On 21 and 22 June 2022, the Agency together with the experts from the Italian Infrastructure Manager (RFI) organised a technical visit in the field of safety in railway tunnels in Bologna addressed to a delegation of experts from Israel. Italy has the highest number of railway tunnels in the European Union. In total, there’s 1500 Km of railway tunnels spanning along 10% of the total railway network.
The experts made reference to the Commission Regulation (EU) No 1303/2014 concerning the technical specification for interoperability relating to ‘safety in railway tunnels’ of the rail system of the European Union. This regulation establishes safety requirements of the tunnels having from 1 to 20 Km in length.
The programme of the technical visit raised some interesting discussions about engineering, construction and operation aspects related to the tunnels. The experts from both delegations could exchange points of view on emergency management, risk analysis, transport of dangerous goods and environmental and labour safety standards.
The meeting gathered equally experts from Italferr, that presented the collaboration framework between the infrastructure manager and the contractors in the construction of railway tunnels, and the Italian National Safety Authority, ANSFISA, that presented how safety is ensured and managed in the national tunnels. ANSFISA referred to the special agreements between authorities applied for the three cross border tunnels, Fréjus, Sempione and Colle Col di Tenda. The NSA also explained the process to authorise the place in service of the subsystems and the supervision responsibilities.
The group of experts had the opportunity to visit the control room of Bologna central station and the underground station in the railway tunnel to have a look at the fire safety and emergency procedures.
