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Mobility and Transport

What are the legal basis and the key documents?

ERTMS legislation mainly covers two aspects of the system: the technical description and the process for putting it into service. Moreover, there is legislation, which is related to the use of ERTMS.

The following figure gives an overview of the scope of the main legislation directly related to ERTMS at a European level.

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The primary legal basis related to Interoperability are the EU Directives. On a secondary level, there are Decisions that develop essential and technical requirements more in depth.

The Interoperability Directive (EU) 2016/797 sets out a number of essential requirements to be met for interoperability. They include safety, reliability and availability, health, environmental protection and technical compatibility along with others specific to certain subsystems. Member States had a transitional period to transpose this directive by 16 June 2020. The transposition deadline was extended until 31 October 2020. The Directive also requires the adoption of binding Technical Specifications for Interoperability (TSIs).

The Technical Specifications of Interoperability for Control Command and Signalling (TSI CCS) is the legal basis of ERTMS specification. It includes the definition of the essential requirements, the subsystem and interface functional and technical specifications, and establishes the necessary list of constituents, interfaces and procedures for their assessment. In legal terms, it is a Commission Regulation, thus directly applicable to all actors without transposition into national law. This also means that any actor can use national courts to enforce this Regulation. Moreover, the CCS TSI states that Member States shall draw up National Implementation Plans (NIP) describing their actions to comply with the CCS TSI, in accordance with Section 7.4.4, setting out the steps to be followed for the implementation of fully interoperable 'control-command and signalling' subsystems. The first NIPs were submitted in 2017 and a summary can be found in the “Synthesis report on NIP”.

Annex A of the CCS TSI includes the list of “subsets,” which contain the ERTMS system requirement specifications and a functional description of its different constituents. This Annex A contains the set of technical specifications for ERTMS that can be applied to the projects. There are two types of documents:

  • Mandatory specifications, which must be fulfilled by any ERTMS system, subsystem or component to achieve interoperability. Any deviation from the specifications must be transparently identified, and its potential impact on interoperability should be assessed.
  • Optional specifications that provide additional recommendations for the definition of the ERTMS subsystems.

The System Required Specifications (SRS) are among the specific technical requirements stated in Annex A and are called “SUBSET-026”. This is the main document containing all the detailed technical specifications of the ERTMS system.

The European Railway Agency (ERA) as the ERTMS system authority, is in charge of the management, modification and production of the specifications related to the ERTMS.

Other related legislation includes the following:

The EU’s trans-European transport network policy (TEN-T policy), is a key instrument for the development of coherent, efficient, multimodal, and high-quality transport infrastructure across the EU. It comprises railways, inland waterways, short sea shipping routes and roads linking urban nodes, maritime and inland ports, airports and terminals.

The TEN-T network is divided into two main networks: the Core Network and a Comprehensive Network. The current TEN-T policy states that ERTMS shall be deployed in full on the Core Network by 2030 and on the Comprehensive Network by 2050. Related to the TEN-T guidelines are the European Deployment Plan (EDP). Based on the TEN-T Guidelines, the EDP was adopted by the European Commission in January 2017. The EDP sets out deadlines for deploying ERTMS on some sections of the Core Network Corridors (CNC) covering the 2017-2023 period. With the forthcoming revision of the TEN-T Regulation, the EDP will be updated to cover the period 2024-2040.

The TEN-T policy is based on Regulation (EU) No 1315/2013. This Regulation is currently being revised in order to make the network greener, more efficient and more resilient, in line with the European Green Deal and the Sustainable and Smart Mobility Strategy.

Relevant legislation for funding and financing ERMTS deployment

The Connecting Europe Facility (CEF) for Transport is the funding instrument to realise European transport infrastructure policy. It aims at supporting investments in building new transport infrastructure in Europe or rehabilitating and upgrading the existing one. For more information on CEF funding for ERTMS, see EU funding for ERTMS.

The Commission communication on Community guidelines on State aid for railway undertakings (2008/C 184/07) outlines the circumstances in which assistance to railway companies can be deemed consistent with both the internal market and State aid regulations. It covers the aid for the purchase and renewal of rolling stock to debt cancellation of railway undertakings. ERTMS falls under the scope of article 6. Aid for Coordination of Transport. As per article 6.3.2. (107 c), the guidelines consider that there is a presumption of necessity and proportionality of the aid when the intensity of the aid stays below 50% of the eligible costs. The Commission is, in the context of the European Green Deal, revising the current Railway Guidelines for which an impact assessment has been carried out.

Article 32(4) of Directive establishing a Single European Railway Area (Directive 2012/34/EU as amended by Directive 2016/2370) provides for the opportunity for Infrastructure Managers to apply differentiated track access charges to promote ETCS onboard deployment. This would entail a bonus for trains equipped with ETCS and malus for the trains not equipped with ETCS.