Military mobility remains a significant issue in the European Union considering the geopolitical tensions of the past few years. Organising military transport should now be a smoother operation thanks to a new, simplified authorisation process granted by the European Railway Agency (ERA) rather than “relying on the assessments of each Member State’s administration”.
Simply put, if an army wants to move military equipment and personnel in the Union, it will have to ask ERA for one authorisation instead of having to deal with each member state. The regulation introduces a new type of transport concept: Personnel Carriage. The European Commission defines Personnel Carriage as “a unit capable of carrying persons but not intended to be used for passenger service”.
‘Go-everywhere’ vehicles
These vehicles, which the European Commission called ‘go-everywhere’ carriages are not solely meant for military transport, They “can be used for vehicles serving a variety of purposes besides military mobility, including civil protection, disaster response and railway network activities linked to track maintenance and early response to rail accidents”.
More specifically, they are “vehicles without traction not accessible to the public”, mostly used to transport military personnel. These units should be able to run on at least one of the rail gauges present in Europe (1000 mm, 1435 mm, 1520 mm, 1524 mm or 1668 mm). The wagons need to be equipped with forged and rolled wheels with a minimum diameter of 760 mm. They also need to be compatible with inclination of 1/20, 1/30, and 1/40, a maximum speed of 140 km/h or lower and a maximum axle of 22,5 tonnes.
The new regulation also included guidelines for avoiding electric interference between on-board and trackside elements. “If there is electrical connection between the carriage and the locomotive, a maximum of two of these units used in a train, powered by maximum one locomotive is considered an assumption of compliance, if the rest of the train composition is without electrical power”, the document said. In other words, this type of convoy can only have two carriages and the locomotive connected to the line overhead.