are duly registered in the European and national vehicle register registers and that safety-related information contained in it those registers is accurate and up to date;

(ha) monitoring compliance with working, driving and rest time rules for locomotive drivers in the railway companies and on the track;

(hb) monitoring compliance with applicable rules on the safe maintenance and operation of rail freight wagons and other rolling stock;

(hc) drawing up a general emergency plan for the rail network which shall be mandatory for all rail system actors and which shall detail the measures to be taken in the event of a serious accident or emergency, and forwarding it to the Agency. That plan shall include: (i) mechanisms and procedures guaranteeing effective communication between the actors involved, chiefly between infrastructure managers, rail operators and emergency services; (ii) mechanisms for coordination with national agencies of neighbouring countries; (iii) channels for communicating with victims' families following a serious accident, in order to interact with staff who have been trained for the various tasks; (iv) a system for providing care for victims following an accident, which will guide them in the complaints procedures under Union legislation, and in particular Regulation (EC) No 1371/2007 of the European Parliament and of the Council (17) , without prejudice to the obligations of rail operators. Such care shall include psychological support for accident victims and their families.

The Commission shall, as a matter of urgency, draw up measures aimed at harmonising the content and format of emergency plans by means of implementing acts as provided for in Article 27. The Agency shall assist and supervise the national safety authorities in drawing up those plans, paying particular attention to rail accidents affecting two or more national networks.

3. The national safety authority of the Member State where the railway undertaking operates shall make necessary arrangements to coordinate with the Agency and other safety authorities to ensure that any key information on the specific railway undertaking is shared, particularly on known risks and its safety performance. The national safety authority shall also share information with other relevant national safety authorities if it finds that the railway undertaking is not taking the necessary risk control measures.

It shall inform the Agency immediately of any concerns about the safety performance of the railway undertakings under supervision. The Agency shall take appropriate action provided for in Article 10(6).

4. The tasks referred to in paragraph 2 may not be transferred or subcontracted to any infrastructure manager, railway undertaking or procurement entity.

4a. National safety authorities shall, with the help of the Agency, establish mechanisms for the exchange of examples of good and best practice.

4b. National safety authorities may, on a voluntary basis, request the Agency to audit their work. The Agency may also audit national safety authorities on its own initiative. [Am. 83]

Article 17

Decision-making principles

1. The national safety authorities shall carry out their tasks in an open, non-discriminatory and transparent way. In particular they shall allow all parties to be heard and give reasons for their decisions.

They shall promptly respond to requests and applications and communicate their requests for information without delay and adopt all their decisions within four months after all requested information has been provided. They may at any time request the technical assistance of infrastructure managers and railway undertakings or other qualified bodies when they are carrying out the tasks referred to in Article 16 , respecting the time-limits laid down in Article 11(1) and any obligations laid down in contractual agreements concluded with the Agency .

In the process of developing the national regulatory framework, the national safety authority shall consult and consider all persons involved and interested parties, including infrastructure managers, railway undertakings, manufacturers and maintenance providers, users and staff representatives.

2. The Agency and the national safety authorities shall be free to carry out all inspections , audits and investigations that are needed for accomplishment of their tasks and they shall be granted access to all relevant documents and to premises, installations and equipment of infrastructure managers and railway undertakings.

3. Member States shall take the measures necessary to ensure that decisions taken by the national safety authority are subject to judicial review.

4. The national safety authorities shall conduct an active exchange of views and experience within the network established by the Agency in order to harmonise their decision-making criteria across the Union.

4a. The national safety authorities shall support the Agency in its work of monitoring the development of railway safety on a Union level.

5. The scope of cooperation between the Agency and the national safety authorities in all matters relating to inspections on site related to issuing the single safety certificate and supervision of the railway undertakings after issuing the single safety certificate shall be set out in contractual or other arrangements agreements between the Agency and the national safety authorities no later than one year after the entry into force of this Directive .

Those agreements may include contracting out certain tasks and responsibilities of the Agency to the national authorities, such as checking and preparing files, verifying technical compatibility, performing visits and drafting technical studies, in accordance with Article 69 of Regulation … [Regulation on Agency for Railways].

Those agreements shall provide for a sharing of revenues commensurate with the share in the workload of each actor. [Am. 84]

Article 18

Annual report

Each year the national safety authority shall publish an annual report concerning its activities in the preceding year and send it to the Agency by 30 September at the latest. The report shall contain information on:

(a) the development of railway safety, including an aggregation at Member State level of the CSIs laid down in Annex I;

(b) important changes in legislation and regulation concerning railway safety;

(c) the development of safety certification and safety authorisation;

(d) results of and experience relating to the supervision of infrastructure managers and railway undertakings;

(e) the derogations decided in accordance with Article 14 (8);

(f) all inspections or audits of railway undertakings operating in the Member State in the course of supervision activities;

(fa) all technical inspections of rail freight wagons on the track. [Am. 85]

CHAPTER V

ACCIDENT AND INCIDENT INVESTIGATION

Article 19

Obligation to investigate

1. Member States shall ensure that an investigation is carried out by the investigating body referred to in Article 21 after serious accidents on the rail system, the objective of which is possible improvement of railway safety and the prevention of accidents.

