• Objective

Before a Railway Undertaking (RU) operates a wagon or a locomotive on a specific line owned by the Infrastructure Manager (IM), it is required to check that its vehicle is compatible with the relevant route. Articles 21 and 23 of Directive (EU) 2016/797 on Interoperability introduce the process for obtaining authorisation of a vehicle for an area of use and the Route Compatibility Checks that must be done to ensure route compatibility before the authorised vehicle(s) can be used. The Technical Specifications for Interoperability on Operations (OPE TSI) Appendix D1 further defines the requirements the RUs have to check.

• Involvement of Infrastructure Managers

The 4th Railway Package gives to the RUs the responsibility and the role for carrying out the checks. Therefore, the role of the IM in the route compatibility process is limited to the provision of the data included in their Register of the Infrastructure (RINF) and to provide the RUs with the possibility of carrying out tests on the network.

• EIM in action

EIM experts are involved in the relevant European Commission and EU Agency for Railways (ERA) committees when drafting and defining the parameters needed for the route compatibility

Opportunities

• Complete and timely information to RUs will boost the efficiency of all rail operations.

Challenges

• IMs may have difficulties in fulfilling the information for Route Compatibility in the RINF or providing the information within 15 days;
• IMs information to the RUs is not complete and accurate;
• IMs may not be able to inform timely the RUs on the changes of characteristics of the route through RINF or through other means until RINF allows for such functionality.