RAILWAY REGULATORY AUTHORITY
820 05 BRATISLAVA, Miletičova 19, SLOVAKIA
Annual Report on Safety
year 2006
Submitted by: Peter Vrátny, Chairman September 2007
CONTENT
A. Scope of the report
B. Introductory Section
1. Introduction to the report
2. Railway Structure Information
3. Summary
4. Implementation of The Safety Directive 2004/49/EC
C. Organisation
1. Introduction
2. NSA organization
3. Organisation chart
D. The development of railway safety
1. Initiatives to maintain/improve safety performances
2. Detailed data trend analysis
E. Important changes in legislation and regulation
F. The development of safety certification and authorisation
1. National legislation
2. The development of safety certification and authorization - numerical data
3. Procedural aspects of issuing the safety certificates
G. Supervision of Railway Undertakings and Infrastructure Managers
1. Description of the supervision
2. Submission of annual reports
3. Results and experience with the supervision
H. Conclusions
Priorities, Results of safety recommendations
I. Annexes
A1 ŽSR Network map
A2 List of Railway Undertakings and Infrastructure Managers
C CSIs data – tables
A. Scope of the report
This report contains indicators of the rail transport safety on the rail infrastructure of the Slovak Republic for the year 2006 and information on activities of the Railway Regulatory Authority (hereinafter referred to as „URZD“) in the field of rail transport safety.
B. Introductory Section
1. Introduction
The obligation to elaborate this report on safety is set in the Article 48a) (a) and Article 48b (3)of the Act of the National Council of the Slovak Republic No. 164/1996 Coll. on Railroads and on Amendments of the Act No. 455/1991 Coll. on Small Trade Business (The Trade License Act) as amended, as amended by later regulations (hereinafter referred to as “Act on the Railroads”) and Article 18 of the Directive 2004/49/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 29 April 2004 on safety of the Community´s railways and amending Council Directive 95/18/EC on the licensing of the railway undertakings and Directive 2001/14/EC on the allocation of railway infrastructure capacity and levying the charges for the use of railway infrastructure and safety certification (hereinafter referred to as “Safety Directive”).
The annual report for the year 2006 is submitted according to the shown requirements of the Act on the Railroads, Safety Directive and instructions given by the European Railway Agency (hereinafter referred to as “ERA”) for the first time. For this reason, the report does not contain comparison data, nor some of the tables for the given period of time.
2. Railway Infrastructure Information
The rail infrastructure for the purpose of this report contains nationwide and regional railroads of the Slovak Republic. These form 3658 km, thereof 2640 km is single-track railway, and 1018 km is double-track railways or multiple track railways. Normal gauge lines are 3509 km long, wide gauge lines is 99 km long and narrow gauge lines are 50 km long.
Line kilometres
Total number of line kilometres - 6867 km, thereof main track lines 4676 km, other station track lines 2191 km. Total number of point-switches 8717, total number of point-switch units 9710.
Bridges
There are 2287 bridges on the rail infrastructure, thereof steel bridges 493, massive bridges 1794. Total lengths of the bridges - 46240 meters.
Tunnels
There are 76 tunnels on the rail infrastructure, thereof 69 single-track line tunnels and 7 double track-lines tunnels. Total lengths of the tunnels - 43389 meters.
Level crossings
Level crossing are the most critical parts of the rail infrastructure, as far as safety is concerned. There are 2322 level crossings on the rail infrastructure. Thereof 115 level crossings are equipped with the mechanical barriers. 976 level crossing are equipped with lighting protection. There are 1231 level crossing without protection.
Electrified lines
From the total lines lengths, there is 1556 km electrified as follows:
AC 25000 V/50 Hz 737 km
DC 3000 V (1500V, 600 V) 819 km.
Total lengths of the traction is 4723 km, thereof single-phase traction lines is 172 km long, direct traction lines are 2551 km.
EU corridors – on the ŽSR rail infrastructure:
Corridor IV (ČD) – Kúty – Bratislava – Štúrovo – (MÁV) (220 km)
Corridor V Bratislava – Žilina – Košice – Čierna nad Tisou - (UZ) (544 km)
Corridor VI Žilina – Čadca – Skalité – (PKP) ( 57 km)
Corridor IX (MÁV) – Čaňa – Košice – Prešov – Plaveč – (PKP) (118 km)
The total lengths of all the corridors on the railway infrastructure of the Slovak Republic is 939 km.
