Getting to grips with tunnel safety

As established by the European Railway Agency, Technical Specifications for Interoperability (TSI) on Safety Railway Tunnels (SRT) will need to be applied to the over 300 existing tunnels, as well additional ones under construction, in Austrian Federal Railways' network. The network will face a considerable challenge in applying these requirements. Adopted two years ago, the TSI apply to both high speed trains and the Trans-European Network corridors identified in the directive on conventional railways. Ways in which these SRT requirements will be applied are discussed, including how they must interface with the TSIs covering five different railway subsystems: Infrastructure; Energy; Command, Control and Signalling; Operations; and Vehicles. Fire safety is also discussed, specifically.