Act No. 513/2009

Part 871 Collection of Laws No 513/2009 - 1 -

513

ACT

of 28 October 2009,

on railroads and on amendments of some acts

The National Council of the Slovak Republic has adopted this Act:

Section I

P A R T O N E

GENERAL PROVISIONS

Article 1

Subject of the Act

(1) This Act shall establish:

a) the type of railroads and rules of their construction and operation,

b) the type-approval of railroad vehicles and authorisation of their placing in service,

c) the operation of designated technical devices and permission to perform defined activities,

d) the operation of railway infrastructure, the allocation of its capacity and the determination of payments for its use,

e) the professional competence, the medical and psychological fitness for the performance of works on railroads,

f) the interoperability and safety of the railway system,

g) the scope of the State Administration Authorities in the railroad matters.

(2) This Act shall not apply to the mining railroads, industrial railroads, fun fair railroads, cable-lifts, temporary portable railroads and aerial cable conveyors.

R a i l r o a d

Article 2

Railroad types

(1) The railroads shall mean the rail, trolleybus and cable ways.

(2) The railways shall mean the railpaths, tram and special ways.

(3) The railpaths shall mean the railway lines and sidings.

(4) The railway lines shall create the transport way for railroad vehicles for the purpose of railway transport. According to importance and equipment the railway lines shall be divided into the main and secondary railway lines. From the point of view of a transport importance the main railway lines shall serve for the international transport and the provision of nationwide transport servicing. The secondary railway lines shall serve for the provision of regional transport servicing and the urban and suburban transport services.

(5) The siding shall mean the railway linked-up directly or through the other siding with the railway line; it uses for the movement of railroad vehicles for the purpose of loading, unloading and transshipment of the goods in enterprises, storage houses, ports and terminals.


(6) The special way shall mean the railway for the urban and suburban public passenger transport in particular for the urban and suburban elevated railroads, as well as the railpath track not linked-up with railway line serving fot the local or tourist needs only in particular the narrow gauge railways.

(7) The railway lines, railway stations, terminals and all types of stationary installations necessary for provision of safety and continuous railways shall constitute the railway network.

R a i l r o a d p r e c i n c t

Article 3

(1) The railroad precinct cover the lands intended for the railroad and its parts location, which are necessary for the railroad operation and for the traffic on the railroad. In case of doubts on land falling under railroad precinct the Special Construction Office on the basis of railroad operator proposal.

(2) The railroad precinct shall be established by the Special Construction Office in a construction authorisation or the Construction Office in an expropriation decision. The railroad precinct shall rise on the daye when the construction authorisation or the expropriation decision enters into force.

(3) The railroad precinct is determined by vertical planes led to the land. Unless otherwise provided in the decision pursuant to paragraph 2, the railroad precinct shall be located three metres:

a) from the outer edge of the railpath body and the instalaltions, constructions and fixed devices constituting the part of it in case of the railpath,

b) from the axis of tram way extreme track, from extreme carrier or transport cable of cable way or from extreme wire of trolleybus traction line however minimum 1,5 m from the outer edge of the railroad parts; it shall not apply in case of tram or trolleybus way running on the road or local road (hereinafter referred to as "road").

(4) The railroad precinct shall dissolve on the day when the decision concerning the railroad repeal shall enter into force.

Article 4

(1) The planting of threes and bushes and the location of buildings, advertising or promotion and information installations, constructions and objects not relating neither to railroad operation nor traffic on the railroad shall be prohibited within the railroad precinct.

(2) Within the railroad precinct only the railroad parts and activities relating to the railroad operation, in particular the railroad body and precinct maintenances, and to the traffic on the railroad or the State supervision execution may be located and performed as well as the rescue works may be carried out and accident and extraordinary event consequences may be disposed, which threaten the railroad operation or the safety and fluency of the traffic on the railroad. An owner or user of real properties within the railroad precinct shall be obliged to use their so that they have not threaten the railroad or the traffic on the railroad; he shall be obliged to enable for the railroad operator an access to railroad parts through his lands.

(3) The railroad operator shall be obliged to ensure permanently a railroad precinct and loading gauge of the railroad in a condition not jeopardizing neither the railroad and its parts nor the traffic on the railroad; he shall also be obliged to avoid a jeopardy of the railroad operation. Fir this purpose the railroad operator shall be authorised to invite the owner or user of real propeties within the railroad precinct to rim or remove interfering trees and shrubberies


within the necessary extent and to remove fallen trees, stones and objects constituing the risk for the railroad or its parts or for the safety and fluency of traffic on the railroad. If the real propety owner or user fails to follow the railroad operator invitation and if an imminent risk exists for the railroad operation or the traffic on the railroad, the railroad operator shall be authorised, after notification the real propety owner or user, to carry out himself activities within the necessary extent.

(4) An owner or user of real properties within the railroad precinct shall be obliged to endure the placing the railroad parts and performing activities pursuant to paragraphs 2 and 3. The authorisations of the railroad operator pursuant to paragraphs 2 and 3 shall represent the real burden bundling with the real properties within the railroad precinct and with the access roads to the the railroad precinct. If the real property owner or user is limited in normal usage of real property for the reason of placing the railroad parts, he shall have the right to get the one-shot compensation for compulsory limitation of the real property usage; this right shall expire if it has not been applied at the railroad operator within one year after the day of entering the real burden in the real property register.

(5) Activities pursuant to paragraphs 2 and 3 may be performed only by the railroad operator and by him authorised employees, and only on the basis of his authorisation or previous approval. If it is not possible to ensure in advance the railroad operator approval for the reason of an execution of a necessary imminent rescue action, he shall be, without delay, inform of it.

(6) It shall be prohibited to enter the railroad body and the railroad precinct for persons other than those referred to in paragraph 5; it shall not apply in case of tram way running on the road or in case of trolleybus way.

(7) Persons other than those referred to in paragraph 5 may enter the railroad precinct and move within it with the consent of the railroad operator if they will not endanger by it neither themselves nor the traffic on the railroad. Without the railroad operator’s consent it shall be allowed to enter the railroad only:

a) to pass it in the point of level-crossing with the road,

b) on passenger platforms and access roads to them and the other points assigned for passenger movements,

c) on the loading ramps and access roads to them and the other points assigned for loading, transshipment and unloading of goods,

d) on public accessible tertiary roads within the railroad precinct, established by the railroad operator or with the railroad operator approval.

(8) Persons referred to in paragraph 7 shall be obliged to move within the railroad precinct in accordance with the rules specified by the railroad operator in particlar they shall be obliged to observe prohibitions and orders indicated on the markings of spaces and the signboards and to follow instructions of an authorised railroad operator staff.

R a i l r o a d p r o t e c t i v e z o n e

Article 5

(1) The railroad protective zone shall mean an area along both railroad sides determined by vertical planes led in specified distance from the railroad precinct boundary; it is established for protection of the railroad, the railroad operation and the traffic on the railroad.


(2) The protective zone of a new railroad shall rise on the day when the construction authorisation enters into force. The railroad protective zone shall shall shall dissolve on the day when the decision concerning the railroad repeal shall enter into force.

(3) Unless otherwise provided in the construction authorisation, the boundary of a railroad protective zone shall be:

a) in case of railpath: 60 m from the extreme rail axis, however minimum 30 m from the outsid railroad precinct boundary,

b) in case of other railways and land cable way: 15 m from the extreme rail axis,

c) in case of aerial cable way: 15 m from the extreme carrier or transport cable,

d) in case of trolleybus way: 10 m from the extreme wire of trolleybus traction line.

(4) The railroad protective zone shall not be established in case of railroad led along a road or in a closed area of the railroad operator.

Article 6

(1) Within the railroad protective zone shall be prohibited, without the consent of the railroad operatot and binding decision of the Special Construction Office, the following:

a) to locate the buildings, structures, aerial lines and lighting devices which would be interchangeable with signal sign devices using for the running and safety of the traffic on the railroad,

b) to locate elektromagnetic devices which would disturb or otherwise influence the overhead lines, their power supply, devices intended for conversion, supply and distribution of the electric current, interlocking, signalling, communication and connecting installations of the railroad or the traction vehicle devices,

c) to locate objects having colour surfaces interchangeable with markings used for the traffic on the railroad,

d) to store inflammable and explosive material and to establish the stock-yards which would be able to damage the railroad or its parts or endanger the safety and fluency of the traffic on the railroad,

e) to carry out activities which would be able to damage the railroad or its parts or endanger the safety and fluency of the traffic on the railroad in particular to perform terrain modifications, earthworks, blasting works and mining-like activities.

(2) The real property owners and users and water-courses and uncovered groundwaters administrators in the protective railroad zone shall be obliged to maintain the lands and the trees and shrubberies on them, the stock-yards, structures, bridge abutments and other constructions in a such condition and use them so that they would neither endanger the railroad operation and its parts nor restrict the safety and fluency of the traffic on the railroad.

(3) The railroad operator shall be authorised to invite the real property owner or user or the water-course and uncovered groundwater administrator in the protective railroad zone to remove within a specified period the trees and shrubberies, the silt on the bridge abutments of the railroad or to put out of operation the devices referred to in paragraph 1 letters a) and b), to remove the stock-yards, structures and other constructions referred to in paragraph 1 letters c) and d) and to stop immediatelly activities referred to in paragraph 1 letter e).

(4) If the real property owner or user or water-courses and uncovered groundwaters administrator, within a specified time period, fails to follow an invitation pursuant to


paragraph 3 the Special Contruction Office shall impose to the real property owner or user, on an impetus of a railroad operator, the obligation to remove or put out of operation them or to prohibit activities pursuant to pewregraph 1 letter e).

(5) After notification of the real property owner or user or water-course or uncovered groundwater administrator the assigned employees of the railroad operator and together with them also other persons needed for necessary activities conducting, shall be authorised to enter the real property within the protective railroad zone for the reason of maintenace and repair of the railroad and its parts and the constructions serving to the railroad ot the traffic on the railroad. An authorization to enter shall have also other persons carrying out a rescue action or removing the accident and extraordinary event consequences and performing an investigation of accidents and extraordinary events or a State professional supervision. If it is necessay to carry out the rescue action imediatelly and to remove the accident and extraordinary event consequences and the real property owner or user or water-course or uncovered groundwater administrator can not be notified in advance, he shall be informed without delay. The real property owner or user or water-course or uncovered groundwater administrator shall be obliged to endure the entry such person no the real property.

(6) If the railroad operation or some of its parts or the safety of the traffic on the railroad is imminently jeopardized the assigned employees of the railroad operator shall be authorised, after notification of the real property owner or user or water-course or uncovered groundwater administrator, to enter the real property and to carry out necessary tree and shrubbery treatments, to put out of operation the installations and other constructions or to remove, at the expense of the real property owner or user or water-course or uncovered groundwater administrator, the stock-yards, the silt on the bridge abutments and the constructions. The real property owner or user or water-course or uncovered groundwater administrator shall be obliged to endure those activities and to reimburse costs incurred.

(7) The railroad operator´s employees and other persons entering on real property within protective zone pursuant to paragraphs 5 and 6 shall be obliged to act so that they would not cause the damege inadequate to performed activity and as well as limit the real property owner or user beyond the extent adequate to performed activity.

Article 7

Construction and technical requirements for construction of railroads and their parts

(1) Unless otherwise provided below, the basic requirements for constructions and general technical requirements for construction design and performance pursuant to construction regulations1) shall aplly for proposal, design and performance of railroad constructions and theri parts.

(2) Construction and technical requirements for the construction of rail paths and special ways shall be applied to:

a) the spacial railroad configuration,

b) the track loading,

c) the track geometrical configuration,

d) the shape, dimensions and width configuration of the rail permanent way,

e) the loading and passing capacity of constructions and installations of the railway subgrade, 1) Paragraphs 43d and 43e of the Act No 50/1976 Coll. on the country planning and the construction order

(Building Act) as amended by the Act No 237/2000 Coll.


f) the ways of command-control and parameters of road crossings,

g) the construction and parameters of the rail permanent way,

h) the marking of the railway line or the line of a special way,

i) the equipment of stations and stops,

j) the construction, equipment, reliability and safety of railroad parts.

(3) Construction and technical requirements for the construction of tram ways shall apply to:

a) the spacial tram way configuration

b) the track geometrical configuration,

c) the shape, dimensions and width configuration of the tram way,

d) the construction and parameters of the tram permanent way,

e) the marking of the tram line,

f) the equipment of final and running stops,

g) the construction, equipment, reliability and safety of tram way parts.

(4) Construction and technical requirements for the construction of trolleybus ways shall apply to:

a) the location of the trolleybus way on the road,

b) the loading of the road with a trolleybus,

c) the longitudinal inclination of a trolleybus way

d) the equipment of final and running stops;

e) the construction, position and parameters of the trolleybus overhead line,

f) the construction, equipment, reliability and safety of trolleybus way parts.

(5) Construction and technical requirements for the construction of cableways shall apply to:

a) the spacial cable way configuration,

b) the transport speed and the time period between cable vehicles,

c) the constructiona and parameters of the driving installation and its brakes,

d) the constructiona and parameters of installation to carry and guide the cables and the cable vehicles,

e) the constructiona and parameters of the cable reels and the cable pre-loading device,

f) the equipment of embarkation and disembarkation stations,

g) the construction, equipment, reliability and safety of cable way parts,

h) the device for a night oweration,

i) the design and parameters of a cable way electrical installation and devices intended for the protection against the atmospheric electricity impacts.


Article 8

Railroad construction

(1) Unless othewise provided below, the contruction regulations2) shall apply to the location of the railroad structures and their parts and the structures within the protective railroad zone, to the permission and reporting the railroads and their changes before completiona and changes of complete sttructure and to the final inspection of structures.

(2) In constructing the railroad or during its modification the developer shall be obliged to build on his own expences for the owner of particular structure only modifications inducing directly from the railroad contruction namely at the level of technical solution in time of induced modification. The owner of particular structure shall be imediatelly obliged to take over the structure after the decision on a final inspection enters into force.

(3) In constructing the new siding linked-up to the railway line the developer of the siding shall be obliged to build the diverging track of the switch and maintain it permamently on his own expences. In case of a new siding contruction linked-up to the existing siding the developer of a new siding shall be obliged to build the diverging track of the switch and maintainn it permamently on his own expences.

(4) In proceedings concerning the location and permisssion of a structure and the permisssion of an activity in the railroad protective zone, which do not serve neither for the railroad operation nor ther trasnport railroad on the railroad the railroad owner by him authorised railroad operator shall in in a position of the proceeding participant3).

(5) Technical and safety structure test shall constitite a part of the final inspection of the structures of a railroad and its parts.

Article 9

Technical and safety structure test

(1) The technical and safety structure test shall mean a file of acts and activities for the verification - within the final inspection procedure - whether the railroad and its separate part or some other railroad parts conform to the verified design documentation and the conditions of contruction authorisation, whether they are operational and whether they guarantee a safety and continuous railroad operation and a safety and fluency traffic on the railroad.

(2) In case of bridges, tunels and other similar technical structures constituing the part of the railroad, the technical and safety structure test shall be replaced by the main inspection. The content of the main inspection shall include the verification of a conformity of actual dimensions, used construction products, installation and ingineering structure parameters with verified design documentation and conditions of the contruction authorisation.

(3) The main inspection shall include also the loading test. The loading test shall include a verification whether the bridge conforms to the design track loading. The procedure and conditions of conducting the main inspection and loading test shall be regulated by the technical standards.

(4) Technical and safety structure test shall replace, in respect of determined technical equipment, the verification pursuant to Article 16 paragraph 3.

2) Act No 50/1976 Coll. as amended by later regulations. 3) Article 59 paragraph 1 letter b) of the Act No 50/1976 Coll. as amended by later regulations. Article 14 paragraph 1 of the Act No 71/1967 Coll. on Administrative Proceeding (Administrative Order).


