Transcript Dangerous goods transport by rail in the Euro-Asien trade (RID-SMGS) UNECE Inland Transport Commitee Geneva, March 1st, 2011 Roundtable discussion on “Transport of dangerous goods.

Dangerous goods transport by rail
in the Euro-Asien trade (RID-SMGS)
UNECE
Inland Transport Commitee
Geneva, March 1st, 2011
Roundtable discussion on “Transport of dangerous goods :
global and regional dimensions”.
Jean-Pierre Lehman, Legal Director
Plan of the presentation
> UIC: the International Union of Railways
- Mission
- 200 members on all continents
- In 2011 : a continuous expansion
- Main partners of the UIC in Europe
> UIC Supporting the developing of intercontinental links
> Rail transport law for the dangerous goods
> CIM and SMGS states
> Development of the Legal and technical interoperability
- Improvements obtained
- Expected improvements
> Conclusions
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Presentation of UIC, Roundtable UNECE – Geneva – March 1st,
2011Presentation of UIC, Roundtable UNECE – Genève – 1er March 2011
UIC: the International Union of Railways
UIC Mission
Promoting the development of rail transport
at world level,
in order to meet challenges
of mobility and sustainable development
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Presentation of UIC, Roundtable UNECE – Geneva – March 1st,
2011Presentation of UIC, Roundtable UNECE – Genève – 1er March 2011
UIC: the International Union of Railways
> 200 members on all continents
> Members are:
 Railways
 Rail operators
 Infrastructure managers
 Railway service providers
 Public transport companies
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Presentation of UIC, Roundtable UNECE – Geneva – March 1st,
2011Presentation of UIC, Roundtable UNECE – Genève – 1er March 2011
UIC: The International Union of Railways
> 82 active members:
Railways, railway infrastructure managers, railway operators, from Europe,
Russia, the Maghreb, the Middle East, Kazakhstan, India, Pakistan, Japan,
China, Korea, South Africa
> 82 associate members:
Including railways in Asia, Africa, America, Australia
> 36 affiliate members:
Companies conducting activities
connected with rail transport public
transport, sleeping cars, caterers,
other railway bodies, …
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Presentation of UIC, Roundtable UNECE – Geneva – March 1st,
2011Presentation of UIC, Roundtable UNECE – Genève – 1er March 2011
UIC: The International Union of Railways
2011: a continuous expansion
Members
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Active
Associate
Affiliate
Presentation of UIC, Roundtable UNECE – Geneva – March 1st,
2011Presentation of UIC, Roundtable UNECE – Genève – 1er March 2011
UIC: The International Union of Railways
Main partners in Europe : international NGOs
>
CER :
Community of European Railway and infrastructure companies
(Brussels-BE)
>
CIT :
International rail Transport Commitee (Bern-CH)
>
FIATA : Federation of Freight Forwarders Associations (Glattbrugg-CH)
>
OSJD : Organization for Cooperation of Railways (Warzaw -PL)
>
UIP :
>
UIRR : International Union of Combined Road-Rail Transport companies
(Brussels-BE)
>
UNIFE : Union of the European railway industries (Brussels-BE)
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International Industry Union of Private wagons (Brussels-BE)
Presentation of UIC, Roundtable UNECE – Geneva – March 1st,
2011Presentation of UIC, Roundtable UNECE – Genève – 1er March 2011
UIC: The International Union of Railways
Main partners in Europe : international NGOs
> OTIF:
Intergovernmental Organisation for International carriage by rail.
(Bern –CH)
> OSJD (or OSShd) :
Organization for Cooperation of Railways. (Warzaw-PL)
> CCTT :
Coordinating Council on Trans-Siberian Transportation
> ERA :
European Railway Agency - European Union (Valenciennes – FR).
Member States, in connection with the CER (Community of European
Railway and infrastructure companies).
> UNECE : United Nations Economic Commission for Europe (Genf-CH).
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Presentation of UIC, Roundtable UNECE – Geneva – March 1st,
2011Presentation of UIC, Roundtable UNECE – Genève – 1er March 2011
UIC supporting the development of intercontinental links
1. Provide a platform for exchange for all interested stakeholders.
2. Collect existing information on corridors (including terminals, accessibility
and harbours) and establish links with other associations and existing
working groups.
3. Coordinate process towards interoperability in terms of infrastructure,
technical conditions (rolling stock, signalling), operations, security,
information flow/communication and railway law (integrate and support
work of OTIF, CIT, OSJD, CCTT).
4. Commit key stakeholders to form project consortium and facilities
demonstration phase.
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Presentation of UIC, Roundtable UNECE – Geneva – March 1st,
2011Presentation of UIC, Roundtable UNECE – Genève – 1er March 2011
Rail transport law for dangerous goods
OTIF- Vilnius Protocol 1999 - COTIF (Convention concerning
International carriage by rail) : CIM (appendix B)
RID : Dangerous goods (Appendix C to COTIF).
