Rolling Stock

Objective

Rolling stock comprises all the vehicles that move along a railway, i.e. powered and unpowered vehicles such as locomotives (including on-track machines – OTMs) and passenger carriages. An effective cross-border train traffic can be ensured only if national rail infrastructure networks are technically compatible with the rolling stock running on their cross-border lines. A specific ‘vehicle authorisation’ process ensures that the rolling stock is compatible with the rail infrastructure on which it operates. The requirements for rolling stock on European level are defined by Regulations (EU) 321/2013 concerning the Technical Specification for Interoperability relating to the subsystem ‘rolling stock — freight wagons’ (TSI WAG) and (EU) 1302/2014 concerning a Technical Specification for Interoperability relating to the ‘rolling stock – locomotives and passenger rolling stock’ (TSI LOC&PAS).

EIM in action

EIM’s WG “RST” (Rolling Stock) discussed the interfaces between the infrastructure and the vehicles running on it.
EIM’s WG “RST” followed ERA’s Working Parties and Working Groups that have an interface with the TSI LOC&PAS and the TSI WAG.

EIM actions in 2023

EIM contributed to the new proposals of the European Commission (EC) concerning the conditions of track access for testing purposes and the drafting of the Application Guide for Vehicle Authorisation.
EIM’s WG “RST” contributed to the new TSI revision process. Members of this group contributed to the ERA Working Parties, Topical Working Groups and Tasks Forces interfacing with the TSI LOC&PAS and TSI WAG.
Due to the work done on route compatibility checks, EIM’s WG “RST” also collaborated with EIM’s WG “OPE”.
EIM worked with ERA concerning the application of the RINF to the route compatibility checks.
EIM contributed to the standardisation of RFID (Radio Frequency Identification) for European railways.
EIM’s WG “RST” attended the ERA-EC Workshops on the ‘Future Revision of the TSIs’.
EIM’s WG “RST” attended the ERA Topical WGs and discussed the Change Requests for the upcoming TSI WAG and TSI LOC&PAS revisions.

Outlook 2024

EIM will continue contributing to the ERA Task Force on the ‘Classification of National Rules’ (NRs) for Vehicle Authorisation.
EIM’s WG “RST” will continue following up on the evolution of the ‘Future Revision of the TSIs’.
EIM’s WG “RST” will continue following up ERA’s Topical WGs and Task Forces.
EIM will continue contributing to topics related to route compatibly checks upon request. EIM will reactivate the Task Force Route Compatibility Checks (RCC) to follow the developments on RCC.
EIM will monitor the progress of the implementation of the vehicle authorisation, as well as the approval of the ‘European standard on Radio Frequency Identification’ (RFID).
EIM’s RST experts will monitor the activity of ERA’s ‘Topical Working Group on Freight.