Division 7.2.1.5 Timing criteria

ETCS and GSM-R are computer-based systems with a life expectancy significantly lower than current traditional railway signalling and telecommunication facilities. As such, they call for a proactive rather than reactive deployment strategy to avoid potential system obsolescence prior to system deployment reaching maturity levels.

Notwithstanding this fact, the adoption of a too-fragmented deployment throughout the European rail network, mainly along the trans-European rail corridors, would give rise to major cost and operational overheads resulting from the needs to ensure backward compatibility and interconnection with a diversity of legacy facilities. Moreover, synergies in terms of time, cost and risk reduction might be reached by the reconciliation of common elements of different national implementation strategies — namely through joint procurement initiatives, collaboration in system validation and certification activities.

This manifold background calls for the setting-up of a coherent trans-European implementation plan for ERTMS (ETCS and GSM-R) that should contribute to an harmonious development of the whole of the trans-European rail network in compliance with the EU strategy for the TEN-transport network. Such a plan should build upon the corresponding national implementation plans and should provide an appropriate knowledge base for decision support to the different stakeholders — in particular, to the Commission in the allocation of financial support to railway infrastructure projects.

The emergence of a coherent European plan will necessarily require that the specific national implementation plans are underpinned by the adoption of a set of common generic guiding implementation principles that should be adhered to during its elaboration by the relevant railway authorities. Based on the criteria and requirements expressed in the previous paragraphs and the strategic objectives stated above these principles shall foresee:

Any non-adherence to these general principles in the elaboration of a national implementation plan should be justified by the Member State concerned on the basis of a file setting out the principles it wishes not to apply and the technical, administrative or economic reasons which justify the non-adherence.

Once a trans-European implementation plan is completed, all activities related to installation of control-command subsystems have to be justified by the contracting entities against this implementation plan in addition to all other applicable legislative requirements that are in force. Any proposed non-adherence by a contracting entity should be justified in the dossier submitted to the Member State in accordance with Article 3 of this TSI Decision.

Necessarily, the ERTMS implementation plan will be an evolving document that will have to be updated in order to reflect the real evolution of the deployment throughout the European rail network.