ŽSR network map
Railway infrastructure map of the Slovak Republic is given in the Annex A1.
Given information on the railway infrastructure is from the database of the Railway of the Slovak Republic (ŽSR).
List of railway undertakings and infrastructure managers
The list of the railway undertakings (carriers, transporters) operating on the infrastructure of the Slovak Republic in the year 2006 is given in the Annex A2. The only railway infrastructure manager in the Slovak Republic (for the regional as well as nationwide railroads) is Railways of the Slovak Republic (Železnice Slovenskej republiky, ŽSR).
3. Summary
Ensuring safety of the railway transport and its developments is the main task of the infrastructure manager (IM) and railway undertakings (carriers) providing transport on the rail infrastructure. This obligation is also given by the relevant measures of the Act on the Railroads.
One of the main tasks of the URZD within its competence as a rail administration body is to monitor safety of the rail transport, monitor prevention of the accidents and ensuring observance of legal regulations in the field of the rail transport safety.
4. Implementation of The Safety Directive 2004/49 EC
Safety Directive 2004/49/EC was into the legal system of the Slovak Republic fully implemented by the Act No. 109/2007, Coll amending the Act of the National Council of the Slovak Republic No. 164/1996 Coll. on Railroads and on Amendments of the Act No. 455/1991 Coll. on Small Trade Business (The Trade Licence Act) as amended by later regulations.
For this reason, the URZD could have been acting only within the scope of the relevant regulation of the Act on the Railroads.
C. Organisation
1. Introduction
Railway Regulatory Authority (Úrad pre reguláciu železničnej dopravy, URZD) was established on 1 November 2005 according to the Act No. 109/2005 Coll. of February 9, 2005, amending Act of the National Council of the Slovak Republic No. 164/1996 Coll. on railroads and on amendments of the Act No. 455/1991 Coll. on small trade business (the Trade License Act) as amended by later regulations and on amendments of the Act No. 725/2004 Coll. on conditions of vehicle operations in the road traffic and on amendments of some acts, as amended by Act No. 466/2005 Coll. of September 23, 2005, amending Act No. 175/1999 Coll. on some regulations concerning preparations of essential investments and on amendments of some acts as amended by later regulations and on amendments of some acts.
The URZD headquarters: Miletičova 19, 820 05 Bratislava, Slovakia.
Activities of the URZD are determined by the Setting document No. 2340/M-2005 of October 28, 2005, Act No. 164/1996 Coll. on railroads and on amendments of the Act No. 455/1991 Coll. on small trade business (The Trade License Act) as last amended by later regulations.
Details on organization, aim and tasks of the URZD are laid down in the Office Status No. 2680/M-2005 dated on 9 December 2005 issued upon the decision of the Minister of Transport, Posts and Telecommunications of the Slovak Republic No. 224 dated on 9 December 2005.
The internal organization levels, management system and level, the scope of rights and duties are set in the Internal Rules of Organization.
The Rules of Organization came into force on December 19, 2005. Within the year 2006, 5 organizational changes took place. The last change of the Rules of Organization in the year 2006 took place on 29 December 2006. The organizational chart reflects this change.
To ensure providing the new tasks of the URZD , including the activities in the field of regulation and safety, it was necessary to employ new employees with the relevant qualification.
2. NSA Organisation
Since April 1 2007, the URZD acts, among others, as a rail safety authority and the rail investigation body in accordance with the Article 64 of the Act of the National Council of the Slovak Republic No. 164/1996 Coll. on Railroads and on Amendments of the Act No. 455/1991 Coll. on Small Trade Business (The Trade Licence Act) as amended by later regulations. As such, the URZD acts as a “national safety authority” as well as investigation body in the sense of the Article 16 and Article 21 of the Safety Directive.
The Authority is managed by Chairman, who is appointed and recalled by the Government of the Slovak Republic.
Within its activities as the national safety authority and national investigation body, the URZD is independent, as it is required by the Safety Directive.
