Directive on the interoperability of the rail system within the Union (recast)

Scope

Sets the conditions for achieving interoperability of the EU rail system: essential requirements for subsystems, the framework for adopting TSIs, EC verification procedures, and vehicle authorisation and placing on the market through ERA. As the technical pillar of the Fourth Railway Package it is the legal basis under which manufacturers, RUs, IMs, notified bodies, and national safety authorities operate for authorisation and conformity assessment.

Directive (EU) 2016/797, the interoperability directive of the Fourth Railway Package, sets the conditions for achieving technical interoperability of the EU rail system by defining essential requirements that structural subsystems and interoperability constituents must meet. It establishes the framework and procedure for adopting Technical Specifications for Interoperability (TSIs), which translate those essential requirements into detailed technical parameters for each subsystem, and it sets out the EC verification procedure by which notified bodies assess conformity of subsystems before they enter service. The Directive gave the European Union Agency for Railways a central authorisation role, replacing the previous system in which each Member State authorised vehicles separately, so that a single vehicle authorisation issued by ERA (or, in limited cases, a national safety authority) is now valid across the applicable area of use. It also governs the treatment of national technical rules that remain in specific cases or open points not yet covered by a TSI, recorded in ERA's Reference Document Database. As the technical pillar underpinning EU rail interoperability, it is applied daily by manufacturers, railway undertakings, infrastructure managers and notified bodies in every authorisation and conformity-assessment process.