Technical Specifications for Interoperability

The Interoperability Directives set out a number of essential requirements to be met for interoperability, which include safety, reliability and availability, health, environmental protection and technical compatibility along with others specific to certain sub-systems. The Directives also require the production of mandatory Technical Specifications for Interoperability (TSIs) which define the technical standards required to satisfy those essential requirements. The development of the TSIs are the responsibility of the European Railway Agency (ERA).

After two years of relative stability with regard to the UK Railways (Interoperability) Regulations 2006, a new Interoperability Directive, 2008/57/EC, has been published in the Official Journal of the European Union on 18 July 2008. The UK Regulations will now require revision in order to reflect the changes brought about in this new Directive.

The new Directive entered into force in July 19th 2008 and the UK has two years from that date to transpose the requirements into domestic legislation. This will be done by a revision of the Railways (Interoperability) Regulations, which will establish how these changes are to be applied in the UK.

The new Interoperability Directive replaces both of the existing Interoperability Directives, that is, High Speed (96/48/EC) and Conventional (2001/16/EC) as well as the two amendments (2004/50/EC and 2007/32/EC).

A number of TSIs have been, or are being, developed to cover a number of sub-systems (for example, infrastructure, rolling stock, energy and control, command and signalling). Each TSI is divided up into sections dealing with the following:

Sub-system definition / scope
The essential requirements
Characterisation of the sub-system (the basic parameters)
Interoperability constituents
Assessment of conformity and / or suitability of use
Implementation

The process for development of a TSI involves a number of key stages, as follows:

Drafting and development of the TSI by the ERA
Adoption of the draft TSI by the Article 21 Committee
Adoption of the TSI in a decision by the European Commission (EC)
Notification of the EC decision to Member States (by formal letter)
Publication of the TSI in the Official Journal of the European Union (OJEU)
The TSI ‘becoming applicable’ (ie, coming into force)

The Member States have a period of six months after being notified of the adoption of a TSI by the Commission in which to notify their National Technical Rules (NTRs) to ensure that the NNTRs are available at the same time as the TSI.

The following file lists all of the High Speed and Conventional TSIs that have been or are under development, together with the current status of each TSI and, where available, links to the text of the TSI and the associated NNTRs.

	TSI status summary

Please contact Adam Milligan on 020 3142 5560 if you require further information regarding the development of the TSIs.