(5) The verifications pursuant to paragraphs 2 to 4, bindings opinions of competent authorities, permissions and approvals for operation shall constitue supporting documents for a final inspection of the railroad and its parts.

(6) The costs of the technical and safety structure test and the verifications referred to in paragraphs 2 to 4 shall bear the structure builder; he shall ensure also the participation of professional technical staff necessary to structure realisation and provide necessray technical facilities.

Article 10

Structure test operation

(1) Structure test operation shall serve for verification of the railroad operability and those railroad parts which can not be verified by the technical and safety structure test.

(2) The scope and conditions of a structure test operation shall be specified by the Construction Office in the decision on temporary usage of the structure4); it shall specify in particular:

a) requirements for assurance of safe railroad operation and safe and fluent traffic on the road,

b) the duration of the structure test operation,

c) the method of structure test operation monitoring,

d) the scope of recorded and evaluated data.

(3) The Special Construction Office shall define the period of technical and safety structure test according to the railroad type and the nature of the traffic on the railroad, which shall not be later than 12 months.

Article 11

Lands and structures expropriation

(1) For the purpose of performing the construction of the railroad or its parts, or the structure within protective railroad zone serving for railroad opetration or the traffic on the railroad, for the purpose of the access to the railroad or to to its parts and for the purpose of assurance of railroad operation or the traffic on the railroad it is possible to expropiate the necessary lands and structures or establish the real burden to them.

(2) Conditions of expropriation and expropriation proceeding shall be specified by the general regulations.5)

Article 12

Railroad dissolution

(1) The railroad serving for passenger transport may be dissoluted only on the ground of extinction of the need the territory transport servicing and the economical ineffectiveness of the railroad operation.

(2) The administration authority may decide on the railroad dissolution on the proposal of a railroad owner or by him authorised railroad operator upon the consent of the railroad owner. In case of the railpath conected with other railpaths also the consent of those other railrods owners shall be necessary. 4) Article 84 of the Act No 50/1976 Coll. as amended by later regulations. 5) Articles 108 to 116 of the Act No 50/1976 Coll. as amended by later regulations.


(3) The decision on the railroad dissolution shall constitute a background for Special Contruction Office proceeding on removal of the structure of the railroad and its parts in accordance with construction regulations.

(4) In case that after railrod dissolution a partial or total removal of the railroad body and parts occured and the rest real property is redundant for the railroad owner, he shall offer it to rent or sale.

C o n t a c t o f r a i l r o a d s

Article 13

Railroad contact types

(1) The contact of railroads shall mean an interconection of railroads enabling a fluent passing the vehicles from one railroad to another. The contact of railroads shall mean their concurrence, joining one railroad to another and crossing the railrods.

(2) The boundary of contacting railroads belonging to different operators has to be exactly defined and visible marked. Technical solutions and right and duties related to securing the connection of railroads shal be ageed by their operators through a contract.

Article 14

Railroad and road crossing

(1) The crossing the new main railway lines and roads shall be established as fly-over crossing. In upgrading or important renewal of existing main railway lines or crossing roads the developer shall rebuild existing level crossing to fly-over crossing or cancel it.

(2) Secondary railway lines crossings with roads shall be established as a rule outside the level of tracks. An exemption shall be permitted by the road administration authority in accordance with special regulation6). On the basis of a such exemption the Special Construction Office shall specify, in construction authorisation, the conditions of a crossing construction.

(3) In case of level crossing of the railroad and the road in which the road traffic safety so required, the Special Construction Office, on the proposal of a safety authority (Article 103), shall impose to the road administrator to rebuild the level crossing to fly-over crossing or to the railroad operator to equip such crossing also with railroad level crossing signalling device of the railroad.

(4) In case of level crossing of the railroad and the road the railroad operation shall have priority over the road traffic. The level crossing of the railroad and the road has to be marked pusruant the rules for railroads and in accordance with road traffic rules and in case of the main railway line shall be equipped with railroad level crossing signalling device from the road side.

(5) In case of tram way or trolleybus way using the road, the level contact of the railroad and the road shall neither be marked nor secured. In case of common tram way or trolleybus way operation and road traffic, the road traffic rules shall also apply to their operation7)

6) Article 18 paragraphs 2 and 10 of the Act No 135/1961 Coll. on roads (Road Act) as amended by later

regulations. 7) Act No 8/2009 Coll. on Road Traffic and on amendments of some acts as amended by later regulations.


Article 15

Crossing the railroads and lines

(1) The crossing the railroads and energy, telecommunication, water-supply, sewage an other lines serving neither for a railroad operation nor a traffic on the railroad must be designed and established so that the lines did not impact the safety and fluency of the railroad in particular the control-commad, connecting, recording and signaling installations, traction power supply lines and other devices of railroad energy equipment as well as the operation and energy equipmet of tractionvehicles.

(2) In case of crossing the railroad and lines referred to in paragraph 1, such lines may be led under the railroad body perpedicular to the railroad routing and in case of parallel running the railroad and lines, such lines may be led in protective railroad zone. The parallel running the line and railroad within the railroad precinct shall be possible only on the basis of a contract between the line owner and railroad owner or by him authorised railroad operator on a real burden establishment and on maintenace and repair conditions and after informing the Special Construction Office.

(3) In case of the function failure or accident of the line located within the railroad precinct, the line operator shall be obliged to inform the railroad operator immediatelly about the volume of necessary works and the time needed to their execution. The line operator shall be obliged to follow the railroad operator instructions so that the railroad operation and the traffic on the railroad would be impacted as less as possible.

(4) The developer conducting the railroad upgrading or important renewal requiring the railroad relocation or the relocation of the line which crosses the railroad or parallel runs with the railroad within the railroad precinct, shall be obliged, at his own expences, to ensure a new location of the railroad or the line as an induced investment and after works termination he shall be obliged to hand over the railroad or line to the owner; the owner shall obliged to take over completed structure.

D e s i g n a t e d t e c h n i c a l d e v i c e s

Article 16

Designated technical devices

(1) Designated technical devices shall mean the transport installations, gas devices, pressure equipment, lifting devices, electrical devices, devices for protection against the effects of static and atmospheric electricity and the negative effects of reverse traction currents, containers and swap bodies manufactured and intended or serving for provision of the railroad operation or the traffic on the railroad or they are the parts of the railroad.

(2) Only designated technical devices capable for operation may be used in service. The capability shall mean a technical condition meeting the requirements for assurance of their operation.

(3) Prior to placing the designated technical device in service the safety authority or by him authorised legal person shall verify and approve its capability. In case of designated technical device being at the same time the designated product8) the document on proving

8) Article 9 paragraph 1 of the Act No 264/1999 Coll. on technical requirements for the products and

conformity assessment and on amendments of some Acts as amended by later regulations.


conformity of its utility properties with technical requirements applied to it constitute the basis for approval of its operation capability. 9)

(4) If the safety authority finds that the designated technical device shows serious deficiences and its onward safe operation can not be assured or that the technical or operational conditions to assure the operation safety are not satisfied, it shall decide on limitation of the operation or on putting out of service the designated technical device.

(5) The designated technical device operator shall be obliged to:

a) operate only such designated technical device the operation capability of which has been verified and approved and it is in condition conforming to the regulations to assure the operation safety, the desing and construction dokuments and the approved capability for operation,

b) satisfy the specified conditions and requirements for assurance of a designated technical device operation safety,

c) ensure in use, within specified time period and by specified method, the verification of the designated technical device safety and its capability for operation,

d) ensure that designated technical device revisions, inspections, tests, and attendance have been carried out only by persons having a valid professional competence certificate pursuant to Article 18.

Article 17

Designated activities

(1) Designated activities shall include:

a) the installation, repairs, reconstructions, revisions, tests and verification of designated technical devices capability,

b) inspections, welding and non-destructive tests of rail vehicles, rails and steel bridge and bridge-like railroad structures,

c) filling the tank wagons, tank containes and swap bodies with gases and other dangerous substances.

(2) Designated activities may be carried out only by legal persons under authorisation granted by the safety authority after the fulfilment of requirements for conducting the designated activities has been verified.

(3) The verification whether requirements for conducting the designated activities have been satisfied shall be carried out by the safety authority or by him authorised legal pesron.

(4) The safety authority shall grant an authorisation to an applicant who:

a) employs a person having a valid professional competence document pursuant to Article 18,

b) holds the technical devices necessary to carry out designated activities,

c) has established organisation structure, vocational management and monitoring system of performed activities,

d) has prepared instructions and procedures to carry out designated activities and holds a documentation necessary for conducting the designated activities.

9) Article 12 paragraph 3 of the Act No 264/1999 Coll. as amended by the Act No 436/2001 Coll.


(5) If the safety authority finds serious deficiences in conducting designated activities which may affect the safety of designated technical device operation or the safety of railroad operation or the traffic on the railroad, or if the safety authority finds that the authorisaton terms have been infringed, he shall initiate a proceeding on the authorisation scope limitation or on the authorisation repeal.

Article 18

Professional competence for execution of activities on designated technical devices

(1) Revisions, inspections, tests, and attendance of designated technical devices in operation, the capability verification of designated technical devices, the steel rope tangling and repairs, the casting the ends and connections of the ropes used in cableways installations and the check of welding and non-destructive testing activities may by carried out only by natural persons having a valid professional competence certificate for texecution of activities on designated technical devices.

(2) The verification of professional competence for execution of activities on designated technical devices shall carry out the safety authority or by him authorised legal person; the document on professional competence for execution of activities on designated technical devices shall issue the safety authority.

(3) The document on professional competence for execution of activities on designated technical devices shall issue the safety authority to a person who:

a) has reached 18 years of age,

b) is competent for legal acts,

c) meets the requirements of good repute (Article 110),

d) has completed professional education in the training or study specialization which includes at least the learnig subject containing the description of designated technical device structure and function; the professional education for activity on designated electric technical device shall be stablished by an implementation regulation pursuant to Article 102 paragraph 2 letter c),

e) takes an initial professional training in specified educational institution and passed a final examination and

f) is healthy fit to carry out activities on designated technical devices.

(4) The holder of the professional competence certificate for execution of activities on designated technical devices shall be obliged to:

a) take a part of additional trainings organized by an employer concerning the status of technique relating to designated technical devices, the execution of activities on them, and the organizational and operational measures in accordance with legal regulations, operational regulations a technical specifications,

b) take every five years an updating training in specified educational institution as an assumption for renewal of the professional competence certificate for execution of activities on designated technical devices; an educational institution shall confirm the training graduation in a document on professional competence for execution of activities on designated technical devices, or pass a periodic professional examination.


(5) The safety authority shall prohibit an execution of activities on designated technical devices and withdraw a document of professional competence for execution of activities on designated technical devices if he finds that its keeper:

a) without serious grounds, fails to take part of an additional training and an updating training or he has not passes a periodic professional examination,

b) has seriously infringed his duties in execution of activities on designated technical device or repeatedly exhibits deficiences in performed activity in spite of previous warning the person authorised to carry out the State professional supervision,

c) performs the activities on designated technical device inconsistanttly with legal regulations, operational regulations or technical specifications governing the procedure for their execution, or

d) does not longer satisfy the requirements pursuant to paragraph 3 letters b), c) and f).

(6) The safety authority shall inform the employer about the prohibition of a performed activity. The validity of the document on professional competence shall be suspended until the decision of the safety authority on withdrawal of the document on professional competence enters into force. The decision on withdrawal of the document on professional competence for execution of activities on designated technical devices shall include the terms for its resumption depending on the reason for which it has been withdrawn.

(7) From the date when the decision on withdrawal of the document on professional competence for execution of activities on designated technical devices entered into force the respective document shall be invalid and its holder shall be obliged to remit it to the safety authority within five working days.

Article 19

Extraordinary events in designated technical device operation

(1) The extraordinary event in designated technical device operation shall mean the accident, technical failure or other event or condition at which:

a) the designated technical device operation, the railroad operation or the traffic on the railroad has been jeopardized,

b) the life and health of persons has been seriously jeopardized, the property has been damaged or the environment has been contaminated,

c) the fatality, serious or mass harm occured.

(2) The designated technical device operator shall be obliged to inform the safety authority immediatelly about the rise of the extraordinary event in designated technical device operation and depend on circumstances and consequences to call up the rescue units of Integrated Rescue System and to take necessary measures on the spot. In case of the extraordinary event in designated technical device operation with consequences referred to in paragraph 1 letter c), he shall be obliged to notify such event also to the Police Corps.

(3) The designated technical device operator shall be obliged to ensure the place of the extraordinary event in designated technical device operation against other persons and to maintain an initial condition until the members of the Police Corps come. Until the members of the Police Corps come he shall be authorised to set free the disabled persons and to provide them with the first aid and the transfer, to avoid another damage or enviroment damages and to make available the part of railroad for the renewal of its operation or the transport on it if thereby the investigation will not be impossible. In case of necessary intervention into the


condition and arrangement of the place he shall be obliged to record an initial condition by means of video, photographs, schemes or other effective method of documentation and to identify the relevant witnesses.

(4) The designated technical device operator shall be obliged to carry out his own detection of reasons of a rise of the extraordinary event in designated technical device operation and to keep the register of extraordinary events in designated technical device operation and the recognised causes. The designated technical device operator, on the basis of his own detection, shall be obliged to take necessary measures for the prevention of extraordinary events in designated technical device operation and to notify the taken measures to the safety authority.

(5) The safety authority shall recognize the cause of the extraordinary event in designated technical device operation in which the fatality, serious or mass harm occured. The safety authority shall not be obliged to recognize the causes of other extraordinary events in designated technical device operation.

R a i l r o a d v e h i c l e s

Article 20

Railroad vehicle types

(1) Railroad vehicles shall mean the rail vehicles, trolleybuses and cableway vehicles.

(2) Rail vehicles shall mean the railway vehicles, trmways and special way vehicles.

(3) The railway vehicle shall mean the rail vehicle with or without its own propulsion moving through its own wheels on the railpath and consisting of one or more structural or functional subsystems or of the parts of such subsystems.

(4) As regard to the design and technical condition the railroad vehicles must garantee the safety of the tansport on the railroad and they shall not endanger neither the passengers and personnel nor carried animals and subjects.

(5) Only the railroad vehicles of approved types, other than cableway vehicles, may be placed on the market or placed in service.

Article 21

Approval of the railway vehicle type

(1) The types of a railway vehicle shall be approved by the approval authority at the request of the manufacturer or by him authorised representative having a residence in the Member State and, in case of railway vehicle manufactured in other than Member State (hereinafter referred to as the "third State"), at the request of the importer . The approval authority shall be competent to approve also substantial modifications constituing the deviation from the approved type of the railway vehicle.

(2) The demonstration of conformity with the technical specifications applied to the railway vehicle type and to the expected operation type shall be a condition for the railway vehicle type-approval. In case of railway vehicle to which

a) the technical specifications for interoperability shall apply, the conformity assessment procedure pursuant to Annex No 4 and the technical specifications for interoperability shall be used,


b) the technical specifications for interoperability shall not apply, the conformity assessment procedure pursuant to the general regulations10) and the Europeam specifications shall be used.

(3) In case that relevant technical specifications for interoperability or technical and safety regulations, upon which the railway vehicle type had been approved, have been changed, the approval authority shall specify whether a validity of the granted approval will be extended or a new type-approval is necessary. In case that a new type-approval is necessary only the modifications performed on the railway vehicle from the date of an approval shall be subjected to a check.

(4) If an applicant applied for a railway vehicle type-approval simultaneously also in the other Member State the approval authority shall cooperate, in the interest of procedure simplification and administrative proceeding minimalization, with the approval authority of the Member State in which an applicant applied for a railway vehicle type-approval.