2. In addition to serious accidents, the investigating body referred to in Article 21 may investigate those accidents and incidents which under slightly different conditions might have led to serious accidents, including technical failures of the structural subsystems or of interoperability constituents of the European rail system.

The investigating body shall, at its discretion, decide whether or not an investigation of such an accident or incident shall be undertaken. In its decision it shall take into account:

(a) the seriousness of the accident or incident;

(b) whether it forms part of a series of accidents or incidents relevant to the system as a whole;

(c) its impact on railway safety on a Union level,

(d) requests from infrastructure managers, railway undertakings, the national safety authority or the Member States.

3. The extent of investigations and the procedure to be followed in carrying out such investigations shall be determined by the investigating body, taking into account Articles 20 and 22 and depending on the lessons it expects to draw from the accident or incident for the improvement of safety.

4. The investigation shall in no case be concerned with apportioning blame or liability.

Article 20

Status of investigation

1. Member States shall define, in the framework of their respective legal system, the legal status of the investigation that shall enable the investigators-in-charge to carry out their task in the most efficient way and within the shortest time.

2. In accordance with the legislation in force, Member States shall ensure full cooperation by the authorities responsible for the judicial inquiry, and shall ensure that the investigators , as well as the Agency if it so requests, are given , as soon as possible, given: [Am. 86]

(a) access to the site of the accident or incident as well as to the rolling stock involved, the related infrastructure and traffic control and signalling installations;

(b) the right to an immediate listing of evidence and controlled removal of wreckage, infrastructure installations or components for examination or analysis purposes;

(c) access to and use of the contents of on-board recorders and equipment for recording of verbal messages and registration of the operation of the signalling and traffic control system;

(d) access to the results of examination of the bodies of victims;

(e) access to the results of examinations of the train staff and other railway staff involved in the accident or incident;

(f) the opportunity to question the railway staff involved and other witnesses;

(g) access to any relevant information or records held by the infrastructure manager, the railway undertakings involved and the national safety authority.

3. The investigation shall be accomplished independently of any judicial inquiry.

Article 21

Investigating body

1. Each Member State shall ensure that investigations of accidents and incidents referred to in Article 19 are conducted by a permanent body, which shall comprise at least one investigator able to perform the function of investigator-in-charge in the event of an accident or incident. This body shall be independent in its organisation, legal structure and decision-making from any infrastructure manager, railway undertaking, charging body, allocation body and notified body, and from any party whose interests could conflict with the tasks entrusted to the investigating body. It shall furthermore be functionally independent from the national safety authority and from any regulator of railways.

2. The investigating body shall perform its tasks independently of the organisations referred to in paragraph 1 , without discriminating against any party, and shall be able to obtain sufficient resources to do so. Its investigators shall be afforded status giving them the necessary guarantees of independence. [Am. 87]

3. Member States shall make provision that railway undertakings, infrastructure managers and, where appropriate, the national safety authority, are obliged immediately to report accidents and incidents referred to in Article 19 to the investigating body. The investigating body shall be able to respond to such reports and make the necessary arrangements to start the investigation no later than one week after receipt of the report concerning the accident or incident.

4. The investigating body may combine its tasks under this Directive with the work of investigating occurrences other than railway accidents and incidents as long as such investigations do not endanger its independence.

5. If necessary the investigating body may request the assistance of investigating bodies from other Member States or from the Agency to supply expertise or to carry out technical inspections, analyses or evaluations.

5a. Investigating bodies may, on a voluntary basis, request the Agency to audit their work. [Am. 88]

6. Member States may entrust the investigating body with the task of carrying out investigations of railway accidents and incidents other than those referred to in Article 19.

7. The investigating bodies shall conduct an active exchange of views and experience for the purpose of developing common investigation methods, drawing up common principles for follow-up of safety recommendations and adaptation to the development of technical and scientific progress.

The Agency shall support the investigating bodies in this task. In addition, investigating bodies shall support the Agency in its work of monitoring the development of railway safety on a Union level. [Am. 89]

Article 22

Investigation procedure

1. An accident or incident referred to in Article 19 shall be investigated by the investigation body of the Member State in which it occurred. If it is not possible to establish in which Member State it occurred or if it occurred on or close to a border installation between two Member States the relevant bodies shall agree which one of them shall carry out the investigation or shall agree to carry it out in cooperation. The other body shall in the first case be allowed to participate in the investigation and fully share its results.

