In the last e-News, a general overview of the TAP TSI regulation and its purpose was given and the set-up of the implementation project was introduced. In the last quarter of 2012 the railways established their individual implementation plans. These were subsequently consolidated by the Project Team into an overall Master Plan, which was delivered to the EU Commission at the end of April 2013.
The Master Plan thus summarises the consolidation of the individual TAP TSI implementation plans established by RUs, IMs and SMs. Overall, more than 40 companies and integrated groups, representing a total of over 70 licensed railways, had submitted their plans. A significant number of UIC members took part in that exercise. The turnout represents a good mix of RUs and IMs, covering the majority of the EU rail network both in terms of passenger kilometres and network length.
The Master Planning methodology applied is closely aligned with the TAF TSI Master Plan regarding the RU/IM functions. A number of RU/IM functions are already implemented on some networks, but complete implementation of all functions across RUs and IMs is expected to take until 2021. As regards the retail functions, too, a number of functions have already been implemented by several RUs. The general time band for compliance is mid-2015 to mid-2017, largely as estimated by the Phase One project. Full implementation is to take until end-2017 or somewhat later. The target date for compliance with the mandatory timetable data exchange obligation, for instance, is Q3 2016. The target date indicates that by then at least 80% of submitters plan to be compliant with the regulation. As regards the other retail functions where compliance can be achieved by other bilaterally agreed means than the TAP Technical Documents, it needs to be noted that not all submitting RUs responded to all functions. Likewise, not all RUs are concerned by all functions.
Overall, the target dates for TAP TSI implementation underline willingness to implement the Regulation ASAP whilst respecting economic considerations. In line with TAF TSI implementation principles, the EU Commission considers the target dates binding for all railways falling under the TAP TSI. However, companies that have submitted their individual plans with implementation dates beyond the target dates can expect to be granted permission to follow their own submitted planning.
A number of submitters mention the risk of insecure funding for their implementation activities. The project team recommends that companies seek public co-funding, such as from TEN-T. The final Master Plan document as delivered to the EU Commission is available for download at
http://tap-tsi.uic.org/IMG/pdf/20130428_tap_master_plan_delivery_final.pdf