(5) The conformity assessment procedure and conducting the type tests shall provide the applicant at his own expense and conduct the authorised legal person.

(6) Before the any particular railway vehicle shall be placed in service the conformity with the approved type has to be proved. The railway vehicle conformity with the approved type shall be declared by the manufacturer or by him authorised representative having a residence in the European Community and. in case of railway vehicle from the third State, the importer.

(7) Carrying out the technical inspection of a railway vehicle and, in case of designated railway vehicles, also carrying out the technical and safety tests of a railroad vehicle, with satisfactory results, shal be a condition of an authorisation for placing any railway vehicle in service. The technical inspection shall be carried out by a person authorised pursuant to Article 102 paragraph 1 letter q) to conduct the technical inspection.

Article 22

Approval of other railroad vehicle types

(1) The types of trams, trolleybuse and rail vehicles for special ways shall be approved by the approval authority pursuant to Article 102 paragraph 1 letter s) at the request of the manufacturer or by him authorised representative having a residence in the European Community and, in case of a vehicle from the third State, at the request of the importer . The approval authority shall be competent to approve also substantial modifications constituing the deviation from the approved type of the railroad vehicle.

(2) The demonstration of satisfying the technical provisions and positive result of the railroad vehicle type test shall be a conditions for an approval of a railtroad vehicle type. The demonstration of conformity with the technical specifications applied to the railroad vehicle type and to the expected operation type shall be considered as satisfying the technical conditions.

(3) The railroad vehicle type test shall be provide the applicant at his own expense and conduct the legal person authorised to carry out the railroad vehicle tests.

10) Article 12 paragraph 3 of the Act No 264/1999 Coll. as amended by the Act No 436/2001 Coll. Annex I of the Decision No 768/2008/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 9 July 2008 on a

common framework for the marketing of products, and repealing Council Decision 93/465/EEC (OJ EU L 218, 13. 8. 2008).


(4) Before the railroad vehicle shall be placed in service its technical capability for operation and the conformity with the approved type shall be verified. The conformity with the approved type shall be proved by the manufacturer and, in case of railroad vehicle from the third State, the importer.

(5) The railroad vehicle technical capabilty for operation shall be verified through the technical inspection and, in case of designated railroad vehicles, through the railroad vehicle tachnical and safety tests.

(6) The verification pursuant to paragraph 5 shall provide for the railroad vehicle keeper at his own expense and conduct the legal person authorised to verify the railroad vehicle technical capability for operation pursuant to Article 102 paragraph 1 letter q) point 3.

(7) On the basis of positive result of the verification pursuant to paragraphs 4 and 5 the approval authority, in accordance with Article 102 paragraph 1 letter s), shall approve railroad vehicle technical capability for operation and issue the railroad vehicle technical certificate.

(8) The technical capability for operation of the cableway vehicle shall be verified by the safety authority pursuant to Article 103 paragraph 2 letter a) as a part of the capability verification and approval of the cable way technological installations.

Article 23

Railroad vehicle technical and safety tests

(1) Railroad vehicle technical and safety tests shall mean the set of acts and activities through which the legal person, authorised pursuant to Article 102 paragraph 1 letter q), shall verify, within framework of the railroad vehicle technical capability, whether the railroad vehicle complies with the production documentation and the railroad operation contitions, whether it is operational and ensures the continuous safety operation.

(2) Costs of railroad vehicle technical and safety tests shall be covered the applicant; he shall ensure also the attendance of a professional technical personnel necessary for conducting the tests and provide the necessary technical facilities.

Article 24

Railroad vehicle technical inspections

(1) Railroad vehicles in operation shall subject to regular technical inspections through which their current technical condition is checked and compared with the parameters of the railroad vehicle approved type and with the results of the technical capablity verification pursuant to Article 21 paragraph 7 or Article 22 paragraph 5 in time of placing the railroad vehicle in service.

(2) If the legal person, authorised pursuant to Article 102 pargrapg 1 letter q) point 4., finds during technical inspection that the railroad vehicle does not garantee the safety operation on the railroad, in particular it shows substantial deviations from technical conditions and operation properties of the approved type or from the result of the technical capability verification in time of placing the railroad vehicle in service, or he finds that prescribed regular technical inspections and tests have not been carried out, the railrod vehicle operator shall be obliged to put the vehicle out of service.

Article 25

Competence to drive the railroad vehicles

(1) The self-propelled railroad vehicle may be driven only by a person possesing a valid licence for driving a railroad vehicle and in case of a tram driver also a driver's authorisation


of B category and in case of a trolleybus driver also a driver's authorisation of D category. Without the railroad vehicle driving licence the railroad vehicle may be driven only by a applicant for obtaining a licence to drive a railroad vehicle within the training of drivers and under attendance of an instructor competent to drive a railroad vehicle and within the practical test under attendance of an examitation commissioner.

(2) An application for issuing a licence to drive the railroad vehicles may be submitted by the applicant or his eployer on behalf of him; the period for a licence issuing shall be 30 days from the date of application submission.

(3) The safety authority shall issue a licence to drive the railroad vehicles to an applicant who:

a) holds a document of professional competence to conduct the works on the railroad,

b) is medical and psychological fit to drive the railroad vehicle pursuant to results of preventive medical examination and psychological survey,

c) has reached:

1. 20 years of age in case of driving the railway vehicle, the special cableway vehicle, the tram or the trolleybus,

2. 19 years of age in case of driving the rail vehicle on the special cableway with limited speed of 40 km/h or the railway vehicle on the siding or in case of train shunting and marshalling,

3. 18 years of age in case of control of the cable way running or the special cableway vehicle driving, tram or trolleybus driving in operating movements,

d) has passed the training and the practical test,

e) has met the requirements of good repute (Article 110 paragraph 1).

(4) The holder of the licence to drive a railroad vehicle shall be obliged to carry it during the work and show it in case of the inspection.

(5) The safety authority shall decide on the withdrawal of the licence to drive a railroad vehicle before its expiration in case that the licence holder fails to meet requirements of good repute, he lost the medical or psychological fitness or his document of professional competence expired.

Article 26

Examination commissioner

(1) The examination commissioner shall mean a person authorised to carry out the technical and safety tests of railroad vehicles and the practical tests of applicants for obtaining the licence to drive a railroad vehicle.

(2) The examination commissioner may become a person who:

a) has reached 30 years of age,

b) holds the licence to drive a railroad vehicle at least 10 years,

c) is graduated in field of mechanic or electrical engineering of the second degree,

d) has passed the exam of special professional competence,

e) has met the requirements of good repute (Article 110 paragraph 1),


f) has not performed the training of those applicants for obtaining the licence to drive a railroad vehicle who are examined by him, and

g) is employed by the railroad operator or the railroad undertaking.

(3) An application for an exam execution may be submitted by the applicant or his employer on behalf of him.

(4) Through the examination commissioner certificate the examination commissioner shall demonstrate the compliance with conditions pursuant to paragraph 2. The examination commissioner certificate shall expire 10 years from the date of its issuing; there is possibility to renew its validity on the basis of attendance in regular trainings at least once in a year.

(5) The administration authority [Article 102 paragraph 1 letter u)] shall withdraw the examination commissioner certificate issued by him if:

a) the certificate expired and its holder did not undergo an examination or an examination result demonstrates unsufficient professional competence,

b) the result of a medical examination excludes his medical or psychological fitness from conducting the examination commissioner activities,

c) the examination commissioner, without any serious reason, does not perfom his activities more than three months or if he such activities did not perform more than six months during 12 subsequent months,

d) the examination commissioner hardly infringed his duties in particular the impartiality, matter-of-factness and desinterestedness requirements or he repeatedly and in spite of warning fails to follow the regulations relating to the conducting the examination pursuant to paragraph 1,

e) the examination commissioner lost good repure or full competence to legal acts.

P A R T T W O

RAILROAD OPERATION

Article 27

Introductory provisions

(1) The railroad operation shall mean the managment, control-command and handling the railroad operation in condition enabling the safety and fluency traffic on the railroad and the organisation of the traffic on the railroad.

(2) The railroad handling shall be carried by the operating control points and stands through handling, in a specified way, the switches and the interlocking and telecommunication devices.

(3) The organisation of the traffic on the railroad shall mean the specification of the methods and conditions of the transport control and the simplified and operational transport control, and the monitoring the railroad vehicle movements and traffic capacity of the railroad.

(4) The railroad undertaking shall mean a natural or legal person operating the railroad as its owner or on the basis of the contract concluded with its owner.

(5) For the purpose of this Act the railroad undertaking shall mean an entrepreneur whose subject of activity shall be the provision of transport services on the railroad.


Article 28

Railroad owner obligations

(1) The railroad owner shall be obliged to ensure the permanent railroad operation. In case that the railroad owner is not simultaneously the railroad operator, he shall be obliged to to ensure the railroad operation through other person satisfying the requirements of this Act for railroad operation.

(2) The railroad owner shall be obliged to maintain the railroad in permanent operational capable condition, to take care of a railroad maintenance in accordance with design technical parameters, and of a railroad development in accordance with the technical progress and the requirements for the safe and fluent traffic on the railroad. If it is necessary to achieve the compliance the railroad parameters with safety regulation requirements and the design technical parameters the railroad owner shall be obliged to cary out the upgrading the railroad or its parts.

(3) In case that the owner of the railroad, not being in the state ownership, is unable to maintain it permanently in operation capable condition, to take care of a railroad development in accordance the technical progress or he is unable to ensure the safe and fluent transport on it neither on the basis of the contract concluded with other person, he shall be obliged to offer for sale to:

a) the state, the self-administration region or the municipalities association pursuant to range of the territory transport servicing in case of the railway line,

b) the municipality in case of the tram or trolleybus way, or

c) the municipality or other person in case of the siding or cable or special way.

(4) If the siding owner doesn't maintain diverging track of the switch in the linking the siding nad railway line in accordance with design parameters of the railway line, the infrastructure manager shall be authorised to invite the siding owner for the remedy. If after the invitation the siding owner still fails to maintain diverging track of the switch, the infrastructure manager shall be authorised, after warning the siding owner, to carry out oneself the maintenance or repair of the diverging track of the switch at the siding owner expenses. The siding owner shall be obliged to endure the maintenance or repair of the diverging track of the switch and to reimburse the costs incurred.

(5) If the siding owner does not operate o maintain the diverging track of the switch in the linking the siding nad railway line permanently, he shall be obliged to transfer it, free of charge, to the ownership or administration of the infrastructure manager who shall be obliged to operate and maintain it at his own expenses.

(6) If the need to ensure the state owned railroad operation for the purpose of the transport has terminated its owner shall offer it for rent or sale to the self-administration region, the municipality or the municipalities association pursuant to range of the territory transport servicing.

(7) If the railroad can't be rented or sold pursuant to paragraphs 3 and 6, the railroad owner may offer it for rent or sale to other person. If the railroad can not yet been rented or sold, the railroad owner shall be obliged to propose the railroad dissolution and after such dissolution he shall be obliged to remove the railroad structure including the installations constituing the part of it so as they did not endanger the people or animals or deteriorate the environment.


Article 29

Authorisation for railroad operation

(1) The railroad may be operated only by the person who:

a) posseses a valid authorisation to operate the railroad issued by regulatory body,

b) has concluded the contract for a railroad operation with the railroad owner in case that he himself is not a railroad owner,

c) employes the persons for the purpose of the railroad operation, who are professionaly competent and medical and psychological fit to carry out the works.

(2) The authorisation to operate ethe railroad shall be issued by the regulatory body:

a) to the natural person who is fully competent for legal acts, reached 18 years of age and meet requirements for good repute and professional qualification; if such a person is not professionally qualified he has to appoint a responsible representative possesing such qualification,

b) to the legal person whose statutory representative satisfies or statutory body members satisfy requirements of full competenece for legal acts, requirements for the age and good repute pursuant to letter a) and whose statutory representative or at least one member of the statutory body satisfies the requirement for professional competence; othewise he has to appoint a responsible representative possesing such professional competence.

(3) The professional competence necessary for the railroad operation shall mean a higher transport, civil engineering, machinery or electrotechnical education of the second degree and at least three years practice in the field of the railroad operation or full secondary education oriented at the transport, civil engineering, machinery or electrotechnical engineering and at least five years practice in the management function in the field of the railroad operation; it shall be demonstrated by the document proving a reached education and the documents proving an acquired practice. If the practice cannot be demonstrated by the documents as they are not available or the person for which the practice has been carried out does not exist, it is permissible to demonstrate the practice by the solemn declaration.

(4) For the purpose of paragraph 2 the responsible representative shall mean an employee neing in employment relationship with the railroad operator for a specified weekly working time, who shall satisfy requirements for the professional qualification referred to in paragraph 3 and who will be carried out supervision over the satisfying the duties of the railroad operator during validity period of the authorisation. The railroad operator shall be obliged to employ the responsible representative during entire validity period of the authorisation and to established in undertaking such conditions that the responsible representative may effectively manage and check the railroad operation. If the responsible representative shall not be longer an eployee of the railroad operator, such railroad operator shall be obliged to appoint immediately a new responsible representative and inform about it regulatory body which issued the authorisation to operate the railroad.

(5) The contract with the railroad operator shall include the railroad owner requirements for quantitative and qualitative parameters and the range of operation of the railroad ad its parts. In case that operation of the railway line shall constitute a subject of the contract, the contract shall be concluded after agerrement with the Ministry of Defence of the Slovak Republic taking into account also the method of ensuring the balanced management of the railway line operation.


(6) The authorisation to operate the railroad shall be valid for a time specified in it however at least for a period of five years with posssiblity for further prolongation. Before expiration of the authorisation to operate the railroad the regulatory body may amend it in case that conditions, under which it has been issued, have changed. The authorisation to operate the railroad shall not be transferable to the attorney of the railroad operator.

(7) The authorisation to operate the railroad shall expire on the day:

a) of its validity period unless the renew of validity period occured,

b) when the decision of the regulatory body on the repeal of the authorisation has entered into force,

c) of the railroad operator winding-up or death,

d) when the decision on the railroad dissolution has entered into force.

(8) The authorisation to operate the railroad will be repealled by the regulatory body if:

a) the railroad operator has not longer satisfied the requirements pursusant to paragraphs 1 and 2,

b) the railroad operator infringes the duties of the railtoad operator in spite of the written warning of the State supervision body and the imposed fine,

c) the railroad operator applied for the repeal of the authorisation.

Article 30

Basic railroad operator obligations

(1) The railroad operator shall be obliged to:

a) operate the railroad in accordance with the contract with the railroad owner on railroad operation and the authorisation to operate the railroad,

b) operate the railroad in accordance with the railroad operation rules pursuant to this Act and the implementing and operational regulations,

c) ensure that particular activities of the railroad operation have been carried out only by employees meeting the requirements for professional competence, medical and psychological fitness necessary to perform the works on the railroad,

d) mark the employees authorised to give instructions to other persons relating to the railroad operation or the traffic on the railroad,

e) indicate the names of operated stations and stops,

f) indicate areas within the railroad precinct that are not accessible to the public,

g) secure the public accessible areas within the railroad precinct so that the public using them has not been jeopardized by the railroad operation or the traffic on the railroad,

h) notify the serious accident or extraordinary event, which has serious accident consequences, to the investigating body and provide the investigating body and the police bodies with technical assistence and information necessary to investigate the accidents and extraordinary events,

i) take care of prevention of the accident origin in particular through the detection of the accident or extraordinary event causes and the regular training of employees,

j) prepare amergency plans for the case of the accident or extraordinary event affecting the railroad operation or the traffic on the railroad,


k) issue an internal rule regulating the procedures of the detection of accident or extraordinary event causes, the method of reporting their occurences, the tasks of railroad operator organisation units and railroad undertakings envolved in the causes detection,

l) take care of assurance of the railroad operation safety and the safe and fluent traffic on the railroad in accordance with the technical progress and safety regulations.

