OTIF ORGANISATION INTERGOUVERNEMENTALE POUR LES TRANSPORTS INTERNATIONAUX FERROVIAIRES

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1 ORGANISATION INTERGOUVERNEMENTALE POUR LES TRANSPORTS INTERNATIONAUX FERROVIAIRES OTIF ZWISCHENSTAATLICHE ORGANISATION FÜR DEN INTERNATIONALEN EISENBAHNVERKEHR INTERGOVERNMENTAL ORGANISATION FOR INTER- NATIONAL CARRIAGE BY RAIL Secrétaire général Generalsekretär Secretary General A 81-03/ March 2014 TO THE GOVERNMENTS OF THE MEMBER STATES OF OTIF AND TO REGIONAL ORGANISATIONS WHICH HAVE ACCEDED TO COTIF 3 rd Session of the RID Committee of Experts' standing working group (Berne, 20 and 21 May 2014) For reasons of cost, only a limited number of copies of this document have been made. Delegates are asked to bring their own copies of documents to meetings. OTIF only has a small number of copies available. Tel. (+41) Fax (+41) info@otif.org Gryphenhübeliweg 30 CH 3006 Berne/Bern

2 Background 1. At its 51 st session (Berne, 30 and 31 May 2012), the RID Committee of Experts decided to hold its next meeting in May The meetings originally planned for November 2012 and November 2013 are to be held in the form of working groups in the sense of Article 22 1 of the RID Committee of Experts Rules of Procedure (see report OTIF/RID/CE/2012-A, paragraphs 46 to 48 and 51). 2. As there are still some unresolved issues from the 2 nd session of the RID Committee of Experts' standing working group (Copenhagen, 18 to 22 November 2013) and as some decisions by the RID/ADR/ADR Joint Meeting (Berne, 17 to 21 March 2014) are still anticipated, which will have repercussions for the 2015 edition of RID, the 3 rd session of the standing working group will be held before the 53 rd session of the RID Committee of Experts (Berne, 22 May 2014). Time of the meeting 3. The Secretariat of OTIF is pleased to be able to invite you to the 3 rd session of the RID Committee of Experts' standing working group on 20 and 21 May The meeting will start at on Tuesday, 20 May 2014 and will end at on Wednesday, 21 May Venue 4. The venue for the meeting is: Universal Postal Union (UPU) Weltpoststrasse 4 CH 3015 Bern (An access plan can be found under 5. As a congress will be taking place in Berne at the same time, it is recommended that you book your hotel as soon as possible. Hotels in Berne are listed on the following website: Rules of Procedure 6. In accordance with Article 22 2 of the RID Committee of Experts Rules of Procedure, the Rules of Procedure will be applied analogously at meetings of the working groups. 7. In connection with Article 5 2 of these Rules of Procedure, the RID Committee of Experts decided to invite the same organisations and associations to the meetings of the RID Committee of Experts as are invited to the RID/ADR/ADN Joint Meeting. 8. In accordance with Article 11 3 of the Rules of Procedure, official proposals must be submitted by no later than 7 April Languages 9. The meeting languages will be English, German and French. There will be consecutive interpretation into German and French and simultaneous interpretation into English. At this meeting, there will also be Russian interpretation for the experts on SMGS Annex 2. 2

3 Provisional agenda 10. Based on the information and proposals available so far the Secretariat of OTIF proposes the following provisional agenda: ITEM 1: Approval of the agenda ITEM 2: Presence ITEM 3: Approval of amendments adopted by the RID/ADR/ADN Joint Meeting (Berne, March 2014) for a date of entry into force of 1 January ITEM 4: Interpretation of RID ITEM 5: Proposals for amendments to RID a) Pending issues b) New proposals ITEM 6: Harmonisation of RID and Annex 2 to SMGS ITEM 7: Information from the European Railway Agency (ERA) ITEM 8: Any other business Comments and documentation 11. The following topics should be discussed under the various items of the agenda. Further topics may be added on the basis of documents still to be received. ITEM 1: ITEM 2: As the main task of this meeting will be to prepare the final decisions for the new edition of RID that will enter into force on 1 January 2015, the working group might have to select those documents that can also be dealt with at a later meeting of the working group. Even though Article 20 (Quorum) of the Rules of Procedure does not apply to the meeting of this working group, it is requested that as many RID Contracting States as possible take part in order to obtain results that are likely to achieve majority support so that they can be adopted at the 53 rd session of the RID Committee of Experts on 22 May For this standing working group, Mr Helmut Rein (Germany) has been elected Chairman and Mrs Caroline Bailleux (Belgium) has been elected deputy chair, until further notice. ITEM 3: After the RID/ADR/ADN Joint Meeting (Berne, 17 to 21 March 2014), the Secretariat will prepare, on the basis of document OTIF/RID/CE/2013/17 from the last meeting of the working group, a draft version of the notification texts for the 2015 edition of RID. This draft will contain all the decisions of the 2 nd session of the working group and the final decisions of the Joint Meeting. The Secretariat will also prepare a document containing the decisions of the 96 th session of WP.15 (Geneva, 5 9 May 2014) which might have an impact on RID. 3

