Directive 2004/49/EC of the european parliament and of the council of 29 April 2004 on safety on the Community's railways and amending Council Directive 95/18/EC on the licensing of railway undertakings and Directive 2001/14/EC on the allocation of railway infrastructure capacity and the levying of charges for the use of railway infrastructure and safety certification (Railway Safety Directive)

• Published date: 18 December 2009
• Official Gazette Publication: Gazzetta ufficiale dell’Unione europea, L 164, 30 aprile 2004,Journal officiel de l’Union européenne, L 164, 30 avril 2004,Diario Oficial de la Unión Europea, L 164, 30 de abril de 2004

2004L0049 — EN — 30.07.2014 — 003.002

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This document is meant purely as a documentation tool and the institutions do not assume any liability for its contents

►B ▼C1 DIRECTIVE 2004/49/EC OF THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT AND OF THE COUNCIL of 29 April 2004 on safety on the Community's railways and amending Council Directive 95/18/EC on the licensing of railway undertakings and Directive 2001/14/EC on the allocation of railway infrastructure capacity and the levying of charges for the use of railway infrastructure and safety certification (Railway Safety Directive) ▼B (OJ L 164, 30.4.2004, p.44)

Amended by:

		Official Journal
		No	page	date
►M1	DIRECTIVE 2008/57/EC OF THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT AND OF THE COUNCIL Text with EEA relevance of 17 June 2008	L 191	1	18.7.2008
►M2	DIRECTIVE 2008/110/EC OF THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT AND OF THE COUNCIL Text with EEA relevance of 16 December 2008	L 345	62	23.12.2008
M3	COMMISSION DIRECTIVE 2009/149/EC Text with EEA relevance of 27 November 2009	L 313	65	28.11.2009
►M4	DIRECTIVE 2012/34/EU OF THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT AND OF THE COUNCIL Text with EEA relevance of 21 November 2012	L 343	32	14.12.2012
►M5	COMMISSION DIRECTIVE 2014/88/EU Text with EEA relevance of 9 July 2014	L 201	9	10.7.2014

Corrected by:

►C1 Corrigendum, OJ L 220, 21.6.2004, p. 16 (Directive 2004/49/EC)

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▼B

▼C1

DIRECTIVE 2004/49/EC OF THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT AND OF THE COUNCIL

of 29 April 2004

on safety on the Community's railways and amending Council Directive 95/18/EC on the licensing of railway undertakings and Directive 2001/14/EC on the allocation of railway infrastructure capacity and the levying of charges for the use of railway infrastructure and safety certification

(Railway Safety Directive)

THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT AND THE COUNCIL OF THE EUROPEAN UNION,

Having regard to the Treaty establishing the European Community, and in particular Article 71(1) thereof,

Having regard to the proposal from the Commission ( 1 ),

Having regard to the opinion of the European Economic and Social Committee ( 2 ),

Having regard to the opinion of the Committee of the Regions ( 3 ),

Acting in accordance with the procedure laid down in Article 251 of the Treaty ( 4 ), in the light of the joint text approved by the Conciliation Committee on 23 March 2004,

Whereas:

(1) In order to pursue efforts to establish a single market for rail transport services, initiated by Council Directive 91/440/EEC of 29 July 1991 on the development of the Community's railways ( 5 ), it is necessary to establish a common regulatory framework for railway safety. Member States have until now developed their safety rules and standards mainly on national lines, based on national technical and operational concepts. Simultaneously, differences in principles, approach and culture have made it difficult to break through the technical barriers and establish international transport operations.

(2) Directive 91/440/EEC, Council Directive 95/18/EC of 19 June 1995 on the licensing of railway undertakings ( 6 ) and Directive 2001/14/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 26 February 2001 on the allocation of railway infrastructure capacity and the levying of charges for the use of railway infrastructure and safety certification ( 7 ) provide the first steps towards regulation of the European rail transport market by opening the market for international rail freight services. However, the provisions on safety have proved to be insufficient and differences between safety requirements remain, which affect the optimum functioning of rail transport in the Community. It is of particular importance to harmonise the content of safety rules, safety certification of railway undertakings, the tasks and roles of the safety authorities and the investigation of accidents.

