ERTMS and the new European railway culture: Clients, Competition and Change

25 April, 2000

On Tuesday the 25th April in Madrid, the Union of European Railway industries (UNIFE) and the International Union of Railways (UIC) signed and handed over to Mrs Loyola de Palacio, the ensemble of the ERTMS (European Rail Traffic Management system) specifications (ETCS and GSM-R), developed with the support of the European Commission. An agreement was reached on making quick progress in regards to the implementation.

UNISIG, the group of telecommunication and signalling industries, moreover members of UNIFE, and the railway operators in the context of the GEIE ERTMS Users Group, members of UIC, had already approved these specifications.

Mrs Loyola de Palacio, Vice-President of the European Commission responsible for relations with the Parliament, Transport and Energy, welcomed this accomplishment establishing the foundations of the signalling interoperability in the EU and the first steps to be followed in the future by the railway industry in Europe.

To respond to the current challenges (increasing competitiveness, new competitors in other transport modes, etc.), railways will have to move outside of the limited space of the national frontiers and look for the added value of the European space. The emergence of a "European Railway culture" is needed, looking towards a new dynamic, in which, leadership and enterprise spirit would be the elements to answer to the forces that will determine the transport world: Clients (all of us), Competition and Change.

Mr Miguel Corsini, UIC Chairman, thanked the European Commission for the continuous support in finalising the ERTMS specifications.

By approving these specifications, the rail supply industry is undertaking to provide interoperable equipment, which will finally mean that the railways of Europe could work with the same equipment. Aside from yielding savings on design and production cost, the adoption of international standards will open up pan-European markets for industry, not to mention the prospect of global markets which become a real possibility once universally recognised standards come into play.

Mr Brian Crowther, UNIFE Vice-Chairman, stated that with this agreement on ERTMS, and the coming agreements on High-Speed and Conventional Rail interoperability to be signed in June in Paris at the UNIFE Annual Conference, Europe could finally reach a single railway system without technical or operational limitations.

UNIFE will now ask the European Commission to ensure that these agreements are enforced once the pilot line results have been assessed, and suggests that the most important task for the EC and the railways is to urgently address and resolve the issue of different railways' operational rules which are a real impediment to true interoperability. Further, interoperability is needed on all sections of the European railway network to realise the full benefits of reduced price and increased reliability and availability possible through increased economies of scale in manufacturing.