European Union Agency for Railways

Joint Network Secretariat (JNS)

The JNS (Joint Network Secretariat) procedures aim at EU-wide harmonisations of any action taken after any issue, e.g. accidents or incidents in railways in the EU.

Any railway stakeholder can submit a request for a JNS procedure to the JNS-panel using the notification form indicating which kind of procedure is intended.

The JNS rules distinguish between an urgent and a normal procedure:

  • The purpose of the urgent procedure is to develop EU-wide harmonised short-term risk mitigation measures to ensure mainly safety and interoperability;
  • The purpose of the normal procedure is to develop EU-wide harmonised mid- and long-term measures to finally solve the issue in an efficient and sustainable way.

The panel, consisting of ERA, together with NSA representatives and GRB representatives:

  • Decides about the admissibility of the submission;
  • Decides which procedure is chosen;
  • Suggests key issues and questions to be considered by the task force;
  • Nominates the members of the task force.

The task force consists of participants from NSAs, NIBs and GRBs which are nominated according to the competences required to solve the issue and answer questions. ERA is organising the procedure, arranging the meetings and acting as chair in the task force meetings, whilst the responsibilities assigned under applicable EU or national legislation, such as safe operation however, still remain with the respective railway actors involved.

The outcome of the task force discussions has to be submitted to the panel and, after endorsement, be disseminated in an appropriate way.

 

The following JNS procedures are ongoing/have been completed:

  • JNS Procedure “Consequences of unintended brake applications with LL blocks”
    • Type: Normal
    • Started on: early February 2022
    • Ongoing
    • For this Normal Procedure, fixed brake events involving LL brake blocks are collected. Please find below an explanatory document that explains the data collection process (criteria for relevant cases,tasks of the different actors involved, practical information, ..) and the template to be used. All information received will be treated as confidential. The Agency will store this information on a dedicated part of its extranet, which is only accessible to the members of the dedicated JNS task force

 

 

 

 

  • JNS  Procedure “Wagon Braking Systems”

 

 

  • JNS Procedure “Broken Wheels”
    • Type: Urgent
    • Started on: May 2017
    • Status:  Closed on July 2017
    • see outcome JNS Normal Procedure “Broken Wheels” below

For more information, please contact us here.

The different JNS procedures and Overarching Rules can be found below. 

JNS Urgent Procedure

English (753.49 KB - PDF)
Download

JNS Normal Procedure

English (305.66 KB - PDF)
Download

JNS Overarching Rules

English (425.59 KB - PDF)
Download

JNS Urgent Procedure notification form

English (63.54 KB - DOCX)
Download