(2) In providing the public passenger transport the railroad operator shall be obliged to:

a) establish organisation and spacial presumptions to publish information rendered by railroad undertakings to the passengers in the stations and stops,

b) issue and publish, in the stations and stops, the timetables of particular lines and links and their amendments,

c) maintain the order, accessibility and cleanness in the station, stop and platform spaces,

d) implement and maintain, in the station, stop and platform spaces, the information system necessary for the passenger orientation including the hear and sight disabled passengers, and provide with other necessary information relating to the railroad operation or the traffic on the railroad,

e) enable the use of stations, stops and platforms for disabled persons and persons with child´s cart or animals,

f) ensure with the pictogram or the words the marking of spaces in which the smoking or alcoholic beverage drinking is prohibited by the act;

g) provide, within limits, the stations or other buildings on the railroad designated for the public passenger transport with necessary spaces for the railroad undertaking so that a proper run of the traffic and the services for passengers would be ensured.

(3) The railroad operator may limit the railroad operation:

a) for a time necessary to maintain or repair the railroad or to renew its operation after an accident or extraordinary event, or

b) during a time when the traffic on the railroad is not performed.

(4) If the traffic on the railroad is limited for the reason referred to in paragraph 3 letter b), the railroad operator shall be obliged to maintain the railroad in operation capable condition in particular he shall be obliged to carry out the surveys and checks of designed railroad parameters pursuant to railroad operation rules so that it might be prepared for a prompt traffic recovery.

P r o f e s s i o n a l c o m p e t e n c e , m e d i c a l a n d p s y c h o l o g i c a l f i t n e s s

Article 31

(1) The working activities important for the sfatey of the railroad operation and the traffic on the railroad may be conducted only by employees satisfying the requirements of professional competence, medical and psychological fitnesses.

(2) The list of working activities requiring the professional competence, medical and psychological fitnesses including the qualification presumptions and subjects of a professional training pursuant to Article 32 paragraph 2 shall be specified by the railroad operator and railroad undertaking pursuant to particular railroad types.

(3) If the working activities referred to in lists pursuant to paragraph 2 are conducted by persons who are not in working relationship with the railroad operator or the railroad


undertaking, also such persons have to meet requirements of professional competence, medical and psychological fitnesses.

Article 32

(1) For the purpose of this Act the professional competence shall mean the set of the education, the professional knowledges on the railroad construction and operation, on designated technical devices, on rules of the rairoad operation and the tranffic on the railroad and practical skills and procedures necessary for operation of the railroad and its parts and for movement of the railroad vehicles.

(2) The requirements of professional competence must be satisfied by employees who:

a) ensure the operational capability of the railroad;

b) command and control the movemement of railroad vehicles or the run of the cable way,

c) drive the traction railroad vehicles or operate the cable way,

d) asseess the technical condition of the railroad, the railroad vehicles and their operational capability,

e) conduct activities imminently influencing the safety of the traffic on the railroad,

f) organize, manage and control the employees conducting activities referred to in letters a) to d),

g) perform the technical and safety tests of railroad vehicles,

h) perform the practical examinations of the competence to drive the railroad vehicles and to operation the cable way.

(3) The professional competence shall be obtained through the professional training in authorised education facility; it shall be verified through the examination and certified through the professional competence document. During conducting the works an employee shall submit, at the request, the professional competence document to a person authorised to conduct a check.

(4) For the purpose of obtaining the professional competence document an employee shall be obliged to subject to the professional training and the examination. To retain the professional competence an employee shall be obliged to take part in regular retrainings at least twice in a year which shall be organised by the education facility or the railroad operator and to subject to the periodic re-examinatrion once in three years. The education facility shall issue a respective confirmation to the employer within three working days.

(5) In case of substantial change of safety regulations or implementation of a new technology, which has an impact on the safety, the railroad operator or the railroad undertaking shall decide that assigned employees will take part in an extra retraining and subject to an examination. Assigned employees shall be obliged to take part in an extra retraining and subject to an examination.

(6) The costs for the professional training, the examination, the regular retraining and ordered extra reatraining shall reimbursed by the employer. If the employee voluntary altered an employer. a new employer shall be obliged to take into account received trainings, acquired qualification and obtained experiences at previous employers if he employs an employee in a job position or in activities requiring an obtained professional competence and to reimbursed to the actual employer at his request a relative part of incurred costs for the professional training and examination. Employers shall be obliged to issue to the leaving


employees at their request the documents confirming received trainings and obtained professional competence and practice.

(7) The person entrusted to conduct the check of the rairoad operator and railroad undertaking employees shall be authorised to withdraw the professional competence document of an employee who:

a) didn't subject to the regular retraining or periodic re-examination pursuant to paragraph 4 or to the extra training pursuant to paragraph 5,

b) committed at the works a serious professional failure jeopardizing the safety and fluency of the railroad operation or the traffic on the railroad, in particular through the infringement of or neglecting the safety or operational regulations and rules,

c) has been involved or co-involved in an accident caused by a non-professionality.

(8) A withdrawn professional competence document may be retrieved after professional training and successful examination.

Article 33

(1) For the purpose of this Act a medical fitness shall mean the capabilty to perform a particular working activity in term of a health condition including the sensory functions. For the purpose of this Act a psychological fitness shall mean the level of mental capability to perform a particular working activity.

(2) The health care provider shall detect the medical and psychological fitness through the preventive medical examination and psychological survey aimed at the employee capability to perform a particular working activity pursuant to the list (Article 31 paragraph 2). The employee shall be obliged to subjest to the preventive medical examination and psychological survey.

(3) The extra preventive medical examination and psychological survey of an employee shall be carried out after involvement or co-involvement in an accident, prior the starting out the job, after discontinuing a job for a period exceeding six months and in case of suspicion of the health condition change. If an employee has taken at works a part in a traumatising event, in paricular he has taken part in a serious accident or extraordinary event with mortal consequences or serious injury of perople, the employer shall be obliged to provide him with professional

(4) The assigned legal person (Article 102 paragraph 1 pletter q) point 2.)) shall ensure preventive medical examinations carried out by the assessing doctor with a specialization in the General medicine. The basic criteria for assessing doctors shal be the knowledges of relevant work and railway ambient risks. Psychiological survey shall be carried out in occupation of "Other health care assistent" a psychologist with certified working activity the "Tranport psychology".

(5) The employer shall bear the costs of preventive medical examinations and psychological surveys not reimbursed from compulsory health insurance.


P A R T T H R E E

RAILWAY INFRASTRUCTURE OPERATION

Article 34

Infrastructure manager

(1) The infrastructure manager shall mean any entrepreneur operating the railway infrastructure.11)

(2) The railway infrastructure operation shall mean activities ensuring the railway infrastructure administration and service and the railway transport organisation.

(3) The infrastructure manager may by only a legal person that:

a) possesses a valid authorisation issued by the regulatory body pursuant to Article 29,

b) has concluded the contract for a railway infrastructure operation with its owner in case that he himself is not a railway infrastructure owner or if he administrates the railway infrastructure in accordance with the act,

c) possesses a valid safety authorisation issued by the safety authority pursuant to Article 87,

d) employes the persons for the purpose of the railway infrastructure operation, who are professionaly competent and medical and psychological fit pursuant to Article 31 to carry out the works,

e) satisfies the requirement of financial fitness; this shall not apply in case of the siding operation only.

(4) The financial fitness shall mean an applicant capability to financially garantee the start and operation of the railway infrastructure and meet obligations of the railway infrastructure operator for a minimum period of one year in accordance with this Act. The financial fitness shall be proved by the documents on total amount of available funds on bank accounts, the credit loans, the detailed commercial budget for the single accounting period, the list of debtors and creditors including the debt amount and the financial statement for previous accounting year in case that an applicant has already made a business. Financially fit shall not be a person who does not meet requirements of financial fitness and who is in the bankruptcy or he has not balanced financial relationships with the state budget or he has registered outstanding payments relating to the health insurance, social insurance and contributions to pension schemes.

(5) The infrastructure manager shall:

a) self perform an internal administration of his undertaking, an accounting and internal control,

b) operate a railway infrastructure in accordance with the subject of activity and with this Act, and

c) manage the entrusted state assets pursuant to special regulattion.12)

11) Annex I Part A of the Commission Regulation (EC) No 851/2006 of 9 June 2006 specifying the items to be

included under the various headings in the forms of accounts shown in Annex I to Council Regulation (EEC) No 1108/70 (Codified version) (OJ EU, L 158, 10. 6. 2006).

12) Article 2 of the Act of the National Council of the Slovak Republic No 258/1993 Coll. on the Railways of the Slovak Republic as amended by the Act No 259/2001 Coll..


(6) The infrastructure manager, in addition to the railroad operator basic duties pursuant to Article 30, shall be obliged to:

a) allocate the railway infrastructure capacity (hereinafter referred to as the " infrastructure capacity") to the railway undertakings on a fair and non-discriminatory basis until the entire railway infrastructure capacity is allocated and conclude with them, under the equitable and non-discriminatory terms, the contract for access to the railway infrastructure,

b) provide to the safety authority with information and data necessary to assess the safety condition of the railroad operated and the traffic on the railroad, the level of transport services and the observation of national safety regulations and to maintain the register and statistics,

c) find the causes of an accident or extraordinary event on the railroad and notify them to the investigating body,

d) register the supporting documents and data for the purpose of payment for the access to the railway infrastructure and submit them to the regulatory body at the request,

e) complete the timetable of the traffic on the railroad.

(7) The infrastructure capacity shall mean the potential to schedule train paths requested for an element of infrastructure for a certain period.

(8) For the purpose of this Act the train path shall mean the infrastructure capacity needed to run a train between the place of departure and destination on the railway line.

Article 35

Railway undertaking

(1) The railway undertaking shall mean any entrepreneur the principal business of which is to provide services for the transport of goods and/or passengers by rail with a requirement that the undertaking must ensure traction; this also includes entrepreneurs which provide traction only.

(2) The provision of transport services by railway undertakings in the railway transport shall be regulated by special regulation.13)

Article 36

Business plan

(1) The infrastructure manager and railway undertaking shall be obliged to prepare their business plans aimed to optimal and efficent use of the railway infrastructure and to provide the transport services. The business plan shall include the investment and financial programmes.

(2) The infrastructure manager investment programme shall be aimed in particular at:

a) investments to the railway infrastructure, its upgrading, renewal and a new building-up,

b) the increase of the safety of railway infrastructure operation,

c) the increase of the transport services quality and range provided by the railway undertaking and other user of railway infrastructure.

(3) The infrastructure undertaking investment programme shall be aimed in particular at:

13) Act No 514/2009 Coll. on the traffic on railroads.


a) investments to the rolling stock of railway vehicles,

b) the increase of the railway transport safety and reliability,

c) the increase of the travelling culture through the development and enhancement of services for passengers and goods consignors and consignees.

(4) The financial programme shall be aimed at the balanced undertaking financial management of the and at the methods for achiement of a such target.

(5) The infrastructure manager and railway undertaking shall be obliged to publish annualy in the Commercial Journal the trading income for previous accounting period.

(6) The fulfilment of the business plan shall come under the state aid. Allocated funds of the state aid have to be within the size corresponding to the tasks pursuant to this Act and to the fulfilment of the business plans taking account of the state policy in the field of railways.

Article 37

Railway network statement

(1) The infrastructure manager shall, after consultation with the railway undertakings and interested parties, develop and publish no less than four months in advance of the deadline for requests for infrastructure capacity a network statement for the railway network operated by him. Generally, the access to the published railway network statement shall be free of charge. If the infrastructure manager decides that the network statement will be obtainable against payment such a payment may not exceed the cost of publishing that statement.

(2) The railway network statement shall contain information about the conditions for access to the relevant operated railway lines and the railway services provided by the railway undertaking. The content and classification of the network statement is laid down in Annex No 13.

(3) The infrastructure manager shall be obliged to update from time to time the railway network statement according to variable needs of the railway network using and his options relating to the provision of railway services.

Article 38

Access to the railway infrastructure

(1) The infrastructure manager shall be obliged to ensure the access to the railway infrastructure within entire network operated by him, to any railway undertaking established in the Slovak Republic and possessing a valid licence14) to provide the transport services and a valid safety certificate pursuant to Article 86, as well as to any railway undertaking established in any other Member State who operate the transport services in an international transport. The conditions for access to the railway infrastructure shall be stated in the contract for access to the railway infrastructure on a fair and non-discriminatory basis in accordance with the rules of the railway infrastructure allocation pursuant to this Act, the safety authorisation pursuant to Article 87 and the railway network statement pursuant to Article 37.

(2) In case that the the access to the railway infrastructure pursuant to paragraph 1 relates to the international passenger transport, the railway undertaking established in the other Member State has a right to let the passengers to get on and get out in any running station on the international train path taking into account the published technical parameters

14) Articles 10 to 13 of the Act No 514/2009 Coll.


of the railway infrastructure. The railway infrastructure access right shall apply just then when a carriage of passengers on the international train path represents a basic purpose of an access of such railway undertaking to the railway infrastructure. At the request of the infrastructure manager or railway undertakings, the regulatory body shal decide whether a carriage of passengers on the international train path represents a basic purpose of an access of the railway undertaking to the railway infrastructure.

(3) In case that the the access to the railway infrastructure pursuant to paragraph 1 relates to the international freight transport, the railway undertaking established in the other Member State has a right to use on the international train path the terminals and ports serving for more than one railway undertaking.

(4) The infrastructure manager shall be obliged to allow the accees to the stations and terminals for the purpose of the goods loading and unloading for any undertaking operating other transport mode.

Article 39

Limitation of the access to railway services

(1) At the request of the transport service contracting entity, the regulatory body may limit, in the international passeger transport, the access of the railway undertaking established in the other Memebret State to railway services provided by the infrastructure manager in connection with the access to the railway infrastructure between the places of the train departure and destination in the territory of the Slovak Republic if the public transport service contract shall apply to that railway infrastructure section.

(2) The limitation of the access to railway services pursuant to paragraph 1 may not limit the right of the railway undertaking established in the other Member State, to let the passengers to get on in the station on the international train path and to get out them in the other station on that route; this shall not apply in case that the economic balance of the public transport service contract would be infringed by it.

(3) At the request of a transport service contracting entity who concluded the public transport service contract, an infrastructure manager or a railway undertaking fulfilling the obligations resulting from the public transport service contract, the regulatory body shall, after performed analysis, decide pursuant to paragraph 4 whether the economic balance of the public transport service contract would be infringed by such a right limitation.

(4) The regulatory body shall determine the impact of the right pursuant to paragraph 2 on the profitability of transport services provided by the railway undertaking under the public transport service contract, on the costs born by the transport service contracting entity and on the fare, taking into account the station locations and the numebr of the train stops on the international train path and the particular train timing and frequency.

(5) Contracting parties of the public transport service contract and the infrastructure manager shall be oblided to provide to the regulatory body, at the request and for the purpose of the analysis pursuant to paragraph 4, with necessary information and date. The regulatory body shall assess supplied information and data and if necessary consult it with the persons referred to in paragraph 4. The regulatory body shall, within two months after the date of receiving the necessary information nad data, inform the persons referred to in paragraph 4 about a limitation or non limitation of an access of the railway undertaking established in the other Member State pursuant to paragraph 1. If any regulatory body has decided on the access limitation, it must give the reasons for a such decision and specify the conditions under which and within what time limit any applicat pursuant to paragraph 3 and railawy undertaking


established in the other Member State applied to an access to the railway infrastructure, may apply for a new access assessment

(6) The regulatory body may limit the right of the railway undertaking pursuant to pargraph 1 to let the passengers to get out between the stations on the the international train path also when this right has been established by the licenced contract concluded before 4 December 2007 on the basis of fair public tender in accordance with the rules of the European Community. This limitation may exist until the licenced contract expires but no more than 15 years depending on it what deadline expires earlier.

