Safety certification & authorisation
The Railway and Other Guided Transport Systems (Safety) Regulations 2006 (ROGS) implement requirements in the Railway Safety Directive (RSD) for transport undertakings (TUs) and infrastructure managers (IMs) to:
- maintain a Safety Management System (SMS); and
- hold a safety certificate (TUs) or safety authorisation (IMs) indicating that their SMS has been accepted by the safety authority as meeting certain requirements.
These requirements are given in Part 2 of the ROGS, supported by Schedule 1.
ROGS applies to all mainline railway operations, some non-mainline operations (eg. London Underground) and other guided transport systems (eg. airport transit systems.) However some types of operation, including tramways and certain minor railways, are exempt from the need to hold a safety certificate or authorisation and only need to maintain a SMS. Further information is available in the Guide to ROGS (ROGS Regulations 2006 : Office of Rail Regulation.)
For mainline railways, the safety certificate comprises two parts:
- Part A, which demonstrates that the holder’s SMS meets generic SMS requirements. This is transferable across the EU; and
- Part B, which demonstrates that the holder has adopted provisions to operate safely on a particular network within an EU Member State (this may be the whole mainline network within that state.)
All mainline transport undertakings should complete and submit a safety certification application form, using the accompanying guidelines together with all relevant supporting evidence, to ORR. This form should be used when applying for a combined Part A and Part B certificate, or for either separately. It should be used for new, amended or further certificate applications.
The application form should not be used by a mainline infrastructure manager applying for a safety authorisation or by any non-mainline applicant, for which there are no equivalent forms. However the type of general factual information required by the form should be provided together with all other relevant evidence.
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You should send your application, whether mainline or non-mainline, to the appropriate HMRI account holder for your company who will usually be based at a regional ORR office near to your company HQ or the main locus of your operations. If this person or the location of the office is not known to you, then please contact ORR through the ORR Permissioning Team; (e-mail: permissioning.team@orr.gsi.gov.uk.-mail). |
The application form should also be used to apply for a Part B mainline certificate for operations in other EU Member State (MS), Northern Ireland or the Channel Tunnel, sending it to the relevant safety authority. Applications should be made under the specific regulations which apply under each authority (and which derive from Railway Safety Directive) referring to any guidelines issued by that authority, or where these are not available, the guidelines given in Commission Regulation 653/2007. The applicant should determine for itself what constitutes a mainline operation in the MS concerned.
European public database
ORR no longer maintain a list detailing the expiry dates of issued safety certificates. If you wish to know the expiry date for mainline safety certificates please refer to the European Rail Agency public database accessible via the following link: Public Database of Safety Documents - Safety Certificates Database.
This database lists summary details of mainline safety certificates issued by all EU safety authorities country by country, with the full Part A certificate accessed by clicking on the entry under the ‘History’ column. The Part B is given as an attachment to the Part A. Note that this database does not yet hold information on safety authorisations.
