Directive 2004/49/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council (repealed)Show full title

CHAPTER II DEVELOPMENT AND MANAGEMENT OF SAFETY

Article 4 Development and improvement of railway safety

1. Member States shall ensure that railway safety is generally maintained and, where reasonably practicable, continuously improved, taking into consideration the development of Community legislation and technical and scientific progress and giving priority to the prevention of serious accidents.

Member States shall ensure that safety rules are laid down, applied and enforced in an open and non-discriminatory manner, fostering the development of a single European rail transport system.

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

3. Member States shall ensure that the responsibility for the safe operation of the railway system and the control of risks associated with it is laid upon the infrastructure managers and railway undertakings, obliging them to implement necessary risk control measures, where appropriate in cooperation with each other, to apply national safety rules and standards, and 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.

4. This shall be without prejudice to the responsibility of each manufacturer, maintenance supplier, wagon keeper, service provider and procurement entity to ensure that rolling stock, installations, accessories and equipment and services supplied by them comply with the requirements and the conditions for use specified, so that they can be safely put into operation by the railway undertaking and/or infrastructure manager.

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 safety authorities as referred to in Article 18.

The first reference year for the CSIs shall be - -(1); they shall be reported on in the annual report the following year.

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

2. Before ...(2) Annex I shall be revised in accordance with the procedure referred to in Article 27(2), in particular to include common definitions of the CSI and common methods to calculate accident costs.

Article 6 Common safety methods

1. A first set of CSMs, covering at least the methods described in paragraph 3(a), shall be adopted by the Commission, before...(3), in accordance with the procedure referred to in Article 27(2). They shall be published in the Official Journal of the European Union.

A second set of CSMs, covering the remaining part of the methods as described in paragraph 3, shall be adopted by the Commission before...(4), in accordance with the procedure referred 1 in Article 27(2). They shall be published in the Official Journal of the European Union.

2. Draft CSMs and draft revised CSMs shall be drawn up by the Agency under mandates which shall be adopted in accordance with the procedure referred to in Article 27(2).

The draft CSMs shall be based on an examination of existing methods in the Member States.

3. The CSMs shall describe how the safety level, and 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,

and

(c) as far as they are not yet covered by TSIs, methods to check that the structural subsystems of the trans-European high-speed and conventional rail systems are operated and maintained in accordance with the relevant essential requirements.

4. The CSMs shall be revised at regular intervals, in accordance with the procedure referred to in Article 27(2), taking into account the experience gained from their application and the global development of railway safety and the obligations on Member States laid down in Article 4(1).

5. Member States shall make any necessary amendments to their national safety rules in the light of the adoption of CSMs and revisions to them.

Article 7 Common safety targets

1. The CSTs shall be developed, adopted and revised following the procedures laid down in this Article.

2. Draft CSTs and draft revised CSTs shall be drawn up by the Agency under mandates which shall be adopted in accordance with the procedure referred to in Article 27(2).

3. The first set of draft CSTs shall be based on an examination of existing targets and safety performance in the Member States and shall ensure that the current safety performance of the rail system is not reduced in any Member State. They shall be adopted by the Commission, before...(5), in accordance with the procedure referred to in Article 27(2), and shall be published in the Official Journal of the European Union.

The second set of draft CSTs shall be based on the experiences gained from the first set of CSTs and their implementation. They shall reflect any priority areas where safety needs to be further improved. They shall be adopted by the Commission, before...(6), in accordance with the procedure referred to in Article 27(2) and shall be published in the Official Journal of the European Union.

All proposals for draft and revised CSTs shall reflect the obligations on Member States laid down in Article 4(1). Such proposals shall be accompanied by an assessment of the estimated costs and benefits, indicating their likely impact for all the operators and economic agents involved and their impact on the societal acceptance of risk. They shall contain a timetable for gradual implementation, where necessary, in particular to take account of the nature and extent of investment required to apply them. They shall analyse the possible impact on TSI for the subsystems and contain, where appropriate, consequential proposals for amendments to the TSI.

4. The CSTs shall define the safety levels that must at least be reached by different parts of the railway 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.

5. The CSTs shall be revised at regular intervals, in accordance with the procedure referred to in Article 27(2), taking into account the global development of railway safety.

6. Member States shall make any necessary amendments to their national safety 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(3).

Article 8 National safety rules

1. In application of this Directive, Member States shall establish binding national safety rules and shall ensure that they are published and made available to all infrastructure managers, railway undertakings, applicants for a safety certificate and applicants for a safety authorisation in clear language that can be understood by the parties concerned.

2. Before...(7) Member States shall notify the Commission of all the relevant national safety rules in force, as set out in Annex II, and indicate their area of application.

The notification shall further provide information on the principal content of the rules with references to the legal texts, on the form of legislation and on which body or organisation is responsible for its publication.

3. Not later than four years after the entry into force of this Directive, the Agency shall evaluate the way in which national safety rules are published and made available in accordance with paragraph 1. It shall also make appropriate recommendations to the Commission for the publication of such rules in order to make the relevant information more easily accessible.

4. Member States shall forthwith notify the Commission of any amendment to the notified national safety rules and of any new such rule that might be adopted, unless the rule is wholly relating to the implementation of TSIs.

5. In order to keep the introduction of new specific national rules to a minimum and thus prevent further barriers from being created, and with a view to the gradual harmonisation of safety rules, the Commission shall monitor the introduction of new national rules by Member States.

6. If, after the adoption of CSTs, a Member State intends to introduce a new national safety rule which requires a higher safety level than the CSTs, or if a Member State intends to introduce a new national safety rule which may affect operations of railway undertakings from other Member States on the territory of the Member State concerned, the Member State shall consult all interested parties in due time and the procedure in paragraph 7 shall apply.

7. The Member State shall submit the draft safety rule to the Commission for examination, stating the reasons for introducing it.

If the Commission finds that the draft safety rule is incompatible with the CSMs or with achieving at least the CSTs, or that it constitutes a means of arbitrary discrimination or a disguised restriction on rail transport operations between Member States, a Decision, addressed to the Member State concerned, shall be adopted in accordance with the procedure referred to in Article 27(2).

If the Commission has serious doubts as to the compatibility of the draft safety rule with the CSMs or with achieving at least the CSTs, or considers that it constitutes a means of arbitrary discrimination or a disguised restriction on rail transport operations between Member States, the Commission shall immediately inform the Member State concerned, which shall suspend the adoption, entry into force or implementation of the rule until a Decision is adopted, within a period of six months, in accordance with the procedure referred to in Article 27(2).

Article 9 Safety management systems

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

2. The safety management system shall meet the requirements and contain the elements laid down in Annex III, 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 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

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 safety rules and with conditions laid down in their safety certificate. It shall furthermore be developed with the aim of coordinating the emergency procedures of the infrastructure manager with all railway undertakings that operate on its infrastructure.

4. Each year all infrastructure managers and railway undertakings shall submit to the 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 safety authority.

(1)

Two years after the year of entry into force of this Directive.

(2)

Five years after the entry into force of this Directive.

(3)

Four years after the entry into force of this Directive.

(4)

Six years after the entry into force of this Directive.

(5)

Five years after entry into force of this Directive.

(6)

Seven years after entry into force of this Directive.

(7)

Twelve months after the entry into force of this Directive.