(7) The regulatory body may impose to the railway undertaking, established in the other Member State and providing the carriage of persons on an international train path, the obligation to pay the price difference for the railway line operation between two stations to the transport service contracting entity as a compensation for the duty resulting from the public transport service contract so as the railway undertakings operating a national pessenger transport and the railway undertakings operating an international pessenger transport have paid the same payment for the use of the same railway lines.

(8) The compensation pursuant to paragraph 7 shall be in accordance with the principles of the equity, transparency, non discrimination and proportionality between the average fare level paid by the passegers and total level of the payments and prices for the railway services provided by the infrastructure manager and relating to the use of the infrastructure. The amount of compensations pursuant to paragraph 7 may not endanger the economical viability of the public passenger transport on railwy lines applied to them and it may not exceed amount necessary to cover the costs incurred from satisfying the railwy undertaking obligation resulting form the public transport service contract taking into account a compensation provided and a reasonable profit.

Article 40

Allocation of infrastructure capacity

(1) Infrastructure capacity shall be allocated by an infrastructure manager on the basis of framework rules. Framework rules shall include in particular:

a) method of infrastructure capacity allocation,

b) basic items of an application for allocation,

c) time periods for which a capacity shall be allocated,

d) rules of the conclusion of framework agreements,

e) rules of the assessment of purpose of railway infrastructiure using,

f) model of the contract regulating the rights and duties of the infrastructure manager and the applicants, and

g) method and time periods for informing about the content of framework rules.

(2) Any trading in alocated infrastructure capacity among its recipients shall be prohibited and shall lead to exclusion of a recipient from the further allocation. Once allocated capacity may not be transferred by the recipient to another person; this shall not apply when a recipent, who is not not a railway undertaking, shall enable, in conducting its business activity, to use of an allocated capacity by the railway undertaking. For the purpose of further allocation, such enabling the the use of an infrastructure capacity shall not be considered as transfer


(3) The infrastructure allocation in the form of a train path may be granted to the applicant for a maximum duration of one timetable period of the railwy network (hereinafter referred to as the" timetable"). An infrastructure manager and an applicant may enter into a framework agreement for the use of capacity on the relevant railway infrastructure for a longer term than one timetable period. Respective rights and obligations of the infrastructure manager and the applicants in respect of allocation of infrastructure capacity shall be laid down in contract for railway infrastructure allocation

(4) When an applicant intends to apply the infrastructure manager for infrastructure capacity allocation with a view to operating an international passenger transport aimed in particular to carry passengers between stations located in the Slovak Republic as well as in the other Member State, he shall inform the infrastructure managers and the regulatory bodies of such Member State. In order to enable the assessment of the purpose of the carriage of passengers between stations located in the Slovak Republic and in the other Member State and the potential economic impact on existing public transport service contracts in such State, the regulatory body shall ensure on entire proposed international train path that any transport service contracting entities entering into public transport service contracts and railway undertakings performing the public transport service contract shall be informed.

Article 41

Cooperation in the allocation of infrastructure capacity on more than one railway network

(1) Infrastructure managers shall cooperate with infrastructure managers of other railway network to enable the efficient creation and allocation of infrastructure capacity which crosses more than one network. They shall organise international train paths, in particular within the railway lines of the Trans-European Rail Freight Network and specify the procedures to enable this to take place.

(2) The procedure established in order to coordinate the allocation of infrastructure capacity at an international level shall associate representatives of infrastructure managers for all railway infrastructures whose allcation decisions have an impact on more than one other infrastructure manager. Appropriate representatives of infrastructure managers from the third States may be associated with these procedures. The European Commission representative shall be invited to attend as an observer.

(3) At any meeting or other activity undertaken to permit the allocation of infrastructure capacity for trans-network railway transport services, decisions shall only be taken by representatives of infrastructure managers.

(4) The infrastructure manager shall be obliged to make publicly available the agreed procedrures, working methods and criteria used for assessing and allocating infrastructure capacity on an international level.

(5) The infrastructure manager shall be obliged to submit to relevant infrastructure managers for assessment the proposals of railway undertkings concerning an organisation of international train paths to facilitate the operation of freight trains in an international transport.

(6) Such agreed international train paths on more than one railway network shall be made available to applicants via any of the infrastructure managers participating in an agreement..


Article 42

Applicants

(1) Applications for infrastructure capacity allocation may be made by railway undertakings and their international groupings as well as other persons interested in its obtaining to operate the railway trasnport, in particular the combine transport operators, goods consignors and consignees.

(2) The infrastructure manager may set requirements with regard to applicants to ensure that its legitimate expectations about future revenues from utilisation of the infrastructure are safeguarded. Such requirements shall be appropriate, transparent and non-discriminatory and they shall be published in advance as part of the allocation principles stated in the network statement pursuant to Article 37.

(3) The requirements pursuant to paragraph 2 may only include the provision of a financial guarantee that must not exceed an appropriate level which shall be proportional to the contemplated level of the applicant activity on allocated infrastructure and assurance of the applicant capability to prepare compliant bids concerning an allocated infrastructure capacity.

(4) The requirements pursuant to paragraphs 2 and 3 shall be notified to the European Commission.

(5) The applicant may apply the infrastructure manager for allocation of the infrastructure capacity crossing more than one network. That infrastructure manager shall then be permitted to act on behalf of the applicant to seek capacity with the other relevant infrastructure managers administrating other railway networks..

(6) In infrastructure managers, administrating joining railway netvorks, established association having a legal personality, the infrastructure manager shallbe obliged to publish that the applicant may submit an application directly to such assiciation.

(7) An application relating to the train parts timetable shall be submitted within the time periods pursuant to schedule of infrastructure capacity allocation.

(8) The applicant, who is a party of the framework agreement pursuant to Article 43, shall submit an application within the time peeriods agreed in the framework agreement.

(9) The infrastructure manager shall be obliged to observe a commercial confidentiality with regard to information provided by the applicants.

Article 43

Framework agreements

(1) For the purpose of this Act a framework agreement shall means an agreement between an infrastructure manager and an applicant out the rights and obligations concerning the infrastructurer capacity alocation and the charges and prices to be levied over a period longer than one working timetable period. Such framework agreement specifies the characteristics of the infrastructure capacity required by and offered to the applicant including the frequency, volume and quality of train paths; it may include contractual penalties for non fulfilling or unilateral modification of a framework agreement or its aborting through withdrawal from or denuciation thereof.

(2) The framework agreement should be such as to seek to meet the legitimate commercial needs of the applicant within the railway network limits in particular in case of a railway undertaking operating a railway transport under a public transport service contract or


of an international railway transport; in the same time it should allow to make interim amendments or limitations of contractual terms on the ground of a better use of an infrastructure capacity. The framework agreement shall not be such as to preclude the use of the railway infrastructure by other applicants.

(3) The framework agreement shall in principle cover a period of five years, renewable for periods equal to their original duration. Upon the applicat request the infrastructure manager may conclude an agreement for longer or shorter period. The framework agreement conclusion for a period longer than five years shall be justified by the existence of commercial contracts, incurred investments or expected risks. Condi

(4) The framework agreement for transport services using specialised infrastructure may be concluded for a maximum period of 15 years. Necessary conditions for the conclusion of such framework agreement: the specialised infrastructure requires substantial and long-term investment and such investment is covered by contracts including a multi-annual amortisation plans.

(5) In case of the framework agreement pursuant to paragraph 4, the applicant may require detailed definition of the characteristics of specialised infrastructure capacity (Article 47), including the frequency, volume and quality of train paths, which are to be provided to the applicant for the duration of the framework agreement. The infrastructure manager may reduce reserved capacity which, over a period of at least one month, has been used less than the limit provided for in tne railway network statement pursuant to Article 37.

(6) While respecting commercial confidentiality, the general nature of each framework agreement shall be made available to any applicants.

Article 44

Timetable

(1) Prior to negotiations on a new timetable the infrastructure manager shall agree with infrastructure managers administrating joining railway netvorks, what international train paths will be included by them into timetables of joining railway netvorks. Changes such agreed international train paths shall be possible only excemtionally for necessary operational reasons and after agreement of all participated infrastructure managers.

(2) When the agreements pursuant to paragraph 1 have been established, the infrastructure manager shall complete the timetable pursuant to the schedule of infrastructure capacity allocation within following time periods.

a) the timetable shall be established once per calendar year,

b) the final date for receipt of requests for capacity shall be no more than 12 months in advance of the entry into force of the timetable;

c) no later than 11 months before the timetable comes into force, the infrastructure managers shall specify provisional international train paths agreed according to paragraph 1 and ensure that these parths are adhered to during the subsequent processes,

d) no later than four months after the deadline for submission of requestss, the infrastructure manager shall, on the basis of the railway undertakings and other applicants requirements, prepare a draft timetable for subsequent negotations pursuant ot paragraph 5 to of racionalize the use of railway network and to satisfy the inhabitants and goods consignors and consignees requirements for carriage.

(3) The infrastructure manager shall as far as is possible meet all requests for infrastructure capacity including requests for train paths crossing more than one railway


network, and shall as far as possible take account of all constraints on applicants, including the economic effect on their business.

(4) The infrastructure manager may give priority to requirements fo specific transport services within the scheduling and coordination process but only when the railway infrastructure is congested or considered as specialised.

(5) The infrastructure manager shall consult interested parties about the draft timetable and allow them at least one month to present their views and proposals. Interested parties shall include all those who have requested infrastructure capacity as well as other persons who wish to have the opportunity to comment on how the timetable may affect their ability to provide transport services during the timetable period.

(6) The infrastructure manager shall take appropriate measures to deal with any concerns that are expressed. When a spare infrastructure capacity arises after the timetable has entered into force, the infrastructure manager shall immediatelly publish its parameters to allow its additional use on the basis of new requests.

(7) Unless it shall be agreed otherwise by infrastructure managers, the change of timetable shall take place yearly at midnight on the second Saturday in December. Where a changes or adjustments are carried out after the winter months, in particular to take account, where appropriate, of changes in regional timetables to coordinate the traffic with other transport modes, in particular in view of the parallel transport services of public bus transport or of additional spare infrastructure capacity allocation, the change shall take place generally at midnight on the second Saturday in June. When necessary for any other important reason, in particular for operational needs or planned repairs of railway lines, the change or any amendment of the timetable may be carried out also by other date.

(8) If the change or other amendmend of timetables affects the international transport, the agreement, concluded by infrastructure managers administrating joining railway netvorks, on the scope and time period of such a change shall be notify by the infrastructure manager to the European Commission.

(9) If during the timerable validity period ad hoc request for train path has been submitted, the infrastructure manager shall be obliged to deal with such requirement within five working days after the date of receipt of a such request. Information on available spare infrastructure capacity shall be made available to all applicants who may wish to use this capacity.

(10) Infrastructure managers shall undertake an evaluation of the need for reserve capacity to be kept available within the final scheduled timetable to enable them to respond rapidly to foreseeable ad hoc requests for allocation of the spare infrastructure capacity.

Article 45

Coordination

(1) During the timetable scheduling process, when the infrastructure manager encounters conflicts between different requests he shall attempt, through consultation with the applicants, to ensure the best possible matching of all requirements. When conflicts cannot be resolved through consultation with the applicants, the infrastructure manager shall accommodate all requests through coordination.

(2) Within coordination the infrastructure manager shall have the right to propose infrastructure capacity that differs, within reasonable limits, from that which was requested;


for example he may to shorten or prefere the train paths which are the priorities specified by the transport service contracting entities for particular railway lines.

(3) The rules of the coordination shall be defined in the network statement pursuant to Article 37. The rules of the coordination shall reflect in particular the difficulty of arranging international train paths and potential effect that modification may have on infrastructure managers administrating joining railway lines.

(4) A conflict resolution system shall be arranged in conditions of the usage of the railway infrastrucure so that such conflict would by resolved promptly and decision would be reached within a time limit of 10 working days from the start of conflict resolution.

Article 46

Congested infrastructure

(1) The congested infrastructure shall mean a section of the railway network for which demand or infrastructure capacity cannot be fully satisfied during certain periods, even after coordination pursuant to Article 45, of the different requests for infrastructure capacity. The same applies also to railway lines or their sections on which it can be foreseen will suffer from insufficient capacity in the near future.

(2) When a situation pursuant to paragrpaph 1 occured, the infrastructure manager shall declare a disputed railway network section to be congested infrastructure. At the same time he shall carry out a capacity analysis pursuant to Article 48; this shall not apply unless an infrastructure capacity enhancement plan pursuant to Article 49 is already being implemented.

(3) When charges for railway infrastructure usage, taking account of unsufficient capacity, have not yet been levied or have not achieved a satisfactory result through coordination and a railway infrastructure has been declared to be congested, the infrastructure manager may in addition employ priority criteria, referred to in the network statement, to allocate infrastructure capacity. Also the procedures which shall be followed in application of the priority criteria shall be set out in the network statement pursuant to Article 37.

(4) The priority criteria shall take account of the importance of a transport service to society, relative to any other transport service which will consequently be excluded or limited. In selecting priority criteria the importance of an international freight transport and requirements for transport service in public interest shall be given adequate consideration. The agreed international train paths in Trans-European Rail Network shall have priority for main railway lines.

(5) When application of the priority criterion led to an exclusion of some transport services and conseqeuntly any loss of infrastructure manager revenue occured, such loss may be subsidized from a public budget.

(6) The infrastructure manager may require the railway network user to surrender the train path which, over a period of at least one month, has been used less than the limit set out in the railway network statement; this shall not apply unless this was due to non-economic reasons beyond the user's control, in particular through limitation of the operation by infrastructure manager.

(7) The infrastructure manager may specify in the network statement conditions whereby it will take account of previous level of utilisation of train paths in determining priorities for the allocation process.


Article 47

Specialised infrastructure

(1) The infrastructure capacity shall be generally considered to be available for the use of all types of transport service which conform to the characteristics necessary for operation of the train path.

(2) Where there are suitable alternative routes, the infrastructure manager may, after consultation with interested persons, designate particular railway infrastructure for use by specified types of traffic. In this case the infrastructure manager may give priority to this type of traffic when allocating infrastructure capacity. Other types of traffic may use of such railway infrastructure within the scope of residual spare capacity only.

(3) A specialised infrastructure designation shall be set out in the railway network statement pursuant to Article 37.

Article 48

Capacity analysis

(1) The purpose of capacity analysis is to determine the restrictions on infrastructure capacity which prevent requests for capacity from being adequately met, and to propose method of enabling it. The capacity analysis result shall by the identification of the reasons for the railway infrastructure congestion and what measures might be taken in the short and medium term to ease the congestion.

(2) The analysis shall consider the railway infrastructure, the operating procedures, the nature of the different transport services operating and the effects of all these factors on infrastructure capacity.

(3) A capacity analysis shall be completed within six months after declaring the railway infrastructure as congested.

Article 49

Capacity enhancement plan

(1) Within six months of the completion of a capacity analysis, the infrastructure manager shall be obliged, in cooperation with the congested infrastructure users, to produce a capacity enhancement plan.

(2) The plan pursuant to paragraph 1 shall include:

a) the determined reasons for the congestion,

b) the likely future development of traffic on congested infrastructure,

c) existing constraints of infrastructure development,

d) the options for infrastructure capacity enhancement and likely costs for a such enhancement including likely changes to charges for usage of railway infrastructure.

(3) In plan pursuant to paragraph 1 it shall also, on the basis of a cost benefit analysis of the possible measures identified, determine what particular measures shall be taken to enhance infrastructure capacity, including a calendar for implementation of the measures. Proposed measures shall deal with the options for re-routing transport services to other railway lines, re-timing transport services resulting from the train commercial speed alterations and for equipment improvement and railway infrastructure upgrading.


