In its note dated 3rd January 2020 and referenced MOVE.DDG2.C/JC (see Annex 1), the European Commission has requested the European Union Agency for Railways to issue an opinion concerning a potential deficiency identified by EIM in its letter of 5th December 2019. This potencial deficiency concerns the provision of information on quieter routes in the following regulations:
– Commission Implementing Regulation (EU) 2019/774 of 16 May 2019 amending Regulation (EU) 1304/20141 (Amended TSI Noise) and
– Regulation (EU) 2019/7772 (RINF)
This present opinion agrees that there exists a risk of double reporting and both regulations should be amended.

According to the provisions of Articles 10(2) and 19 of Regulation (EU) 2016/796 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 11 May 2016 on the European Union Agency for Railways and repealing Regulation (EC) No 881/20043 (Agency Regulation), the European Commission has the possibility to request the opinion of the European Union Agency for Railways on the regulations referred to in the first section of this Technical Opinion (General Context).

EIM identified two main issues in its letter:
– Double reporting obligation, as both regulations require to report the quieter routes:
o Amended TSI Noise requests to report the quieter routes following the template supplied in its appendix D.1:
o RINF has a dedicated parameter to identify the quieter routes: ‘1.1.1.1.7.11 Belonging to a quieter route’
– Misalignment on the reporting dates for the information related to the ‘quieter routes’:
o Amended TSI Noise request to report the quieter routes 6 months after its publication (27th February 2020)
o RINF requests to report the quieter routes by 1st January 2021

EIM proposed the following solutions in its letter:
– The Quieter Routes template described in Appendix D1 of the Amended TSI Noise should be seen as a temporary solution until the RINF is ready to hold this data, thus the Template described in the Appendix D1 continues in place, as a temporary solution, until 1st January 2021. – From 1st January 2021, the RINF and more specifically its parameter ‘1.1.1.1.7.11 Belonging to a quieter route’ will replace the template described in the Amended TSI Noise in order to avoid duplication of efforts and misalignments.
– The RINF OP Name parameter ‘1.2.0.0.0.1 Name of operational point’ as described in the RINF is used where the Amended TSI Noise Template refers to RINF geographical code location (POINT A – POINT B).
– The RINF National Line parameter ‘1.1.0.0.0.2 National line identification’ as described in the RINF is used where the Amended TSI Noise Template refers to Unique section ID.

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