In May 2011, the European Railway Agency (ERA) published the „Recommendation on specification of Register of Infrastructure”, a document used for planning purposes concerning the development of track routes before their putting into operation and consequently supporting the rolling stock design, the technical compatibility insurance for fixed installations, the surveillance of the European rail network interoperability, the finding of the route compatibility for the planned train traffic. For each Member State, the setup costs of RINF will reach EUR 5.6 Million (system implementation) and EUR 1.8 Million (operating costs).
The specification consists of information on the infrastructure structural subsystem and the energy subsystem, as well as the fixed installations of the control-command and signalling structural subsystem and the UE Member States must decide what entities are responsible for the implementation and maintenance of the Register.
Each European state must subdivide its rail network according to the seven levels mentioned in the Register: macro level, micro level, line, line section, operational points, rail, and industrial line. Several in force technical specifications for interoperability (TSIs) include lists of parameters to be registered in RINF, parameters to be revised and adapted, and at the same time these lists must be adapted to the most developed TSIs. The parameter values to be considered in the check of the compatibility between the rolling stock and the remaining subsystems will be the most restrictive from the line sections put into operation.
The elements regarding the infrastructure put into operation before the entry into force of Directive 2008/57/EC must be published in the register according to the implementation of national development plans, which will have to be implemented by all EU States within a one year period from the date of application of the Commission measure on the adoption of the specification measure and the priority must be granted to the lines from the TEN-T network.
The elements of freight corridors are to be published in the register within one year after the transitional period lasting for 5 years. The Register will be implemented by using a digital database and management services.
RINF will be organised for each EU state and, for the parameters regarding the cross-border lines, the information in two adjacent networks published in different RINF applications will have to be elaborated according to the register specification. Likewise, in order for the data to be accessible to more EU states, the implementation of a digital database with a common, developed and implemented interface is necessary.
The implementation of RINF according to the required specifications at the European level is estimated to have a cost impact of EUR 120 Million (setup costs) and EUR 48 Million (operating costs). The cost impact was distinguished between One Time costs (referring to the elaboration of the database and the first published information) and Yearly Operating Costs (referring to the database maintenance and information update).
Until the present moment, 13 states have provided a feedback concerning the cost impact, three of which could not be evaluated due to lack of information. Following the answers, a cost average was estimated: for RINF implementation each Member State will bear in the first year EUR 7.4 Million of which EUR 5.6 Million for the database setup and EUR 1.8 Million as operating costs which will have to be invested every year.
[ by Pamela Luică ]Share on:
