The European Rail Traffic Management System’s deployment is too slow and needs to be addressed with better coordination and more investment, Transport MEPs say.
The draft resolution on railway safety and signalling, adopted by the Transport and Tourism Committee on Tuesday by 41 votes to 1, scrutinizes the European rail traffic management system (ERTMS) and calls for its full deployment, which is essential in achieving the climate and digital transition goals. Transport MEPs highlight that ERTMS roll-out is still slow and full interoperability is not yet achieved despite past initiatives.
Better coordination and harmonisation
To improve the situation, Transport MEPs urge for better coordination in ERMTS deployment. They argue that speeding up the deployment is necessary to meet the existing 2030 ERTMS rollout deadline on the core networks. At the end of 2020 only around 13 % of the core network corridors were operated with the ERTMS, with its deployment in other corridors reaching a range between 7 % to 28 %. A ten-fold increase in the deployment pace is urgently needed to achieve the digital transition and to improve the safety of the European railway system, MEPs add. The draft resolution also urges to align ERTMS national implementation plans to the binding deployment targets set at the EU level to enforce the decommissioning of outdated national signalling systems. There are 30 different national signalling systems that prevents to full deployment of ERTMS, MEPs say. Since national rules create barriers to interoperability and impedes seamless operation of the European rail network, Transport MEPs suggest to further harmonise operational requirements, such as, engineering rules or dimension of the wagons. They also want to further streamline the authorisation procedures and urge the Commission to establish a common EU tender format for procurements to overcome current inefficiencies in public procurement for ERTMS deployment.
ERTMS industrial strategy and funding
Transport MEPs call on the Commission to present a legislative proposal for an ERTMS industrial strategy in the framework of the new Industrial Strategy for Europe to address the insufficient industrial capacity. The EU funds are not sufficient to cover all the expenses, says the draft text, calling on the Commission and member states to commit to improve the attractiveness of investing in the ERTMS, hence addressing the lack of a stable and predictable budget.
EP rapporteur Izaskun Bilbao Barandica (Renew, ES) said: “Technical barriers prevent the train from bringing all its virtues to contribute to more efficient, intelligent and sustainable mobility. Removing them requires the installation of the automated European Rail Traffic Control and Management System (ERTMS) throughout the EU’s main rail network. We are long overdue, so much so that we should increase the speed of deployment of this technology tenfold to achieve a doubling of traffic on high-speed networks by 2030 and the same increase in freight traffic by 2050. Investments towards this goal are therefore key to the decarbonisation of transport and mobility, for rail safety, to boost the development of the European industry and should be a priority for European recovery and resilience funds.”
The resolution on railway safety and signalling now needs to be voted by the full house of the Parliament, possibly during the July session.
The European Rail Traffic Management System (ERTMS) is a single European signalling and speed control system launched in the early 1990s with the aim to ensure interoperability of the national railway systems, to reduce the purchasing and maintenance costs of the signalling systems as well as to increase the speed of trains, the capacity of infrastructure and the level of safety in rail transport. The first commercial lines using ERTMS were opened in 2005, while in 2017 Commission adopted a new ERTMS deployment plan in order to ensure its full deployment by 2030.
