Intergovernmental Organisation for International Carriage by Rail
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Committee of Technical Experts

Legal basis


The Committee of Technical Experts is an organ of OTIF (see Article 13 § 1 f) of COTIF 1999) in which, in principle, all the Member States are represented (see Article 16 § 1 of COTIF 1999). The Committee’s activities serve to achieve the Organisation’s aims in relation to interoperability and technical harmonisation in the railway field and uniform procedures for the technical admission (approval) of railway material intended for use in international traffic (see Article 2 § 1 c) and d) of COTIF 1999).


Member States which have made a declaration in accordance with Article 42 § 1, first sentence of COTIF 1999 in respect of Appendices F (APTU) and G (ATMF) cannot be members of the Committee when it deliberates and takes decisions about modifying these Appendices to the Convention. Likewise, Member States which have made a declaration in respect of certain rules in accordance with Article 9 of APTU have no voting rights in connection with the Committee’s decisions in this respect.


In addition to the Member States that are not members of the Committee, other interested States or international organisations and associations may take part in the Committee in an advisory capacity at the invitation of the Secretary General (e.g. OSJD, EU, UIC, UNIFE, UACF, UIP, CEN/CENELEC/ETSI).


Terms of reference according to Article 20 § 1 of COTIF 1999

 
The Committee of Technical Experts shall:

 

a) 

take decisions about the validation of a technical standard or specific parts of it relating to railway material intended to be used in international traffic (Article 5 of APTU);

b)

take decisions about the preparation, adoption or amendment of a uniform technical prescription (UTP) relating to subsystems of the railway system, such as infrastructure, rolling stock and energy (Article 33 § 6 of COTIF 1999 and Article 4 § 2 and Article 6 of APTU);

c)

keep a watch on the application of international technical standards and prescriptions relating to railway material and examine their validation or adoption in accordance with the procedures provided for in Articles 5 and 6 of APTU;

d)

take decisions, in accordance with Article 33 § 6 of COTIF 1999, about proposals aiming to modify the Convention;

e)

deal with all other matters which are assigned to it in accordance with APTU and ATMF.

 

  

Among others, the tasks under e) include:

  • prescribing uniform formats for technical certificates, declarations and assessment reports (Article 12 ATMF);
  • deciding which data are necessary for the register/data bank (Article 13 ATMF);
  • measures in the event of deficiencies in UTPs (Article 8a APTU);
  • taking care of the reference document and the equivalence table for national technical requirements (Article 13 APTU);
  • measures in the event of concerns relating to competent authorities (Article 5 § 7 ATMF);
  • rules for the mutual recognition of technical and operational tests (Article 6b ATMF);
  • laying down the sign to be affixed to railway vehicles admitted to operation (Article 14 § 2 ATMF);
  • adopting detailed rules for Entities in Charge of Maintenance (ECM) and maintenance workshops (Article 15 §§ 2 and 5 ATMF);
  • establishing the causes of serious accidents in international traffic in order to improve inadequate provisions (Article 16 §§ 4 and 5 ATMF);
  • explaining, interpreting and mediating (including providing technical assistance to the Arbitration Tribunal).

 

In order to provide a basis for the OTIF approval system, the uniform technical prescriptions must be equivalent to the TSIs and safety provisions of the EU, which are mandatory for the EU Member States.



The Committee may appoint working groups to deal with specific questions and at present it has a standing working group (WG TECH) to prepare the Committee’s decisions.



For further information, see Technology.



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