(3) Metros, trams and other light rail systems are in many Member States subject to local or regional safety rules and are often supervised by local or regional authorities and not covered by the requirements on Community interoperability or licensing. Trams are furthermore often subject to road safety legislation and could therefore not be fully covered by railway safety rules. For these reasons and in accordance with the principle of subsidiarity as set out in Article 5 of the Treaty, Member States should be allowed to exclude such local rail systems from the scope of this Directive.

(4) Safety levels in the Community rail system are generally high, in particular compared to road transport. It is important that safety is at the very least maintained during the current restructuring phase, which will separate functions of previously integrated railway companies and move the railway sector further from self-regulation to public regulation. In line with technical and scientific progress, safety should be further improved, when reasonably practicable and taking into account the competitiveness of the rail transport mode.

(5) All those operating the railway system, infrastructure managers and railway undertakings, should bear the full responsibility for the safety of the system, each for their own part. Whenever it is appropriate, they should cooperate in implementing risk control measures. Member States should make a clear distinction between this immediate responsibility for safety and the safety authorities' task of providing a national regulatory framework and supervising the performance of the operators.

(6) The responsibility of infrastructure managers and railway undertakings for operating the railway system does not preclude other actors such as manufacturers, maintenance suppliers, wagon keepers, service providers and procurement entities from assuming responsibility for their products or services in accordance with the provisions of Council Directive 96/48/EC of 23 July 1996 on the interoperability of the trans-European high-speed rail system ( 8 ) and of Directive 2001/16/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 19 March 2001 on the interoperability of the trans-European conventional rail system ( 9 ) or of other relevant Community legislation.

(7) Requirements on safety of the subsystems of the trans-European rail networks are laid down in Directive 96/48/EC and Directive 2001/16/EC. However, those Directives do not define common requirements at system level and do not deal in detail with the regulation, management and supervision of safety. When minimum safety levels of the subsystems are defined by technical specifications for interoperability (TSIs) it will be increasingly important to establish safety targets at the system level as well.

(8) Common safety targets (CSTs) and common safety methods (CSMs) should be gradually introduced to ensure that a high level of safety is maintained and, when and where necessary and reasonably practicable, improved. They should provide tools for assessment of the safety level and the performance of the operators at Community level as well as in the Member States.

(9) Information on safety of the railway system is scarce and not generally publicly available. It is thus necessary to establish common safety indicators (CSIs) in order to assess that the system complies with the CSTs and to facilitate the monitoring of railway safety performance. However, national definitions relating to the CSIs may apply during a transitional period and due account should therefore be taken of the extent of the development of common definitions of the CSIs when the first set of CSTs is drafted.

(10) National safety rules, which are often based on national technical standards, should gradually be replaced by rules based on common standards, established by TSIs. The introduction of new specific national rules which are not based on such common standards should be kept to a minimum. New national rules should be in line with Community legislation and facilitate migration towards a common approach to railway safety. All interested parties should therefore be consulted before a Member State adopts a national safety rule that requires a higher safety level than the CSTs. In such cases the new draft rule should be subject to examination by the Commission, which should adopt a Decision if it appears that the draft rule is not in conformity with Community legislation or constitutes a means of arbitrary discrimination or a disguised restriction on rail transport operation between Member States.

(11) The current situation, in which national safety rules continue to play a role, should be regarded as a transitional stage, leading ultimately to a situation in which European rules will apply.

(12) The development of CSTs, CSMs and CSIs as well as the need to facilitate progress towards a common approach to railway safety requires technical support at Community level. The European Railway Agency established by Regulation (EC) No 881/2004 of the European Parliament and of the Council ( 10 ) is set up to issue recommendations concerning CSTs, CSMs and CSIs and further harmonisation measures and to monitor the development of railway safety in the Community.

(13) In carrying out their duties and fulfilling their responsibilities, infrastructure managers and railway undertakings should implement a safety management system, fulfilling Community requirements and containing common elements. Information on safety and the implementation of the safety management system should be submitted to the safety authority in the Member State concerned.

(14) The safety management system should take into account the fact that Council Directive 89/391/EC of 12 June 1989 on the introduction of

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