Notification of national technical rules

The European Union (EU) is seeking to harmonise technical rules in the railway sector Europe-wide, with a view to guaranteeing the interoperability of international rail traffic. To that end, work is under way on the preparation of "technical specifications for interoperability" (TSIs) which will allow trains to use all sectors of the EU railway system, moving seamlessly from one country's network to another. This will be done in stages, in the first instance for the high-speed rail network and then for conventional rail traffic. But pending the introduction of technical specifications for interoperability, or if in response to a Member State's request the European Commission (EC) declares that these specifications are not applicable, Member States will continue to apply their national technical rules and must forward them to the European Commission.

 Interoperability & Safety (europa.eu)

In 2004 the Federal Ministry sent the European Commission a first list of these national technical rules. In 2005 subsequent changes were added to this list and the revised list was again sent to the European Commission. This was done pursuant to Art. 16(3) of Council Directives 96/48/EC (high-speed rail system) and 2001/16/EC (conventional rail system), both of them amended by Directive 2004/50/EC.

These notifications must be made public via the Internet and will therefore be posted on this web site. Further information on interoperability can be found on the European Commission's web site.

Note: notifications submitted contain technical rules for both high-speed and conventional rail traffic.

 Single Rule Database (SRD) – EU information and communication system (europa.eu)