The content and importance of the railway registry activity within AFER

The Railway Registry Department was constituted and organized within AFER, in order to labor such activities attributed to the “nationally notified organism” for the railway transport system, drawn in conformity with the directives of the European Council 91/440/CEE referring to the development of European railways, 96/48/CE and the document 599PCO1617 regarding the inter-operability of trans-European transportation system, 95/18/CE regarding licenses for railway operators, 95/19/CE regarding the division of infrastructure capacities and with the Convention regarding international railway transport (COTIF).

The main activities led by the Railway Registry Department within AFER

The elaboration of railway technical norms that have as main objective the harmonization (alignment) of Romanian railway technical norms with European and international technical norms (ISO, EN, UIC etc);
Proofing technical documentation, an activity that means checking the technical documentation drawn for critical railway services/products (cars, equipment, installations, components for rolling stock, for tracks, signaling, power feed, control and command for the circulation) that imply major risks to the safety of circulation, safety of transport, environment protection or the quality of transport services.
The check-up for technical documentation is aimed at establishing their conformity with the obligatory requests, specified in national and international technical norms.
Technical approval of critical railway products that means evaluating the conformity and usefulness aptitudes for these as well as validating the technical specifications documentation related to critical railway products.
The evaluation of conformity is done mainly by examining a representative item (prototype) made strictly according to the technical specifications approved by AFER and appropriated by the main beneficiary and also by laboratory tests and real life conditions. The technical approval is finalized by the release of a technical approval certificate. For imported products or for those that have not had their technical documentation defined, a technical agreement is released. According to the European Council Directive 86/48CE and the provisions of COTIF, in order to release for use a certain railway product the technical approval must be given by a notified organism (organism designed to evaluate the conformity and usefulness capabilities of constituent elements for railway inter-operationally) are main constituents.
Authorizing railway providers which means evaluating the capacity of various economic agents to produce and provide certain critical railway related items by respecting the specific conditions in the field of railway and metro transportation.
The evaluation is based mainly on verifying the efficient application on the basis of SR EN ISO 9000 standards and especially the upholding of the requests regarding the organizational structure, technical appliances, the qualification and instruction of personnel and the necessary technical documentation for the product that are up for evaluation.
Authorizing railway suppliers is aimed at forbidding the use in this field of critical railway products made by suppliers that fail to show the existence of the necessary technical equipment, qualified personnel and organizational structures adequate to making products in strict control of quality.
The evaluation of providers from the point of view of the capability for the making of such products is an express request of the Directive 96/48/CE.

Evaluating railway transport operators and granting licenses and safety certificates.

Evaluating railway transport operators means verifying the fulfillment of the requests set by Order no. 778/1998 of the Transport Ministry, issued in conformity with the provisions of the Directives 91/440 CEE, 95/18/CE and 95/19/CE for passenger transportation services, freight transportation and other goods on certain sections of the Railway in good security conditions.
During the evaluation process for railway operators the following are verified:
- whether the traction rolling stock material (necessary for towing the trains) owned by the operator has the right technical characteristics, imposed by the circulation safety of railway circulation and the quality of the railway transport.
whether the railway operator is in possession of all organizational furnishings and equipment to run a transport service, according to SR ISO 9000 series provisions.
whether the transport operator has the necessary personnel to run and accompany trains, to check and train, highly qualified and authorized in conformity with specific regulations for railway transport.
The evaluation is finished with the issue of the railway transport and/or safety certificates.

The technical inspection activity

This activity is mainly consisting of the verification by probing on the manufacture flux of the critical products/services, of the way the norms and prescriptions are upheld - those that retain relevance for the safety of circulation and transport security.
This verification is aimed at discovering during manufacture nonconformity aspects that are susceptible to fail being found during the final reception of the products (the quality reception of the products is an obligation of the beneficiary, according to SR ISO 9000) that can be cumbersome and can lead to malfunction during exploitation with grave consequences for the safety and quality of transport.
The supervision on the fabrication flux of the manufacture of critical railway related products is an express request of the Directive 96/48/CE.

Trials and laboratory tests for railway products

The trials and laboratory tests are aimed at determining the conformity of manufactured products with the reference documentation in order to technically approve them.
In conformity with the provisions of the European Directives these verifications called type trials must be made on the responsibility of the notified organism in its own laboratories or approved laboratories.
AFER has its own laboratories, needed to conduct trials for railway products (vehicles, equipment and installations) organized and equipped according to the SR EN 45001 provisions and are working on the basis of their own procedures, elaborated in strict conformity with the provisions of European and international norms, specific to trials for railway products (technical charts of the UIC, ISO, EN etc.)
The research center within AFER is acknowledged by UIC and is mentioned in documents issued by this organism. Some stands are certified by the European Railway Research Institute (ERRI). Many of the AFER experts are active members of ERRI commissions and comities.
Static trials are tested in AFER’s laboratories, which are adequately equipped in order to comply the demands that are stipulated in the European regulations, whereas the dynamic trials for railway vehicles are tested within the Faurei Railway Exercising Range, which is at the moment limited for 160 km/h-speed, although such range is the second railway exercising center in size from Europe. For bringing it to the speed of 200 km/h, which is the speed required for the verification of all railway vehicle types to be accepted in the conventional railway traffic, it is necessary to perform certain repairing and modernizing works.

Within the Railway Registry Office of AEER, we also develop a series of certifying and authorizing activities, as follows:

-certification of quality systems within the existence of a certification authority approved by the governmental bodies, in compliance with the SR EN 45012 provisions, and which has its auditing body licensed both nationally and internationally (EOQ), according to SR EN 45013;

-scientific research and technological development in the railway field, which have as main objective to scientifically ground the regulations and norms issued by AFER as related to railway transportation, in accordance to the European achievements in this activity field; feasibility studies, technical solutions and the opportunity necessary for implementing all such decisions in MLPTL and the railway enterprises regarding the organization, development and equipment of the Romanian railway transportation; technical examinations for establishing the causes which led to some railway accidents to occur or to some repeated deficiencies to happen, which may affect the entire traffic safety or may increase the level of exploitation and maintenance expenses;

-training and technical certification of the personnel within all the railway units, which execute special works, such as the ultrasonic fault detection or other welding works, as well as for the railway operating personnel involved in the organization and management of transportation activity;

-authorization of laboratories and certification of displays and special devices, which are used in the verification and control procedures during the manufacturing process of critical railway products, or for the verification of certain characteristics for traffic safety.

We may remind you of the following activities performed by AFER Railway Registry Office ever since its foundation in 1998 up to now: granting of 840 railway supplier certificates, 13 railway transportation operator licenses (out of which three for private operators), 17 safety certificates, 800 certificates for technical approval, 70 lab certificates, 450 quality system certificates and 300 professional training certificates. AFER Railway Registry also participated to the elaboration of 70 technical norms, approving more than 1000 technical specifications. We could also mention the fact that more than 30% of the applications regarding the above-mentioned activities have been rejected due to the fact that the demands, which were stipulated in the specific current regulations have not been met.

The activity of AFER Railway Registry Office contributes to the adjustment of the Romanian technical railway provisions to current European regulations and to the admission of products in view of using them only in the event the latter are manufactured and technically approved in accordance with the current European regulations and standards.

Reporting Aurel Dumitrescu &Silvia Mitulescu