(4) The infrastructure manager shall cease to levy any fees for usage of the railway infrastructure where insufficent line section capacity is taken into account during the congestion period if he did not produce an infrastructure capacity enhancement plan, or he did not make progress with the measures identified in the infrastructure capacity enhancement plan. However, the infrastructure manager may, subject to the approval of the regulatory body, continue to levy those fees if the infrastructure capacity enhancement plan cannot be realised for reasons beyond his control or the options available are not economically or financially viable.

Article 50

Infrastructure capacity for scheduled maintenance

(1) Requests for infrastructure capacity to enable maintenance to be performed shall be submitted in the same time and by the same way as requests for its use to provide the transport services.

(2) Adequate account shall be taken by the infrastructure manager of the effect of infrastructure capacity reserved for scheduled maintenance on applicants.

(3) The infrastructure manager shall be obliged, for the appropriate period of time, to restrict or stop the operation for the reason of acute railway line reconstruction, renewal or maintenance.

Article 51

Solution of emergency situations

(1) To solve the emergency situations, the infrastructure manager and railway undertakings shall draw up an emergency plan listing the all bodies and other persons to be informed in the event of an serious accident or extraordinary event with serious accident consequences and serious disturbance to train movements.

(2) In the event of disturbance to train movements caused by accident, extraordinary event or technical failure the infrastructure manager and railway undertakings must immediatelly take all necessary steps in accordance with an emergency plan and the measures necessary to restore the normal situation as soon as possible.

(3) In an emergency situations and where necessary on account of a breakdown making the part of railway infrastructure temporarily unusable, the infrastructure manager may withdraw allocated train paths without warning for as long as is necessary to restore the normal situation.

(4) The infrastructure manager may, if he deems it necessary to restore the normal as soon as possible, require railway undertakings to make available to him the resources which he feels are the most appropriate to restore the normal situation as soon as possible. Railway undertakings shall be obliged to comply with a such requirement.

(5) The regulatory body may require railway undertakings to be involved in assuring the enforcement and monitoring of their own compliance of the safety standards and defined rules. Railway undertakings shall be obliged, within their options, comply with a such requirement.


R e g u l a t o r y b o d y

Article 52

(1) The regulatory body shall monitor the transparency and non-discriminatory terms of the access to railway infrastructure for applicants and the infrastructure capacity allocation.

(2) The regulatory body shall monitor the competition on railway markets and survey the access to the railway infrastructure and such access restrictions anf for this purpose it may apply for information and data from the infrastructure manager and railway underatakings.

(3) The regulatory body shall be obliged to deal with appeals and complaints at unfair and discriminatory decision-making and infrastructure manager activity relating to:

a) the railway network statement and criteria criteria contained within it,

b) the allocation process in provision o the railway infrastructure,

c) the access to the railway infrastructure and to railway services associated with it,

d) the apply of the charging scheme for use of the railway infrastructure.

(4) Appeals and complaints pursuant to paragraph 3 may be submitted by any applicant for an access to railway infrastructure or by other person if it believes that it has been unfairly treated, discriminated or is in any other way aggrieved. The regulatory body itself shall be obliged to iniciate proceeding in the matters referred to in paragraph 3.

(5) For the purpose of proceedings pursuant to paragraphs 3 and 4 the regulatory body itself shall be obliged to request from the infrastructure manager, railway undertakings, services providers and any persons involved, relevant information and data necessary to verify submitted complaints and appeals and to iniciate a proceeding; concerned persons shall be obliged to supply required information and data without undue delay. The regulatory body may impose a fine up to 3 000 EUR when the provision of information and data has been unjustifiedly denied.

(6) The regulatory body must decide on any complaints and take action to remedy the situation within a maximum period of two months from the day of iniciation of proceeding. If additional documents have been required in proceeding, the deadline shall lapse from the day of additional documents delivery. The remedy shall mean an imposition of obligation to refrain from unfair nad discriminatory behaviour and to remove an illegal status.

(7) In the event of appeals against a refusal to allocate infrastructure capacity, or against the terms of an offer of infrastructure manager capacity, the regulatory body shall either confirm that no modification of the infrastructure manager's decision is required, or it shall require modification of that decision in accordance with an instruction specified by the regulatory body allong with it.

(8) The regulatory body shall be in its decision-making organisationally, financially and legally independent from any infrastructure manager and railway undertakings and transport services contracting entity.

Article 53

(1) In addition to the tasks pursuant to Article 52 the regulatory body shall:

a) set, by a generally binding regulation, charges for the minimum railway infrastructure access package and track access to service facilities pursuant to Annex No 13, Part B,


b) established, by a generally binding regulation, the regulatory framework in which it defines the regulation method, details of procedure in determining the charges pursuan to letter a), the scope and details of application principles of the railway infrastructure charging, the scope and details of determining a reasonable profit and economically substantiated costs incurred on the train operation,

c) perform the check of the regulatory framework observance and the levy of imposed charges pursuant to letter a),

d) approve framework agreement pursuan to Article 43,

e) impose fines for the infringement of regulatory framework and the levy of imposed charges.

(2) The regulatory body shall be obliged to prevent railway undertaking discrimination and ensure that charges for equivalent use of railway network shall be comparable and that comparable services on the same railwy transport market segment are subject to the same charges. The regulatory body shall be obliged to respect the commercial confidentiality relating to the information provided by the applicants.

(3) The infrastructure manager shall be obliged to respect the commercial confidentiality relating to the information provided by the applicants. The infrastructure manager shall be obliged to demonstrate to the regulatory body, that the charging system set out in the railway network statement pursuant to Article 37 meet requirements of the regulatory framework pursuant to paragraph 1 letter. b), and to provide to him with necessary data and supporting documents.

(4) Negotiations between infrastructure manager and applicant concerning the level of infrastructure charges shall only be permitted if these are carried out under the supervision of the regulatory body. The regulatory body shall be obliged to intervene if negotiations are likely to contravene the requirements of the regulatory framework pursuant to paragraph 1 letter. b) or the rules of transparency and non-discrimination.

(5) The regulatory body shall be obliged to keep in its register the information and data necessary to ascertain the resource of payments and their utilisation; such information and data shall subject to notification to the European Commisssion.

(6) The regulatory body may define the level of charges pursuant to paragraph 1 letter. a) through:

a) determining the maximum charge or comparable charge,

b) determining the method of calculation of the maximum charge for access to the railway infrastructure on the basis of economically substantiated variable costs,

c) determining the range of economically substantiated variable costs and reasonable profit which may be included into the charges for the access to the railway infrastructure,

d) merging or combination of the method set out in letters a) to c).

(7) A comparable charge pursuant to paragraph 6 letter a) shall mean the charge defined by comparision of:

a) economically substantiated variable costs or cost items of services and activities vs. economically substantiated variable costs or cost items of other equal or comparable service and activity in the Slovak Rebpublic

b) the charge pursuant to paragraph 1 letter a) vs. charges of equal or comparable service and activity in the Member States.


(8) General prices regulations shall not apply to the determining the charges pursuant to paragraph 1 letter a). The rules of prices arrangement15) shall apply to the prices for other railway services including the prices for provision of additional and ancillary services pursuant to Annex No 13, Part B.

Article 54

Services

(1) Railway undertakings shall be entitled to the minimum access package and track access to service facilities and services are described in Annex No 13, Part B, points 1 and 2. The supply of such railwy services shall be provided by the infrastructure manager to all railway infrastructure users in a non-discriminatory manner.

(2) Where the infrastructure manager offers any of the range of services described in Annex No 13, Part B, as additional services he shall supply them upon request to any railway undertaking. The requirements of railway undertakings may only be rejected if viable alternatives under market conditions exist in particular if are provided by other person. If the services are not offered by one infrastructure manager, the provider shall use all reasonable endeavours to facilitate the provision of these services by other person.

(3) Railway undertakings may request from the infrastructure manager or from other persons a provision of ancillary services described in Annex No 13, Part B. The infrastructure manager is not obliged to supply these services but he is obliged to enable their provision by other person.

Article 55

Charges determining

(1) The infrastructure manager shall propose the charges for railway infrastructure use in accordance with regulatory framework defined by the regulatory body.

(2) The purpose of charges for the access to the railway infrastructure shall be to contribute to the infrastructure manager to cover the part of costs of the railway infrastructure operation. The infrastructure manager revenues from charges for minimum access package and track access to service facilities and services and prices for additional and ancillary services described in Annex No 13, Part B, together with earnings from other business activities relating to the use of railway infrastructure and the compensation from public budget pursuant to the contract concluded between the infrastructure manager and railway infrastructure owner up to fixed part of economically substantiated variable costs and reasonable profit, shall be during the year at least in the balabce with expenses for the railway infrastructure operation.

(3) In proposing the charges the infrastructure manager shall be obliged to cooperate with infrastructure managers administrating joining railway networks with the aim to achieve the provision of rtransport services on more than one railway network and ensure thereby an efficient utilisation of the Trans-European Rail Network. For such purpose the infrastructure manager may enter with them into joint undertakings.

(4) The infrastructure manager shall be obliged to ensure, that the charging and prices system has been based on the same principles over the whole railway network administered by him, that the application of the and prices system results in equivalent and non-discriminatory charges and prices for all railway undertakings that perform services of

15) Article 3 of the Act of the Nationakl Council of the Slovak Republic No 18/1996 Coll. on prices as amended

by later regulations.


equivalent nature in a similar part of the railway transport market and that the charges actually applied comply with the rules laid down in the network statement pursuant to Article 37.

(5) Railway undretakings shall pay the charges for the access to the railway infrastructure to the infrastructure manager in accordance with deadlines and in a manner agreed in the contract for access to the railway infrastructure.

Article 56

Railway infrastructure costs

(1) Costs for the railway infrastructure operation consist of infrastructure manager costs for conducting activities relating to the services described in Annex No 13, Part B and the fulfilment of infrastructure manager obligations pursuant to this Act. The infrastructure manager shall be obliged to monitor and register the costs for services described in Annex No 13, Part B and for activities relating to fulfilment of obligations pursuant to this Act.

(2) The infrastructure manager shall, with due regard to requirements for railway infrastructure safety and and maintenance and improving the quality of offered services, be provided with incentives to reduce the costs of provision of infrastructure capacity and the level of charges for access to railway infrastructure. For such a purpose and on the basis of the contract with railway infrastructure owner, the infrastructure manager may receive subsidies from the state budget for a period of 3 years as a minimum and 15 years as a maximum, or the regulatory body shall implement appropriate regulatory measures containing the definition of adequate infrastructure manager powers.

(3) The terms of the contract and the structure of subsidies s from the state budget pursuant to paragraph 2 shall be agreed for whole contractual period.

(4) A fixed part of economically substantiated costs relating to the provision of railway infrastructure services, to which the definition of charges for the use of railway infrastructure spescfied by the regulatoray body relates, shall be paid by the railway infrastructure owner.

P r i n c i p l e s o f r a i l wa y i n f r a s t r u c t u re ch a r g i n g

Article 57

(1) The infrastructure manager shall be able to substantiate the proposal of the charging system and he shall produce it in accordace with the regulatory framework pursuant to Article 53 paragraph 1 letter b), along with the railway network statement pursuant to Article 37 and the scale of offered services described in Annex No 13, Part B. The infrastructure manager shall be obliged to provide to railway undertakings with all necessary information on particular charges and prices for the services provided pursuant to Annex No 13.

(2) The charges for the minimum access package and track access to service facilities pursuant to Annex No 13 shall be proposed the infrastructure manager on the basis of variable costs that is directly incurred as a result of operating the train service on the railway infrastructure. Where services listed in Annex No 13 as additional and ancillary services are offered only by one supplier the price imposed for such services shall not exceed the costs necessary for providing it including the profit, and they shall be calculated on the basis of the actual level of use.

(3) The charge for the access to railway infrastructure may include a charge which reflects the scarcity of capacity of the identifiable segment of the infrastructure during periods of infrastructure congestion (Article 46).

(4) The charge for the use of railway infrastructure may take account of the environmental costs which shall be differentiated according to the magnitude of the damages


caused bay the train operation and the costs incurred to the infrastructure manager to cover their remedy. An inclusion of environmental costs into the charges shall however be allowed only if such charging is applied at a comparable level to competing modes of transport. In the absence of any comparable level of charging of environmental costs in the other competing modes of transport, such environmental costs may not be included into the charges for the use of railwy infrastructure.

(5) If a comparable level of charging of environmental costs has been introduced for railway and competing modes of transport and environmental costs have been included into the charges, also the revenue from such part of charges shall contribute to the infrastructure manager revenues.

(6) To avoid undesirable disproportionate fluctuations in particular charged periods, the regulatory body may, on the motion of the infrastructure manager, average the charges referred to in paragraphs 3 tod 5 over a lonfer period. Nevertheless, the averaged charges for the access to railway infrastructure shall be related mostly to the costs included into the charging.

(7) Charges may be levied for capacity used for the purpose of railway infrastructure maintenance. Such charges shall not exceed the net revenue loss to the infrastructure manager caused by the railway infrastructure maintenance .

Article 58

(1) In order to obtain full recovery of the costs incurred by the infrastructure manager to the railway infrastructure operation a regulatory body may permit - taking account of efficient, transparent and non-discriminatory principles and if the railway market can bear this - to increase the charges above the level of calculated under the principles pursuant to Article 57, while guaranteeing optimum competitiveness in particular of international railway transport. The charging system shall respect the productivity increases achieved by railway undertakings as a result of costs incurred by the infrastructure manager.

(2) The level of charges pursuant to paragraph 1 must not, however, exclude from the use of railway infrastructure neither railway udertakings nor other users which can pay at least the cost that is directly incurred as a result of operating the railway service, plus a rate of return which the railway market can bear.

(3) For specific future investment projects relating to the railway infrastructure and investment projects that have been completed after 26 February 1986, the regulatory body may, on the motion of the infrastructure manager, permit higher charges if they increase efficiency of the raliway network or some railway lines or the cost-effectiveness of operation which could not be obtained otherwise. Such a charging system may also incorporate agreements on the sharing of the risk associated with new investments.

(4) The charges of infrastructure manager for the equivalent uses of the railway network shall be comparable and the comparable services in the same market segment must subject to the same charges. The infrastructure manager shall show in the network statement pursuant to Article 37 that the charging system meets these requirements in so far as this can be done without disclosing confidential business information.

(5) If the infrastructure manager intends to modify the essential elements of the charging system referred to in paragraph 1, it shall submit them to the regulatory body at least three months in advance.


Article 59

(1) The access to railway infrastructute may be charged also through the railway undetaking performance scheme. The charging system through performance scheme shall be aimed at encouragement of railway undertakings and the infrastructure manager to minimise operation disruptions and improve the performance of the railway network. Such system may include:

a) penalties for actions which disrupt the operation of the railway network or the fluency on it.

b) compensation for railway undertakings which suffer from railway network operational disruptions, and

c) bonuses that reward better than planned performance.

(2) When the charging through performance scheme has been chosen, the basic principles of such system shall apply throughout the railway network.

(3) The charging system may include also the reservation chrages. Reservation chrages shall mean payments for railway infrastructure capacity that is allocated but not used by the railway undertaking. Reservation chrages shall provide incentives for efficient use of allocated infrastructure capacity by the railway undertakings.

(4) The infrastructure manager shall always be able to inform any railway undertaking and other railway infrastructure user of the infrastructure capacity which has been allocated to railway undertakings.

Article 60

Discounts

(1) The infrastructure manager may provide to railway undertakings and other railway infrastructure users with discounts on the approved charges. Unless otherwise provided in this Act, discounts shall be limited to the actual saving of the administrative costs of the infrastructure manager. In determining the level of discount, no account may be taken of cost savings already internalised in the approved charge levied.

