On 10 February 2022, the Italian National Safety Authority ANSFISA lifted its measures regarding thermal overload in LL-brake blocks that had notably imposed speed restrictions in Italy for trains carrying general freight from 120km/h to 80km/h, and to 60km/h for trains carrying dangerous goods.
Following the investigation report of the JNS Urgent Procedure task force, the Italian measures were replaced by the new ‘short term risk control measures’ proposed in the action plan of the report.
Wagon keepers have been investing for several years now in the retrofitting of their fleet with low-noise composite brake blocks ( mostly K or LL-brake blocks) to reduce noise pollution in accordance with EU regulation.
In 2021 Italy signaled a cluster of incidents with thermal overload in LL (organic) brake blocks that led in some cases to secondary damages.
The Italian National Safety Agency ANSFISA then decided on 6 August to impose immediate measures on wagons equipped with LL-brake blocks.
These measures were complemented on 9 November by speed restrictions for freight trains operated with IB 116*.
The whole ‘import and export by rail’ industry suffered a major blow as operations were disrupted and negative spill-over effects reached other countries as rail freight doesn’t usually stop at national borders.
UIP together with the sector threw their weight behind the issue to find a sustainable solution that would stop causing harm to rail freight operations.
A “JNS Urgent Procedure” task force – composed of experts from the sector including UIP and chaired by the European Railway Agency – was set up in view of defining EU-wide harmonized measures to guarantee safety and interoperability.
On 2 February 2022, the JNS Urgent procedure task force published its results on “Extreme effects of thermal overload in special cases of freight operation” proposing an action plan with short term risk control measures.
ANSFISA issued on 10 February 2022 an official notice addressed to railway companies, keepers of freight wagons, parties responsible for maintenance and infrastructure managers (please find the original and the EN courtesy translation attached) as well as a press release ( Comunicato stampa del 10 febbraio 2022), stating that the short term risk control measures defined by the JNS task force would enter into force immediately.
This supersedes the Italian measures adopted previously and will allow freight operations to resume at the normal pace again, having regard to the new set of measures.
The issue of thermal overload will be further investigated in a JNS normal procedure which kicked off on 10 February 2022 with continued participation of UIP experts.