WRITTEN QUESTION E-0580/03 by Erik Meijer (GUE/NGL) to the Commission. Fire danger and technical vulnerability of high-speed trains and assessment of technical justification for monopolies.
Date: 2003-02-28
Institutions: European Parliament, Provisional data
Subjects: Netherlands, common transport policy, high-speed transport, rail transport, restriction on competition, safety standard, technical regulations, transport safety, vehicle on rails

9.10.2003

EN

Official Journal of the European Union

C 242 E/149

According to available information, the Greek authorities have adopted Law 3044/2002 which provides
for the establishment of 25 management bodies for a number of sites that Greece has already proposed for
inclusion in the Natura 2000 network under Directive 92/43/EEC. According to the provisions of this Law,
a management body for the ‘Delta of Nestos-Vistonida-Ismarida’ area has to be established. The creation
and full operation of all the 25 management bodies has not yet been finalised. The full establishment of
these management bodies is expected to contribute towards the conservation objectives for these areas, the
implementation of the approved management plans for the areas and their efficient protection.

The Commission confirms that there is a possibility of financial assistance to Greece through the Structural
Funds for the establishment of all these 25 management bodies. The above action is foreseen in the Greek
Operational Plan for the Environment 2000-2006 (Measure 8,1). On the other hand, actions aiming at
Biotope protection are foreseen in the framework of the Greek Regional Operational Programmes of the
same period. The Commission would like to assure the Honourable Member that it will continue to
monitor the progress to be achieved on the protection of the Greek Biotopes and on the establishment of
the Management Bodies for the Natura 2000 sites in Greece.

(1) Council Directive 79/409/EEC of 2 April 1979 on the conservation of wild birds (cid:1) OJ L 103, 25.4.1979.
(2) Council Directive 92/43/EEC of 21 May 1992 on the conservation of natural habitats and of wild fauna and flora.

(2003/C 242 E/155)

WRITTEN QUESTION E-0580/03

by Erik Meijer (GUE/NGL) to the Commission

(28 February 2003)

Subject: Fire danger and technical vulnerability of high-speed trains and assessment of

technical

justification for monopolies

1.
Does the Commission reject the requirement laid down in the Netherlands by the fire service, the
Ministry of Transport and Public Works, the Ministry of the Interior and the Project Organisation High-
speed Line South (Hogesnelheidslijn Zuid) that all trains on the Amsterdam-Rotterdam-Breda-Antwerp
high-speed rail link must be capable of resisting smoke and fire for 15 minutes?

2.
Does the Commission fear that the Dutch safety requirements will create a monopoly for the sixteen
double-decker trains for frequent service between Amsterdam-Breda and Amsterdam-Brussels soon to be
ordered by High Speed Alliance (consortium of Netherlands Railways (Nederlandse Spoorwegen) and the
airline KLM), because currently the requirements are still not being met by the Amsterdam-Paris Thalys
trains (owned jointly by the Dutch, Belgian, French and German railways), which have been in service
since 1997, and which will be using the same tracks?

3.
Has the Commission noted that a de facto monopoly exists elsewhere in the EU, namely on the new
high-speed line with steep inclines between Cologne and Frankfurt Airport, on which the only trains
meeting the technical requirements, the ICE-3s, run partly on international routes to Amsterdam, Brussels
and Basle, and that this situation is problematic because the head of DB-Systemtechnik sometimes records
insufficiently tested,
700 breakdowns per day on the fifty ICE-3 trains, because the advanced, but
electronic system does not appear to be mastered even by the supplier Siemens, and each solution tried
causes a new problem?

Does the Commission agree with the author that it is more important to break the monopoly of the
4.
trains on the Cologne-Frankfurt line, which are constantly breaking down, than to cut back the fire safety
requirements in the Netherlands for fear they will bring about a monopoly?

5. What measures does the Commission intend to take to ensure that fire safety is placed ahead of
combating monopolies, and that for all international high-speed trains, therefore, the risk in the event of
fire is reduced to a level corresponding to that prescribed by the strictest measures applied by a Member
State to its own internal traffic?

Sources: De Stem of 9 February 2003 and Handelsblatt News am Abend of 13 February 2003

C 242 E/150

Official Journal of the European Union

EN

9.10.2003

Answer given by Mrs de Palacio on behalf of the Commission

(25 April 2003)

As already indicated in the Commission’s answer to Written Question E-0473/03 (1) by the Honourable
Member, the first set of technical specifications for interoperability (TSIs) for high-speed train services was
adopted by the Commission on 30 May 2002. The technical specification for rolling stock contains several
fire safety provisions, including the one mentioned by the Honourable Member concerning fire resistance.
These TSIs apply to all new rolling stock and, under certain conditions, upgrading/renewal projects. They
in future, ensure not only greater standardisation of rolling stock and better movement across
will,
frontiers, but also genuine competition on markets which traditionally used to be de facto monopolies.
However, change will take place gradually over several years, and it is quite normal that there are
anomalies such as those mentioned by the Honourable Member.

With regard to the adoption by a Member State of safety rules stricter than the Community rules and the
possible resulting distortion of competition, this problem is being discussed in the context of the second
railway package (2) presented by the Commission on 23 January 2002 on which the Transport Council
reached political agreement on 28 March 2003.

(1) See page 134.
(2) OJ C 126, 28.5.2002.

(2003/C 242 E/156)

WRITTEN QUESTION E-0583/03

by Erik Meijer (GUE/NGL) to the Commission

(28 February 2003)

Subject: Various characteristics of high-speed lines that prevent their use by high-speed trains of a different

type

1.
Can the Commission confirm that following the differences in track gauges in the early years of the
railways and the wide variations in voltage existing since electrification, there is now a third generation of
obstacles to interchangeability and cross-border movement of rolling stock, caused by the fact that high-
speed trains of one type seem to have difficulty running on tracks designed for trains of a different type,
even when these trains are equipped to use power from overhead cables with different types of voltage?

2.
Is the Commission aware that this problem first became apparent on the new high-speed line opened
in 2002 in Germany and Belgium, in that no trains except the German ICE-3 can run on the new line
between Cologne and Frankfurt Airport, while on the Frankfurt-Brussels line this same ICE-3 cannot at the
moment make use of the new line between Liège and Leuven, so that the journey takes 14 minutes longer,
although, in addition to seven train pairs, a Thalys train with a maximum speed of 300 km/h and frequent
internal Belgian trains with a maximum speed of 200 km/h make use of this line?

3.
Is it apparent from this that the technical specifications of the various high-speed trains that have
been designed in Europe over the past 25 years are so divergent that there is no possibility at present of
fulfilling the EU ambition of interoperability?

How does the Commission intend,

4.
intra-European long-distance rail passenger
in respect of
transport, to bridge the period between the present unsatisfactory situation and the time when the current
differences, resulting in limited accessibility, are over?

Answer given by Mrs de Palacio on behalf of the Commission

(8 April 2003)

The problem of rail interoperability raised by the Honourable Member is not new. The Maastricht Treaty
called on the Community to take the necessary measures to promote the interoperability of the trans-
European transport network. This launched a process of formulating Community rules, firstly with Council
the trans-European high-speed rail
Directive 96/48/EC of 23 July 1996 on the interoperability of