European Union Agency for Railways

ERA logo

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.

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 “Crosswind” – containing the subgroups “AMOC” and “Risk assessment”
    • Type: Normal
    • Started on: January 2024
    • Status: Ongoing (foreseen to be closed early 2026)

  • JNS Procedure “Accident in the Gotthard base tunnel with focus on broken wheels”
    • Type: Normal
    • Started on: December 2023
    • Status: Final report version 5.0 published August 7th, 2026. Follow-up foreseen until end of 2026
    • Outcome: JNS final report, including Full Impact Assessment and supporting documents
      • Final report
        Note 1: The JNS risk control measures of the final report version 5.0 of 7 August 2026 replace entirely the JNS risk control measures from the JNS NP 2017-2019 for BA 004 (“crack in the rim”) and the JNS risk control measures from the final report v4.1, published in January 2026 and all other previous versions.
        The measures for “crack in the web” (wheel types BA 314 old/ZDB29) from the JNS NP 2017-2019 remain valid.
      • Full Impact Assessment
      • JNS Working Instruction Visual Inspection ECM
      • JNS Wheel Analyses
      • JNS list of assessed wheel types
        Note 2: This list contains the wheel types that were already assessed by the JNS Task Force members to determine if they are comparable to wheel type BA 004  (the most recent version of list is dated 07.08.2026)

    • Collection of cases of cracked and broken wheels: The JNS Task Force ‘Accident Gotthard Base tunnel/Broken Wheels’ is analysing new cases of cracked and broken wheels. Therefore, the actors involved (ECM and RU) are asked to continue with reporting cases of broken wheels or a cracked wheels with a crack through the inner and/or outer side of the rim and/or web.

      ECM: After detection of a broken wheel or a cracked wheel (both for all wheel types) with a crack through the inner and/or outer side of the rim and/or web, the ECMs shall send the filled-in templates with all available information:

      Railway Undertaking: after detection of a broken wheel or a cracked wheel (both for all wheel types) with a crack through the inner and/or outer side of the rim and/or web, the railway undertaking shall inform the ECM responsible for the maintenance of the wagon
      (see JNS final report version 5.0, measures 2.1a and 2.1b).

      In case of any questions, please use the email address JNSatera [dot] europa [dot] eu (JNS[at]era[dot]europa[dot]eu)

 

  • JNS Procedure “Consequences of unintended brake applications with LL blocks”
    • Type: Normal
    • Started on: early February 2022
    • Status: closed on March 5th, 2024
    • Outcome: final report, including Light Impact Assessment
      • Final report
        Note: the risk control measures mentioned in this document replace entirely the risk control measures from the previous JNS Urgent Procedure “Extreme effects of thermal overload in special cases of freight operation”
      • Light Impact Assessment

 

 

 

 

 

  • 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 jnsatera [dot] europa [dot] eu (here.)

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

JNS Urgent Procedure

English (753.49 KB - PDF)
View

JNS Normal Procedure

English (305.66 KB - PDF)
View

JNS Overarching Rules

English (425.59 KB - PDF)
View

JNS Urgent Procedure notification form

English (91.2 KB - DOCX)
Download