(2) The infrastructure manager may introduce special charging schemes for specified railway network sections; within them he shall grant time limited discounts to encourage the development of new transport services, or discounts encouraging the use of considerably underutilised railway lines. Such schemes shall be available to all users of such railway infrastructure sections and provided discounts may be related only to charges and prices levied for such sections.

(3) Similar discount schemes as referred to it in paragraph 2, shall apply for similar transport services.

Article 61

Subsidies

(1) The infrastructure manager may be provided with the subsidy from the state budget for compensation:

a) of the environmental costs demonstrably incurred by him on the railway infrastructure operation, which have not been included into the charges paid by railway undertakings,

b) of the costs resulting from accidents and extraordinary events,


c) in accordance with special regulation.

(2) The subsidy pursuant to paragraph 1 letters a) and b) may be provided for a maximum period of five budget years following after submission of the first request. In providing the subsidy pursuant to paragraph 1, the methodology used and calculations performed must be publicly available. It shall in particular be possible to demonstrate the specific uncharged costs that the competing transport infrastructure does not bear and that are avoided thanks to the use of railway transport and to ensure that, in application of the rules of cost comparison, the undertakings of competing transport modes will be treated on a non-discriminatory basis.

(3) The subsidy may be provided on the basis of the infrastructure manager application. The application shall be in written and signed by the statutory body. The application shall include the applicant´s identification data, the reason for subsidy applying, the required amount of the subsidy and the period covered by it. The application shall be accompanied by documents demonstrating the reason for the provision of subsidy pursuant to paragraph 1.

(4) The subsidy may be used only to compensate the costs pursuant to paragraph 1 within the scope and in a way referred to in the contract concluded between the infrastructure manager and the railway infrastructure owner.

PART F O UR

INTEROPERABILITY OF THE RAILWAY SYSTEM

Article 62

Railway system

(1) The railway system shall mean a complex of structural and funcional subsystems referred to in Annex No 1.

(2) Trans-European rail system consists of the trans-European conventional and high-speed rail systems as set out in Annex No 2 and in special reghulation.16)

(3) Trans-European network of the rail freight transport consists of designated railway lines and alternate lines with the access to the terminals including feeding and trap lines of the length not exceeding 50 km long or not more than 20 % of the railway line length, to and from the ports including feeding and trap lines in case of ports and terminals serving for more than one final consumer.

Article 63

Existing railway system

(1) Existing railway system consists of existing railpaths in the territory of the Slovak Republic and their parts and registered railway vehicles of all families and types travelling on the them.

(2) Designated17) railway lines of existing railway system shall be a part of the Trans-European conventional rail system.

(3) Existing railway system shall not include the following:

16) Decision No 1692/96/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 23 July 1996 on Community

guidelines for the development of the trans-European transport network (OJ EU L 228, 9. 9. 1996). 17) Treaty of Accession of the Slovak republic to the European Union (OJ EU L 236, 23. 9. 2003).


a) tram way networks18) and trams used on such networks,

b) special way networks separated functionally from railway lines and rail vehicles used on such networks,

c) railway infrastructures in private ownership and railway vehicles used only on such infrastructures and serving for their owners for the fraight trasport operation,

d) railway infrastructures and railway vehicles for the local historical or tourist purposes.

(4) The part one shall apply to the railroad networks, railway infrastructures and rail vehicles referred to in paragraph 3.

Article 64

Interoperability

(1) For the purpose of this Act, the interoperablity shall mean the ability of existing railway system to allow the safe and uninterrupted movement of trains which accomplish the required levels of performance for railway system.

(2) Basic parameters which shall be satisfied in order to existing railway system met requirements for interoparability shall mean the regulatory, technical and operational conditions crucial with regard to interoperability and specified in technical specifications for interoperability.

(3) Essential requirements shall all the conditions set out in Annex No 3 which must be met by the railway system, the subsystems, and the interoperability components (hereinafter referred to as the "component"), including interfaces; they shall apply to their design, construction, placing in service, upgrading, renewal, operation and maintenance.

(4) Component shall mean any elementary component, group of components, subassembly or complete assembly incorporated or intended to be incorporated into a subsystem, upon which the interoperability of the whole railway system depends directly or indirectly. The concept of a "component" covers both tangible objects and intangible objects such as software;

Article 65

Technical specifications for interoperability

(1) Technical specification for interoperability shall mean a specification developed by the European railway agency19) and issued by the European Commission and published in Official Journal of the Euroepan Union. Technical specification for interoperability shall apply to the particular subsystem20) or the partial subsystem in order to meet the essential requirements and ensure the interoperability of the railway system.

(2) The European specifications shall be used in case that some subsystem or its part is not covered by the technical specification for interoperability. 18) Article 3 pargraph 1 point 9 of the Regulation (EC) No 91/2003 of the European Parliament and of the

Council of 16 December 2002 on rail transport statistics (Special edition OJ ES L 14, 21. 1. 2003) in a valid wording.

19) Article 12 of the Regulation (EC) No 881/2004 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 29 April 2004 establishing a European Railway Agency (Agency Regulation) (OJ EU L 220, 21. 6. 2004) as amended by the Regulation (EC) No 1335/2008 of 16 December 2008 (OJ EU L 354, 31. 12. 2008).

20) For example Commission Decision 2006/920/EC of 11 August 2006 concerning the technical specification of interoperability relating to the subsystem Traffic Operation and Management of the trans-European conventional rail system (OJ EÚ L 359,18. 12. 2006) as amended by the Commission Decision 2009/107/EC (OJ EU L 45, 14. 2. 2009).


(3) European specification shall mean a common technical specification, a European technical approval or a Slovak technical standard transposing an international or European standard.21)

C o m p o n e n t s

Article 66

Placing on the market of components

(1) For the purpose of the use in an existing railway system, only such components may be placed on the market which enable interoperability to be achieved within the whole railway system and meet the essential requirements.

(2) The components may be used in an existing railway system only in their intended area of use while their intended installation and maintenance are ensured. This provision shall not obstruct the placing on the market of these components for other applications.

(3) Unles otherwise provided below, the component equipped with EC declaration of conformity or suitability for use may be placed in service in railway system (hereinafter referred to as the "EC declaration of conformity"). The component equipped with the EC declaration of conformity shall consider as component complying with the essential requirements (Article 64 paragraph 3).

(4) EC declaration of conformity shall state that a component either totally comply with technical sopecifications or its suitability for use in the railway system has been assessed for the funcion point of view. Details of the EC declaration of conformity are set out in Annex No 6.

(5) When a component intended to use in an existing railway system meets requirements referred to in paragraphs 1 to 4, its usage in an existing railway system shall not be neither prohibited nor restricted and its placing on the marked shall not be hindered in particular through asking for the tests that have already been performed within the framework of the procedure resulting in the issue of the EC declaration of conformity.

Article 67

Procedure for EC declaration of conformity

(1) Components compulsory subjected to procedures of the assessment of conformity and suitability for use pursuant to technical specifications for interoperability shall bear the EC declaration of conformity. When the technical specification for interoperability does not result in the obligation to apply the conformity assessment procedure, the conformity assessment procedure pursuant to special regulation shall be used.22)

(2) The component meet the essential requirements (Article 64 paragraph 3) if it complies with parameters laid down in the technical specification for interoperability or European specifications developed to comply with these parameters.

(3) Components representing the spare parts may be installed in the subsystems, whixh have already been put in operation in time when the technical specification for interoperability has entered into force, without being subject to procedures of the assessment of conformity and suitability for use.

21) Article 5 paragraph 4 of the Act No 264/1999 Coll. 22) Articles 12 and 13 of the Act No 264/1999 Coll. as amended by later regulations.


Article 68

Procedure for establishment of the EC declaration of conformity

(1) In order to establish the EC declaration of conformity, the manufacturer or his authorised representative established in the European Community shall apply the procedure laid down in the relevant technicval specifications for interoperability. The EC declaration of conformity or suitability for use of the component shall be be carried out by the notified body with which the manufacturer or his authorised representative established in the Community has lodged the application.

(2) Where the components are the subject of other regulations covering other aspects, the EC declaration of conformity shall, in such cases, state that the components also meet the requirements of those other regulations.

(3) Where the neither manufacturer nor his authorised representative established in the European Community has met the obligations of paragraphs 1 and 2, those obligations shall be incumbent on any person who places component on the market regardles whether such person oneself assembles a component or parts of constituents having diverse origins or manufactures component for his own use.

(4) Where the safety authority finds that the EC declaration of conformity has been drawn up improperly, the manufacturer or his authorised representative established in the European Community or the person placing the component on the marked shall be required, to eliminate non-conformity in accordance with the terms laid down by the notified person. Where non-conformity persists the safety authority shall be obliged to restrict or prohibit the placing on the market of the component in question and to ensure that it is withdrawn from the market.

Article 69

Non-compliance of components with essential requirements

(1) Where a suspicion arises that a component covered by the EC declaration of conformity and placed on the market is unlikely, when used as intended, to meet the essential requirements, the safety authority shall be obliged to restrict or prohibit the placing a component on the marked and to prohibit its further application or to ensure that it is withdrawn from the market-

(2) The safety authority shall be obliged to inform forthwith the European Commission of the measures taken and give the reasons for such measures, stating in particular whether non-conformity is due to:

a) failure to meet the essential requirements,

b) incorrect application of European specifications to which the EC declaration of conformity refers, or

c) deficiences in European specifications.

(3) Where it is found that the component pursuant to paragraph 1 fails to comply with the EC declaration of conformity the safety authority shall be obliged, in addition to the measures taken to protect the market pursuant to paragraph 1, to take also the measures against to any person who drawn the EC declaration of conformity, in partitcular to require the changes in the component manufacturing or conducting a test of the component including


the optioin to impose a penalty.23) It shall forthwith inform the European Commission and other Member Stateas of the measures taken.

S u b s y s t e m s

Article 70

Placing in service of subsystems

(1) Unless otherwise provided below, only the subsystem, the conformity thereof with technical specifications has been assessed by a notified person through the verification procedure pursuant to Annex No 4 and for which the EC declaration of verification has been issued, may be placed in service in an existing railway system constituting a part of the Trans-European Rail System (Article 63 paragraph 2).

(2) The subsystem pursuant to paragraph 1 shall be in conformity with the technical specification for interoperability not only in the time of placing in service or after upgrading or renewal but also permanently durig operation in an existing railway system.

(3) The verification procedure pursuant to Annex 4 need not be used for placing the subsystem in service in an existing railway system; the procedure in accordance with Part One shall be sufficient in case of:

a) railway vehicles and their onboard control-command and signalling subsystems intended to use only on a part of the railway network to which the technical specification for interoperability shall not yet apply;

b) the railway infrastructure, energy a and track control-command and signalling subsystems on a part of the railway network to which the technical specifications for interoperability shall not yet apply;

c) the specific case, or

d) subsystems whic are not the specific cases but to which an exemption from application of the technical specifications for interoperability shall apply.

(4) The specific case shall means any part of existing railway system which needs special temporary or definitive provisions in the technical specification for interoperability because of geographical, topographical or urban environment constraints or those affecting compatibility with the Trans-European Rail System. Specific cases may include in particular:

a) the railway lines from existing railway system,

b) the railway lines with different loading gauges, track gauges or distances between track centres,

c) the railway vehicles strictly intended for operation on the railway lines pursuant to letters a) and b) or for local use, and

d) the rail vehicles originating from or destined for the third State.

(5) In the absence of relevant specific cases pursuant to paragraph 4 and after professional assessment, an exemption may by applied to the subsystem in the following cases:

a) for a proposed new subsystem, for the renewal or upgrading of an existing subsystem, for design, construction, placing in service, upgrading, renewal, operation or maintenance of a part of existing railway system being at an advanced stage of development or the subject of

23) Articles 31 and 32 of the Act No 264/1999 Coll. as amended by the Act No 254/2003 Coll.


a contract in the course of performance when the technical specification for interoperability is published;

b) for any project concerning the upgrading or renewal of an existing subsystem where the loading gauge, track gauge, distance between track centres or electrification voltage pursuant to the technical specification for interoperability is not compatible with the technical characteristics of the existing subsystem,

c) for a proposed new subsystem or for the proposed upgrading or renewal of an existing subsystem isolated from an existin railway system by the sea or separated as a result of special geographical conditions from the rail network of the rest of the European Community.

d) for any proposed upgrading, renewal or extension of an existing subsystem, when the application of the technical specification for interoperability would compromise the economic viability of the project or the compatibility with an existing railway system,

e) where, following an accident or a natural disaster, the conditions for the rapid restoration of the rail network do not economically or technically allow for partial or total application of the relevant technical specification for interoperability,

f) for railway vehicles coming from or going to the third State the track gauge of which is different from that of the main rail network within the European Community.

(6) The project at an advanced stage of development pursuant to paragraph 5 letter a) shall mean any project whose planning and construction stages has reached a point where a change in the technical specifications would be unacceptable for the legal, contractual, economic, financial, social or environmental reasons; the unacceptability of technical specifications must be duly substantiated.

(7) For the purpose of the exemption application, the subject of notification to the European Commission shall be a document file set out in Annex No 5 and in the case of exemption pursuant to paragraph 5 letter a), also the list of projects that are at an advanced stage of developmen, within one year after entry into force of each technical specification for interoperability from which an exemption is applied. The document file and the list of projects shall be drawn and provided by the applicant for the exemption.

(8) In case of application of the exemption pursuant to paragraph 5 letters a), c) and e), the alternative provisions referred to in Annex No 5 may be applied without delay. When the European Commission fails to decide within six months after submission of the reqeust for an exemption pursuant to paragraph 5 letters b), d) and f), supported by the file, the exemption shall be deemed to have been accepted and in the case of the request for an exemption pursuant to paragraph 5 letters f), the alternative provisions may be applied even before the European Commission shall take the decision.

(9) The upgrading shall mean any major modification work on a subsystem or part subsystem which improves the overall performance of the subsystem.

(10) The renewal shall mean any major substitution work on a subsystem or part subsystem which does not change the overall performance of the subsystem. The substitution in the framework of maintenance shall mean any replacement of subsystem constituents by constituents of identical function and performance in the framework of maintenance and repair works.


Article 71

Procedure for authorisation for placing in service of subsystems

(1) The procedure for authorisation to place the subsystem in service shall apply to the structural subsystems of an existing railway system. Placing in service shall mean the activities by which a structural subsystem is put into its design operating state in an existing railway system.

(2) The safety authority may authorise to place in service only the structural subsystems which are designed, constructed and installed in such a way as to meet the essential requirements concerning them when integrated into the existing railway system.

(3) Before the structural subsystem is placed in service the notified person shall check:

a) the technical compatibility of th subsystem with the existing railway system, and

b) the safety integration allowing the safety operation and reducing the risks related to it.

(4) Before the structural subsystem is placed in service the notified person shall check whether it meet provisions of the technical specification for interoperability on operation and maintenace.

(5) If relevant technical specifications for interoperability do not specify the procedure and the content of the check referred to in paragraphs 3 and 4, the check procedures concerning the conformity assessemnt and the test of designated product pursuant to Part One shall be used along with the procedures pursuant to special regulation.24)

(6) After the structural subsystem has been placed in service, the safety authority check shall carry out out the check within the framework of granting:

a) the safety authorisation pursuant to Article 87 for the infrastructure manager and the suvervision over it,

b) the safety certificates pursuant to Article 86 for railway undertakings and the suvervision over them.

(7) For the purpose of the check referred to in paragraph 6, the assessment and verification procedures laid down in the relevant structural and functional technical specifications for interoperability shall be used.

