The diatribe between Switzerland and the EU on the wheels of rail freight wagons has recently developed in favour of the latter. In addition to a Swiss court ruling against the new regulations, the Joint Network Secretariat (JNS) of the European Agency for Railways (ERA) updated its report, providing continent-wide guidelines.
The JNS recently published the 5.0 version of its final report on the derailment of August 2023 in the Gotthard Base Tunnel. This is a follow-up to the document published at the beginning of the year, which already outlined new rules for the maintenance and inspection of rail freight wheelsets.
New thresholds for inspections
The International Union of Wagon Keepers (UIP) explained what is new in the latest version. “The principal change in the report v5.0 introduces a mileage-driven inspection regime”, a UIP representative said. Tread-braked wheels with a nominal diameter of 920 mm will have to undergo visual inspections of their whole circumference at intervals set between 300,000 and 50,000 kilometres.
Mileage-based service limit values:
- Residual rim cross section area > 0,74 dm2 : 300.000 km
- Residual rim cross section area > 0,52 dm2 : 200.000 km
- Residual rim cross section area > 0,36 dm2 : 100.000 km
- Residual rim cross section area < / = 0,36 dm2 : 50.000 km
Data is king
“Inspection moves therefore from opportunity to schedule, and the interval is set by the condition of each individual wheel”, the UIP spokesperson added. “The regime concentrates inspection effort where the risk actually lies instead of applying one uniform interval to every wheel.”
Still, UIP is asking that the implementation of new regulations needs to be grounded in evidence, especially data on the fleet, the mileage and workshop capacity. “The sector is collecting Europe-wide data on fleet and workshop capacity to that end, which will inform the further works and decisions of the JNS”, the spokesperson concluded.
Swiss court rules against FOT
The feud between Switzerland and the rest of Europe regarding rail freight wheelsets started when the Swiss Federal Office of Transport (FOT) decided to unilaterally implement new rules in response to the Gotthard derailment. This action sparked adverse reactions from all over Europe, especially the rolling stock industry.
The Swiss regulations were considered too extreme, especially when it came to the deadlines proposed. As a consequence, three of the largest wagon lessors took legal action against the FOT last December, with a decision in favour of the companies published at the beginning of this week.