As regards the cross-acceptance of railway vehicles, different reunions between the European Railway Agency, interested parties and national safety authorities have proved that there are different interpretations of the authorization for placing in service of structural subsystems and vehicles.
The lack of a common interpretation raises the concern that national implementation norms could lead to a different application of requirements between member states and consequently to increased difficulties for manufacturers and railway undertakings. Thus, on March 29, 2011, the European Commission
published the recommendation on the authorization for placing in service of structural subsystems and railway vehicles.
A single authorization for placing in service of vehicles should be enough for the entire railway network of the EU, once conditions stipulated in the Directive 57/2008 were met. Therefore, under the recommendations, an authorization granted to a vehicle by a member state is valid in all member states without affecting the decision of the second member state of soliciting an additional authorization. In the case of vehicles which do not conform to TSI, the authorisation is limited to the network of the member state that grants it. However, there is limited scope for verification of additional authorisations.
The authorisation granted to a vehicle may stipulate conditions of use and other restrictions. For example, an authorisation should specify the voltage of the lines on which the vehicle is allowed to run in the case of electric traction vehicles. However, issues of route specific compatibility between the design characteristics of the vehicle and specific characteristics of particular routes (e.g. weight restrictions, electrification systems, train protection systems) should be dealt with under the Safety Management System (SMS) of the railway undertakings, applying the conditions of use and restrictions laid down in the authorisation and the technical file and the information on the nature of the infrastructure supplied by the infrastructure manager in the Register of Infrastructures (RINF).
The authorisation for placing in service is a very different concept to “homologation” which was carried out in the past by national railway companies. Homologation is in essence a product acceptance carried out by the national railway company when purchasing a product, whilst authorisation is a legal requirement to gain permission to place a subsystem or vehicle in service based on a defined set of verifications carried out by bodies nominated by the government and by the National Safety Authority.
The recommendation published by the Commission is a relevant example. For example a manufacturer may apply for authorisation for a locomotive or locomotive type for a network in a member state in order to sell it to a number of different railway undertakings or leasing companies, etc., for operation by different railway undertakings each of whom will have different arrangements in their respective Safety Management System for managing and maintaining locomotives.
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