URZD, being a budgetary organization, is through the financial relations coupled with the state budget by the means of a budgetary chapter of the Ministry of Transport, Posts and Telecommunications of the Slovak Republic (hereinafter referred to as “MDPT SR”).
The activities concerning the safety of the rail transport are executed especially by the Safety and the state supervision on the railroads section. This section also ensures monitoring in the field of interoperability and subsystems of the rail network forming the European railway system on the area of the Slovak Republic.
Issuing authorisations for rail operation and granting licenses for railroad transport operation is closely connected to safety regulation of the railway transport. Within the URZD, the mentioned activities are ensured by the Railway Regulatory Section.
Safety and the state supervision on the railroads section is active especially on the field of rolling stock evidence by step-by-step preparation of creating the national vehicle register. This includes approval of the type of the rail vehicles and their substantial change.
In the field of rolling stock evidence, the final state means creating the national vehicle register. To achieve this goal, it will be important to prepare an internal directive for registration and issuing the Vehicle Keepers Markings code to the rail vehicles keepers, and to publish it in the website of the URZD.
For the future, it will be important to focus on activities concerning state professional supervision on the railroads, accident investigation on the nationwide and regional railroads, complex processing of the rail vehicles data to create the national vehicle register. In the cooperation with the MDPT SR, it will be necessary to complete the matters concerning issuing and withdrawing the certificates for driving the railways and special track vehicles.
The final state in the area of the transport road equipment/installation is national register of the rail infrastructure. This activity will be transposed into the real life more precisely only after publishing the relevant regulations by the European Railway Agency.
Within the year 2006, the negotiations with the Safety Unit and Inspection of the General Headquarters of the ŽSR took place. The negotiations dealt with cooperation in the field of accident and incident investigations and railway safety regulation.
In the field of accident investigation, the main objective is to set conditions for ensuring investigation of the serious accidents on the nationwide and regional railways.
In the field of the state professional supervision on the railroads, the objective is to elaborate and prepare directive containing new legislation requirements in the field of safety regulation.
In the field of issuing the safety certificates to the carriers on the nationwide and regional railroads and safety authorization for the infrastructure managers, it will be needed to issue a guideline setting the conditions and procedures for submitting the applications, including the content of the safety management system, being one of the conditions for issuing the safety certificate or authorization.
Railway safety is also connected to some of the activities performed by the State professional technical supervision and monitoring section and Special building authority section.
State professional technical supervision and monitoring section performs monitoring and supervision over the technical safety of so called determined technical equipment manufactured, constructed or serving for railroad operation and railroad transport operation, as well as over so called determined activities.
Special building authority performs activities connected with railroad structures and constructions on the railroads. Before issuing the document on authorization for newly built or upgraded railway, which will form apart of the European railway system, into service, it verifies fulfilling all the requirements concerning verifying the structural subsystems before putting them into service.
3. Organisation chart
Organisation chart valid on 31 December 2006 is as follows:
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Organisation chart – NSA
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D. The development of railway safety
1. Initiatives to maintain/improve safety performance
The field of the railway safety in the sense of the Safety Directive and relevant regulations of the Act on the Railroads is in the year 2006 observed for the first time (this is year is the bases). Indicators in the safety developments have not been monitored this way so far, which means the relevant data usable for comparison is not available.
2. Detailed data trend analysis
Due to the fact the indicators are monitored in the year 2006 for the first time, it is not possible to compare the data trend, nor it is possible to provide their detail analyses.
Based on the gained information form the infrastructure manager – Railways of the Slovak Republic, the most serious problems in the field of the accidents seem to be:
- unauthorized persons in the clearance gauge of the nationwide and regional railroads
- accidents on the level crossings, where the car drivers do not respect safety installation, traffic signs and the rules of the road transport.
The indicators elaborated in details for the year 2006 are given in the tables provided by the ERA in the Annex C.
E. Important changes in legislation and regulation
Important changes in the legislation took place by amendments of the Act of the Railroads (by the Act No. 109/2005, Coll.), by adopting the Act No. 124/2006 Coll. on Occupational Safety and Health Protection and on amendments of several acts (coming into force on 1 July 2006).