4 ITEM 4: ITEM 5 a): So far, no documents are available for this agenda item. So far the following documents have been submitted for this agenda item: OTIF/RID/CE/GTP/2014/1 (Switzerland) Detection of derailments In addition, the following proposals have been announced for this item: UIC proposal on the NHM Codes for the substances newly to be included in RID (see OTIF/RID/CE/GTP/2013-A, paragraph 10); information from the Secretariat on the results of an informal working group on hand luggage and registered luggage, which will meet in Berne on 19 May 2014 (see OTIF/RID/CE/GTP/2013-A, paragraph 21); revised proposal from the Netherlands on extending the requirement for crash buffers (see OTIF/RID/CE/GTP/2013-A, paragraph 52); revised proposal from EURACOAL on the carriage of UN 1361 coal in bulk (see OTIF/RID/CE/GTP/2013-A, paragraph 57); revised proposal from Sweden on the special provisions for uncleaned means of containment (see OTIF/RID/CE/GTP/2013-A, paragraph 64); information from Italy on the possible revocation of the measures implemented after the accident in Viareggio (see OTIF/RID/CE/GTP/ 2013-A, paragraph 68); information from the Ukraine on the equivalent energy value of energy absorption elements for automatic coupling devices (see OTIF/RID/ CE/GTP/2013-A, paragraph 87); UIC proposal to resolve the most important problems in the 2015 edition of RID in connection with entities in charge of maintenance (see OTIF/RID/CE/GTP/2013-A, paragraph 94); information from Italy on what the object was that caused the perforation of the tank in the Viareggio accident (see OTIF/RID/CE/GTP/ 2013-A, paragraph 107); revised proposal from Germany, Italy and UIP on the identification of experts performing tests and inspections on tanks of tank-wagons (see OTIF/RID/CE/GTP/2012-A, paragraphs 31 to 34). ITEM 5 b): The following proposals have been announced for this item: a possible proposal to introduce sample checks if there is a change of carrier in and on publishing point 5 of UIC leaflet V on OTIF's website (see OTIF/RID/CE/2012-A, paragraphs 36 to 40); a possible new proposal on placarding from Sweden (placards on swap bodies) (see OTIF/RID/CE/2011-A, paragraphs 44 to 48). 4

5 ITEM 6: So far the following documents have been submitted for this agenda item: OTIF/RID/CE/GTP/2014/2 (Secretariat) OTIF/RID/CE/GTP/2014/3 (Secretariat) Language regime for consignments into or through the territory of an SMGS Contracting State Temporary OSJD Working Group on Annex 2 to SMGS, "Provisions for the Carriage of Dangerous Goods" (Warsaw, February 2014) In addition, the following documents have been announced for this item: a proposal from Latvia on indicating in the transport document the protective medium used for the carriage of UN 1381 and UN 2447 (phosphorus) (see OTIF/RID/CE/GTP/2012-A, paragraphs 65 and 66). ITEM 7: ERA will submit information on this standing agenda item in an informal document. The Member States are asked to make any requests concerning the content of the information from ERA via the Secretariat. 12. Documents with document reference number "OTIF/RID/CE/GTP/..." will be sent out once they have been finalised. They can also be downloaded from our website, Registration 13. Please fill out the attached official OTIF registration form and return it to the address shown on the form by 2 May 2014 at the latest. Travel tickets 14. Those delegates who intend travelling by train are asked to contact the relevant railway networks directly to obtain any facilitated transport services. Yours faithfully (François Davenne) Secretary General Annexes: Registration form (document A 81-03/ /Add.1) Invitation to the 53 rd session of the RID Committee of Experts (Berne, 22 May 2014) (document A 81-03/ ) cc: interested international organisations and associations, as an invitation experts on SMGS Annex 2 as an invitation railway undertakings, with the request to honour the above-mentioned free travel 5