The round table focused on the 4 EU strategic priorities of ERA: Remove technical barriers / Simplified access for customers / Harmonised safety framework / ERTMS. The ERFA President François Coart, member of the round table, said:
- About the technical barriers “It’s urgent for the safety and economy of rail freight to remove these barriers and harmonise through the TSI. In USA, the daily cost of a loc amounts to +/- 180€, … in Europe to 2000€! It’s the result of dramatic lack of interoperability, standardization; … the more we standardize the more the European system is understood and efficient, the more the safety is increased! To succeed that, we need more ERA!
- About the harmonized safety framework “Safety is not a target, it’s culture, it’s embedded in your organization and you have to demonstrate it through your SMS (Safety Management System). Your safety culture, based on your experience, has to be recognized/accepted by the NSAs through acceptance criteria. A RU has not to be confronted to different NSA cultures! The new ERA together with NSAs has to solve this un-consistency!
- About ERTMS “the on-board equipment represents a maximum of 20% of the ERTMS overall cost: It’s low but it’s really too costly on the loc level in addition of a several national already installed! It’s an additional European mandatory system … the retrofitting of existing locs has to be paid by European money!”
See on the ERA website the conference files
