The European Union´s goal of creating a Single European Railway Area in order to achieve a more competitive and resource-efficient transport system requires investments into research and development. The European Commission proposes to tackle this challenge by the creation of the Shift2Rail Joint Technology Initiative.

The revision of Directive 2004/49/EC (Safety Directive) has introduced a new Article 14a (2008/110/EC), dealing with the certification of the Entity in Charge of Maintenance (ECM). It assigns a new task to the Agency, drafting a recommendation for the certification scheme, which is supported by the amendment of the Agency Regulation EC 881/2004 (EC 1335/2008).

EIM welcomes the initiative of the European Commission to complete a ‘Single European Railway Area’ by removing the remaining technical, regulatory and economic barriers with the aim to improve the performance and competitiveness of the railway sector.

While welcoming the objectives of transparency and efficiency that are driving the revision of the Utilities Directive(2004/17), European Rail Infrastructure Managers (EIM) urge the European institutions to take due consideration of the particular character of railway infrastructure managers.

European rail is once again embracing change. On 19 October 2011 the European Commission (EC) proposed a dual regulation: a review of the Union guidelines for the development of the Trans-European Network for Transport (TEN-T) and a proposal for a financial framework labelled the Connecting Europe Facility (CEF). The proposals are dedicated to the establishment of a genuinely inter-connected European transport network linking (by 2030-2050) the key European cities, ports and airports in a multimodal fashion with rail at its core. Not only are the proposals timely, they are strategic: they set out a clear long-term vision and implementation tools for a seamless inter-connection across the entire European continent.

This paper expresses the EIM vision regarding the requirements of braking performance in the TSI OPE.

The revision of Directive 2004/49/EC (Safety Directive) has introduced a new Article 14a (2008/110/EC), dealing with the certification of the Entity in Charge of Maintenance (ECM). It assigns a new task to the Agency, drafting a recommendation for the certification scheme, which is supported by the amendment of the Agency Regulation EC 881/2004 (EC 1335/2008).