Rail safety in the EU

11.5.2023

Question for written answer  E-001540/2023
to the Commission
Rule 138
Ciarán Cuffe (Verts/ALE), Tilly Metz (Verts/ALE), Jutta Paulus (Verts/ALE), Ignazio Corrao (Verts/ALE), Jakop G. Dalunde (Verts/ALE), Karima Delli (Verts/ALE), Anna Deparnay-Grunenberg (Verts/ALE), Ana Miranda (Verts/ALE)

Several recent accidents have raised concerns about rail safety: 57 people lost their lives in Greece in the Tempi railway accident, a collision between two trains in Romania caused multiple casualties, and in the Netherlands, one person died and many more were injured after a train derailed. There are also reports that Slovakia is not complying with the requirements for an independent investigating body as laid down in the Railway Safety Directive[1].

• 1.Could the Commission provide a full account of all ongoing Commission and European Union Agency for Railways (ERA) investigations into railway safety, as well as all cases in which the EU requirements on rail safety have been incorrectly or incompletely transposed?
• 2.Does it believe that the powers and funding of ERA are sufficient to support the Commission in identifying and tackling rail safety problems?
• 3.Does it believe that legislative changes to the rail safety framework are required and if so, what changes are required?

Submitted: 11.5.2023

• [1] Directive (EU) 2016/798 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 11 May 2016 on railway safety (OJ L 138, 26.5.2016, p. 102).