Investigation bodies from another Member State and the Agency shall be invited to participate in an investigation whenever a railway undertaking established and licensed in that Member State is involved in the accident or incident. [Am. 90]

This paragraph shall not preclude Member States from agreeing that the relevant bodies shall carry out investigations in cooperation in other circumstances.

2. For each accident or incident the body responsible for the investigation shall arrange for the appropriate means, comprising the necessary operational and technical expertise and sufficient resources to carry out the investigation. The expertise may be obtained from inside or outside the body, depending on the character of the accident or incident to be investigated. [Am. 91]

3. The investigation shall be carried out with as much openness as possible, so that all parties can be heard and can share the results. The relevant infrastructure manager and railway undertakings, the national safety authority, victims and their relatives, owners of damaged property, manufacturers, the emergency services involved and representatives of staff and users shall be regularly informed of the investigation and its progress and, as far as practicable, shall be given an opportunity to submit their opinions and views to the investigation and be allowed to comment on the information in draft reports.

4. The investigating body shall conclude its examinations at the accident site in the shortest possible time in order to enable the infrastructure manager to restore the infrastructure and open it to rail transport services as soon as possible.

Article 23

Reports

1. An investigation of an accident or incident referred to in Article 19 shall be the subject of reports in a form appropriate to the type and seriousness of the accident or incident and the relevance of the investigation findings. The reports shall state the objectives of the investigations as referred to in Article 19(1) and contain, where appropriate, safety recommendations.

2. The investigating body shall make public the final report , including the safety recommendations, in the shortest possible time and normally not later than 12 six months after the date of the occurrence. . The report, including the safety recommendations, shall be communicated to the relevant parties referred to in Article 22(3) and to bodies and parties concerned in other Member States. [Am. 92]

The Commission shall establish, by means of implementing delegated acts, the content of accident and incident investigation reports , which shall include the following elements: a summary; the immediate facts of the occurrence; the record of investigations and inquiries; analysis and conclusions . Those implementing delegated acts shall be adopted in accordance with the examination procedure referred to in Article 27(2) 26 . [Am. 93]

3. Each year the investigating body shall publish by 30 September at the latest an annual report accounting for the investigations carried out in the preceding year, the safety recommendations that were issued and actions taken in accordance with recommendations issued previously.

Article 24

Information to be sent to the Agency

1. Within one week after the decision to open an investigation the investigating body shall inform the Agency thereof. The information shall indicate the date, time and place of the occurrence, as well as its type and its consequences as regards fatalities, injuries and material damage.

2. The investigating body shall send the Agency a copy of the final report referred to in Article 23(2) and of the annual report referred to in Article 23(3).

2a. The Agency shall set up and manage a centralised database containing all information submitted in relation to incidents and accidents. That database shall be established by no later than 31 December 2015. [Am. 94]

Article 25

Safety recommendations

1. A safety recommendation issued by an investigating body shall in no case create a presumption of blame or liability for an accident or incident.

2. Recommendations shall be addressed to the Agency, to the national safety authority and, where needed by reason of the character of the recommendation, to other bodies or authorities in the Member State or to other Member States. Member States and their national safety authorities shall take the necessary measures to ensure that the safety recommendations issued by the investigating bodies are duly taken into consideration, and, where appropriate, acted upon.

3. The national safety authority and other authorities or bodies or, when appropriate, other Member States to which recommendations have been addressed, shall report back at least annually to the investigating body on measures that are taken or planned as a consequence of the recommendation.

CHAPTER VI

FINAL PROVISIONS

Article 26

Exercise of delegation

1. The power to adopt delegated acts is conferred on the Commission subject to the conditions laid down in this Article.

2. The power to adopt delegated acts referred to in Articles 5(2) and, 7(2) , 9(2), 14(7) and 23(2) shall be conferred on the Commission for an indeterminate a period of time five years from [the date of entry into force of this Directive]. The Commission shall draw up a report in respect of the delegation of power not later than nine months before the end of the five-year period. The delegation of power shall be tacitly extended for periods of an identical duration, unless the European Parliament or the Council opposes such extension not later than three months before the end of each period . [Am. 95]

3. The delegation of power referred to in Article 5(2) and 7(2) may be revoked at any time by the European Parliament or by the Council. A decision to revoke shall put an end to the delegation of the power specified in that decision. It shall take effect the day following the publication of the decision in the Official Journal of the European Union or at a later date specified therein. It shall not affect the validity of any delegated acts already in force.

4. As soon as it adopts a delegated act, the Commission shall notify it simultaneously to the European Parliament and to the Council.

5. A delegated act adopted pursuant to Articles 5(2) and 7(2) shall enter into force only if no objection has been expressed by either the European Parliament or the Council within a period of two months of notification of that act to the European Parliament and the Council, or if, before expiry of that period, the European Parliament and the Council have both informed the Comm