TSI 2022 and beyond - rail sector position on the new transition regime
On 24 January 2020 the European Commission sent a request to the European Union Agency for Railways (ERA) for the preparation of the Digital rail and Green freight TSI revision package (2022 revision). Within the package the European Commission submitted the change request CR236 ‘Review and streamline transitional provisions’. This change request was assigned to the recently established ERA Topical Working Group (TWG) Migration and Transition, the results of which will have significant impact on the overall application of the TSIs and by extension the vehicle/infrastructure projects and daily business of the rail sector over the next decade.
The current proposal from ERA is based on categorising the new TSI requirements, C1/2/3, based on their assessed impact and priority to determine their category and with it the transition regime. The rail sector recognises the positive signs and direction of travel in the TWG with the latest proposals, notably with categories C1/2 and the unlimited validity of EC Type certificates. However, the rail sector highlights the significant levels of risk on the sector connected to the C3 requirements category (mandatory implementation) where these come with various specific transition periods that would interrupt vehicle type production phases and impact existing vehicles in operation.