Denmark New Executive Tender

The Danish Transport Authority has issued a new executive order which lays down functional requirements for infrastructure managers technical safety rules and how companies can proceed to handle the technical safety rules independently.The purpose of the executive order is to lay down functional requirements for the technical safety rules with a view to the infrastructure managers no longer being subject to approval of their technical safety rules by the Danish Transport Authority by 15 June 2024 but can prepare and change the technical safety rules themselves.The functional requirements must contribute to a continued sound level of safety. The executive order will end on 15 June 2024. The functional requirements will then be good benchmarks for formulating technical safety rules and will still appear in guidance material.The amendment brings the area into line with the basic principle of EU legislation in the field of railways that infrastructure managers are responsible for the safety of their part of the railway system and that the management of railway safety must take place in a safety management system. The executive order has undergone three major changes since it was issued for consultation in November 2021Firstly the executive order now only applies to technical safety rules. The consultation draft included both technical and traffic safety rules. At the same time this means that the executive order only applies to infrastructure managers. The traffic safety rules are thus still subject to approval by the Danish Transport Authority without the possibility of a voluntary transition to independently handle the traffic safety rules. However it is expected that a bill with amendments to section 61 of the Railways Act will be sent for consultation before the summer holidays with a view to subsequent submission to the Folketing in the autumn. As a result it is expected that traffic safety rules will be written out of section 61 of the Railways Act so that railway companies and infrastructure managers and others. already from the 1st.Secondly it has become a voluntary scheme so that only those companies that apply for and are approved for this can independently handle the technical safety rules until the executive order is brought to an end on 15 June 2024. Thereafter infrastructure managers must be able to independently handle their technical safety rules in accordance with their safety management system without a subsequent approval by the Danish Transport Authority.Thirdly the infrastructure managers new and changed technical safety rules as well as deviations therefrom must live up to the functional requirements in the executive order as of 1 July 2022.To ensure a good transition to the companies independent handling of the technical and traffic safety rules the agency will increase the guidance efforts for these in the autumn of 2022.This includes among other things go-home meetings with relevant themes and offers of company visits. Information about this will follow. If you have requests for special topics frequent issues that you wish to address in the guidance material you are welcome to send these to the Danish Transport Authority to infra@tbst.dk.As the first step in the increased guidance efforts the Danish Transport Authority invites to an information meeting on 27 June 2022 at at 13-14. The meeting will take place at the Danish Transport Authority at Carsten Niebuhrs Gade 43 1577 Copenhagen V. Registration for this meeting should be sent to kars@trafikstyrelsen.dk . It is possible to participate in the meeting via Microsoft Teams where there will be an opportunity to ask questions through the chat.The purpose of the information meeting is first and foremost to inform about the administrative consequences of the executive order. Questions regarding the technical functional requirements and specifications will not be addressed at this meeting but in connection with the subsequent guidance efforts.