Legislation of the European Union
Directive 2008/68/CE – Inland transport of dangerous goods
OSJD (or OSShd) : SGMS : Agreement on international goods
transport by Rail) :
Dangerous goods (Appendix 2 to SGMS).
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Presentation of UIC, Roundtable UNECE – Geneva – March 1st,
2011Presentation of UIC, Roundtable UNECE – Genève – 1er March 2011
CIM and SMGS states
Development of legal and technical interoperability
Improvements obtained (1/2)
- Finalisation by the CIT and by the OSJD of a CIM/SMGS Traffic Manual, with
a common consignment note for freight traffic in the Euro-Asian trade. CIM
and SMGS offers the legal bases to develop an electronic consignment note.
- Elimination of extra costs for activities that provide no extra value.
- Higher levels of legal certainty for all participants.
- Shorter transit time.
- The consignment note is recognised as a banking document if a letter of
credit is used.
In 2010, the common consignment note CIM/SMGS was used on more
than 50 regular relations of traffic.
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Presentation of UIC, Roundtable UNECE – Geneva – March 1st,
2011Presentation of UIC, Roundtable UNECE – Genève – 1er March 2011
Development of legal and technical interoperability
Improvements obtained (2/2)
- However, the difficulties of the Euro-Asia interoperability naturally involves
the dangerous goods but number of problems to be resolved concerns the
transport of the goods generally. It is what comes out again from the
conference organised by the UIC in 2010 in St Petersburg. This one showed
the numerous initiatives of the economic actors.
- Current examination of the RID (appendix C COTIF) by OTIF and OSJD and
of the appendix 2 of the SMGS to identify the adaptations to be achieved to
ensure the technical and legal interoperability of the railway transport euroAsia.
- Harmonization is already well advanced, since the restructuring of the RID
after 2000, but important difficulties remain, resulting in particular from
differences in the organization of responsibilities, the construction of tanks,
etc.
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Presentation of UIC, Roundtable UNECE – Geneva – March 1st,
2011Presentation of UIC, Roundtable UNECE – Genève – 1er March 2011
Development of legal and technical interoperability
Expected Improvements
- The competitiveness of rail must be increased by integrating information
flows and simplifying administrative cross-border processes. For this reason,
the CCTT will initiate a new permanent Working group which will be supported
by UIC.
- Concerning the transportation of dangerous goods, we should be informed
this year of 2011, results of the examination of the RID (Appendix C of the
COTIF) and of the appendix 2 of the SMGS. It will then be possible to organise
legal and technical interoperability that is very sensitive from the points of view
of safety and security.
- The continuation of the harmonization of regulations is a necessity not only to
develop railway, but also intermodal or multimodal transportation of dangerous
goods.
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Presentation of UIC, Roundtable UNECE – Geneva – March 1st,
2011Presentation of UIC, Roundtable UNECE – Genève – 1er March 2011
Conclusions (1/2)
In spite of the peculiarities of transport of dangerous goods, the problems to
be resolved first and foremost to develop the exchanges between Europe and
Asia, are as well identified as are also the actions to be led today.
The railway undertakings repeatedly expressed themselves publicly on the
subject, in particular in 2010 during the "Berner Tage" organized by the
“International Rail transport Committee”. On this occasion, the so-called
"Appeal from Bern" was launched to different international jurisdictions such
as the European Union (Commission, European parlement and the Council),
the OTIF, the OSJD and the UNECE. This call requests coordination and
harmonisation of their respective legislative activities in the fields where
these overlap whenever it is intended to adopt new legislation.
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2011Presentation of UIC, Roundtable UNECE – Genève – 1er March 2011
Conclusions (2/2)
This appeal is organized around 5 principles:
1. For carriage under equivalent circumstances, railway undertakings require
standardised law of carriage with standardised legal terminology.
2. Overlapping legal regimes must not compete with each other or block each
other; rather they should be coordinated so that they complement rather
than contradict each other.
3. The railways require simple, comprehensible legislation which can be
easily applied both by them and by their customers, even when several
legal regimes complement each other.
4. For the sake of legal certainty, once statutes have been passed, the law
must remain unchanged for a certain period of time.
5. In the preparatory process of EU legislation the EU Commission should
provide a maximum of transparency.
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Presentation of UIC, Roundtable UNECE – Geneva – March 1st,
2011Presentation of UIC, Roundtable UNECE – Genève – 1er March 2011
Thank you for your kind attention
Jean-Pierre Lehman,
www.uic.org
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Presentation of UIC, Roundtable UNECE – Geneva – March 1st,
2011Presentation of UIC, Roundtable UNECE – Genève – 1er March 2011