Article 72

Free movement of subsystems

(1) If the structural subsystem meets essential requirements the safety authority may not prohibit, restrict or hinder neither placing in service nor operation thereof in an existing railway system.

(2) For the structural subsystems referred to in paragraph 1 the safety authority may not require the checks which have already been carried out either as part of the procedure leading to the EC declaration of verification, the constituents of which are set out in Annex No 6 or in the other Member State with a view to verifying compliance with identical requirements under identical operational conditions. This shall not apply to the checks pursuant to Article 71 paragraph 3.

(3) Those structural subsystems which are covered by the EC declaration of verification shall be considered as being interoperable and meeting the essential requirements.

24) Articles 15 and 16 of the Act No 264/1999 Coll. as amended by the Act No 436/2001 Coll.


Verification of the structural subsystem interoperability, in accordance with the essential requirements, shall be carried out by reference to the relevant technical specification for interoperability.

(4) In case of structural subsystems referred to in Article 70 paragraph 3 and subsystems for which no relevent technical specification for interoperability exists, the Ministry in cooperatoipn with the safety authority shall draw out for each subsystem a list of European specifications in use for implementing the essential requirements and notify this list to the European Commission; the Ministry shall, at the request of the European Commission, make available the full text of the technical and safety regulations which apply to the existing railway system. The Ministry States may choose not to include into the list the technical regulations and restrictions of a strictly local nature. In such cases, Member States shall mention such rules and restrictions in the infrastructure registers referred to in Article 35. The safety authority shall amend such a list a the Ministry shall always notify it after:

a) a change of the previous list,

b) an application of the exemption from technical specification for interoperability, or

c) a publication of the technical specification for interoperability concerned.

(5) The Ministry and the safety authority shall publish and make available to the infrastructure manager, railway undertakings and all applicants for authorisations for placing in service the technical regulations and restrictions set out in the list pursuant to paragraph 4.

Article 73

Procedure for EC verification of subsystems

(1) The notified person25) shall, at the request of a procurement entity or by it authorised representative established in the European Community, assess the conformity of subsystems by the procedure for EC verification pursuant to Annex No 4 at the request of an applicant.

(2) The activity of the notified body responsible for the EC verification shall begin at the design stage of a subsystem and cover the entire manufacturing period through to the acceptance and final inspection stage before the subsystem is placed in service. It shall also cover verification of the interfaces of the subsystem with the existing railway system, based on the information available in the relevanttechnical specification for interoperability and in the national register of a railway infrastructure and the European register of vehicles of authorised types kept by the European Railway Agency.26)

(3) The notified person shall be obliged to compile the technical file that shall be attached to the the EC declaration of verification. This technical file must contain all the data relating to the utility and technical characteristics of the subsystem, the documents certifying conformity of the components, data relating to the conditions and limits of use of the subsystem and the instructions concerning the subsystem operation, constant or routine monitoring, adjustment and maintenance.

(4) The notified person may issue intermediate statement verifications to cover certain stages of the verification procedure or certain parts of the subsystem. In such a case, the notified person shall apply procedure set out in Annex No 4.

25) Article 2 paragraph 1 letter f) of the Acto No 264/1999 Coll. as amenden by later regulations. 26) Article 19 paragraph 1 letter d) of the Regulation (EC) No 881/2004 of the European Parliament and of the

Council.


(5) If the relevant technical specifications for interoperability allow, the notified pesron may issue certificates of conformity for a series of subsystems or certain parts of those subsystems

(6) The procurement entity pursuant to paragraph 1 shall mean a person awarding the contract having as its object the design, construction, upgrading or renewal of the subsystem. This may include the railway undertaking, the infrastructure manager, railway vehicle keeper or the licence holder which are responsible for the project implementation.

Article 74

Additional checks

(1) Where it is found through the use, that a structural subsystem covered by the EC declaration of verification accompanied by the technical file does not comply with this Act and in particular does not meet the essential requirements set out in Annex No 3, the safety authority may request the person, who has issued he EC declaration of verification, to carry out additional checks of the structural subsystem. The safety authority shall forthwith inform about it the European Commission and set out the range of requested additional checks and the reasons therefor.

(2) The safety authority making the request pursuant to paragraph 1 shall state whether the structural subsystem non-conformity results from non-compliance with the essential requirements, insuffiency of the technical specificationfor interoperability or incorrect application of it.

Article 75

Procedure for placing in service of subsystems after their upgrading or renewal

(1) The procurement entity or the manufacturer shall provide the safety authority with supporting documents describing the project of subsystem upgrading or renewal to examine and determine whether, taking account of the extend of envisaged works, a new authorisation for placing in service of subsystem is needed after its renewal or upgrading. The safety authority shall take account of the implementation strategy indicated in the applicable technical specification for interoperability relating to the subsystem.

(2) Such new authorisation for placing in service shall be required whenever the overall safety level of the subsystem may be adversely affected by the works envisaged. If the safety authority ascertains that a new authorisation for placing in service of subsystem is needed it shall decide to what extent the technical specifications for interoperability need to be applied to the upgrading or renewal project.

(3) The decision shall be taken not later than four months after submission of the supporting documents. If the supporting documents are not complete the deadline starts to lapse from the day of their completing.

(4) If the safety authotity decided that a new authorisation for placing in service of subsystem is needed and the applicable technical specifications for interoperability will not be fully applied to the project, it shall notify the following data to the European Commission:

a) the reason why it decided, that the technical specification for interoperability is not applied,

b) the technical characteristics applicable instead of the technical specification for interoperability, and


c) the identification data of persons responsible for the verification procedure pursuant to Annex No 4 in case of the application of technical characteristics referred to in letter b).


R a i l w a y v e h i c l e s

Article 76

Authorisation for placing in service of railway vehicles

(1) To place in service of railway vehicles in the existing railway system an authorisation of the safety authority is needed.

(2) The authorisation for placing in service of railway vehicles issued by the safety authority in the other Member State shall be valid also in the Slovak Republic; this shall not apply in case of an additional authorisation for placing in service pursuant to Article 77 paragraph 4 and Article 78 paragraph 3.

(3) The safety authority may, through one authorisation, authorise to place in service also the family of railway vehicles with the same technical parameters; it shall inform the applicant of the procedure to be followed necessary.

(4) The authorisation for placing in service of railway vehicle may stipulete conditions and restrictions of the use in service. Conditions imposed in the authorisation shall neither change nor limit:

a) conditions imposed to the infrastructure manager and railway undertakings with regard to the safety management system (Article 84),

b) conditions imposed to the railway undertaking in the safety certificate (Article 86), and

c) measures approved in the safety authorisation (Article 87) for the infrastructure manager.

(5) The person responsible for the railway vehicle maintenance may be referred to in the authorisation pursuant to paragraph 4; such a person shall be set out in the national register of railway vehicles. The railway undertaking, the infrastructure manager or the railway vehicle keeper may be defined in the authorisation as the person responsible for the railway vehicle maintenance. It is unnecessary to define the person responsible for the railway vehicle maintenance in case that the safety authority applies an exemption in registering or in the safety authorisation or certificate. Such exemption may be applied in case of:

a) the railway vehicle:

1. registered in the third State and maintenanced in accordance with the regulations of such a State,

2. used on rail networks the track gauge of which is different from that of the main rail network within the European Community if the maintenance shall be provided for under international agreements with the third States,

3. carrying the military material, or

b) the special carriage requiring the one-shot authorisation of the safety authority before the carriage performance; this exemption shall be valid for a maximum period of five years.

(6) The person responsible for the railway vehicle maintenance shall ensure that the railway vehicle maintenance would be carried ou in accordance with the file of the railway vehicle maintenance, the requirements of the maintenance regulations and the technical specifications for interoperability. Where the maintenance is not carried out only by the person responsible for maintenance, such a person shall use the contracting maintetance workshops. In case of railway freight wagon, the maintenance may be carried out by the railway underntaking, the infrastructure manager or the maintetance workshop holding the certificate issued by the legal person authorised in accordance with instructions issued by the


European Commission. The certificate issued by other Member State shall be accepted also in the Slovak Republic.

(7) The decision of the safety authority refusing the placing in service of a vehicle shall be duly substantiated. The applicant may within a period of one month after receipt of the negative written decision request that the safety authority reviewed the decision for duly justified reasons stated by the appliccant in the request. The safety authority shall then have two months starting from receipt of the appeal to review its decision with regard to stated reasons and it may confirm or reverse it.

(8) If the safety authority after reviewing its decision pursuant to paragraph 7 confirms an original decision, tha applicant may submit an appeal (Article 111 paragraph 3) within 15 days after the day of receipt of communication confirming the decision.

(9) If the safety authority fails to decide, within the time limits pursuant to Article 77 paragraph 11 and Article 78 paragraph 11, on the request for authorisation for vehicle operation in cases requiring an additional authorisation, the placing in service of the railway vehicle shall be deemed to have been authorised after prescribed period, but only in an existing railway system.

(10) Authorisations for placing in service of the railway vehicle granted in the other Member State before 19 July 2008 or granted in accordance with agreements of the International Union of Railways UIC on movements of carriages RIC and wagons RIV shall apply also to the existing railway system. For placing in service of such a railway vehicle in the existing railway system no another authorisation of the safety authority is needed.

Article 77

Authorisation of railway vehicles conformed with technical specifications for interoperability

(1) Where the railway vehicle is in conformity with all the relevant technical specifications for interoperability which are in force at the moment of placing in service, provided that a significant part of the essential requirements is laid down in these technical specifications for interoperability and that the relevant technical specifications for interoperability on rolling stock have entered into force and are applicable, the safety authority shall grant the first authorisation for placing in service as follows:

a) where autorisations have been granted for all structural subsystems of a railway vehicle, the safety authority shall grant the authorisation for placing in service of such a railway vehicle without further verification,

b) if a railway vehicle is equipped with the EC declarations of verification but autorisations have not been granted for all structural subsystems of a railway vehicle, the safety authority shall grant the authorisation for placing in service of such a railway vehicle only after verification of:

1. the technical compatibility between the railway vehicle's relevant subsystems and their safe integration in the existing railway system,

2. the technical compatibility between the railway vehicle and the rail network concerned,

3. the compliance of the railway vehicle with technical and safety regulations relating to the raiway vehicle operation in the existing ral system and to the open points and specific cases identified in the relevant specifications for interoperability.


(2) The technical compatibility pursuant to paragraph 1 letter b) point 2. shall be assessed by the infrastructure manager who shall issue an expertise including possible conditions of the railway vehicle operation in the rail network; such expertise shall represent the base for the safety authority decision-making.

(3) Railway vehicles in complete conformity with the relevant technical specifications for interoperability and cover all important sybsystem aspects withou specific cases and open points concerning only the compability of the railway vehicle and infrastructure shall not be subject to any authorisation of the safety authority for placing in service in the existing railway system as long as they:

a) run in the other Member States on network conformed with the technical specifications for interoperability, or

b) run under the conditions specified in the corresponding technical specifications for interoperability.

(4) In the case of railway vehicle to which the first authorisation for placing in service has been granted pursuant to paragraph 1 in the other Member State but which does not represent the railway vehicle pursuant to pasragraphm 3, the safety authority may subject its operation in the existing railway system to an additional authorisation. In such a case the safety authority shall invite the railwy vehicle keeper to submit the technical file concerning the capablity of the railway vehicle or the railway vehicle type and to state the intended use thereof in the existing railway system.

(5) The technical file pursuant to paragraph 4 shall contain the following:

a) the document that the placing in service of the railway vehicle has been for the first authorised in another Member State in accordance with paragrpah 1,

b) the copy of the technical file as referred to in Annex No 4,

c) the record showing the vehicle's maintenance history and, where applicable, technical modifications undertaken after the authorisation for placing in service,

d) technical and operational characteristics that show that the railway vehicle is, with regard to climate conditions, compatible with the rail infrastructures including its fixed installations, with the energy supply system, control-command and signalling system, track gauge and infrastructure gauges, maximum permitted axle load and other limiting technical parameters of the rail network.

(6) In the case of railway vehicle equipped with the data recorder, technical data purusant to paragraph 5 letter b) shall include also the information about data collection procedure, permitting read out from the device memory and data evaluation from the device as long as this information is not harmonised by the corresponding technical specification for interoperability.

(7) For the purpose of an additional authorisation pursuant to paragraph 4 the safety authority may check only the railway vehicle technical compability with the existing railway system and the railway vehicle compliance with technical and safety regulations relating to the specific cases set out in corresponding technical specifications for interoperability.

(8) For the purpose of an additional authorisation pursuant to paragraph 4 the safety authority may request the applicant:

a) for additional information and data to be supplied,


b) risk analyses to be carried in accordance with the common safety methods of the Europena Commission (hereinafter referred to as the "safety method"), or

c) the railway vehicle test operation to be conducted in the existing railway system in order to verify the conformity of the datat referred to paragraph 5 letters c) and d).

(9) The safety authority shall define, after consultation with the applicant, the scope and content of the additional information and data, the risk analyses and the test operation requested pursuant to paragraph 8 letter c).

(10) Where the rail network capacity allows it, the infrastructure manager, in consultation with the applicant, shall ensure through the train path allocation that any test operation of the railway vehicle takes place within three months of the applicant's request submission. The safety authority shall take the measures, when necessary, to conduct the railway vehicle test operation.

(11) The safety authority shall decide on request for authorisation for placing in service of the railway vehicle pursuant to this Article not later than:

a) two months after submission of the technical file referred to in paragraph 4,

b) one month after provision of any additional information and data referred to in paragraph 8 letter a),

c) one month after provision of the results of any test operation referred to in paragraph 8 letter c).

Article 78

Authorisation of railway vehicles non-conformed with technical specifications for interoperability

(1) Where the railway vehicle fails to be in complete conformity with all the relevant technical specifications for interoperability which are in force at the moment of placing in service, provided that an exemption pursuant to Article 70 paragraph 5 apply to the railway vehicle or where a significant part of the essential requirements relating to the railway vehicle is not laid in some technical specification for interoperability, the safety authority shall grant the first authorisation for placing in service of the railway vehicle as follows:

a) for the technical aspects covered by the technical specifications for interoperability the EC verification procedure pursuant to Annex 4 shall apply,

b) for the other technical aspects, the procedures pursuant to technical and safety regulations concerning the railway vehicle operation in the existing railway system and nodified to the European Commission shall apply.

(2) This first authorisation referred to in paragraph 1 hall be valid only in the existing railway system.

(3) In the case of railway vehicle equipped with authorisation pursuant to Article 76 paragraph 10 or with authorisation pursuant to paragraph 1 granted the in other Member State, the safety authority may subject its operation in the existing railway system to an additional authorisation. In such a case the safety authority shall invite the railwy vehicle keeper to submit the technical file concerning the railway vehicle or the railway vehicle type and to state the intended use thereof in the existing railway system. The technical file shall contain the following information:

(4) The technical file pursuant to paragraph 3 shall contain the following:


a) the document that the placing in service of the railway vehicle has been authorised in another Member State and the records on the authoprisation procedure followed in order to show that the ralway vehicle complied with the safety requirements in force, including, where applicable, information on exemptions granted,

b) the technical data, the maintenance programme and the operational characteristics of the railway vehicle,

c) records showing the vehicle's operation, maintenance and, where applicable, technical modifications undertaken after the authorisation for placing in service has been granted,

d) technical and operational characteristics that show that the railway vehicle is, with regard to climate conditions, compatible with the rail infrastructures including its fixed installations, with the energy supply system, control-command and signalling system, track gauge and infrastructure gauges, maximum permitted axle load and other limiting technical parameters of the rail network.

(5) The technical compatibility pursuant to paragraph 4 letter d) point 2. shall be assessed by the infrastructure manager who shall issue an expertise including possible conditions of the railway vehicle operation in the rail network; such expertise shall represent the base for the safety authority decision-making pursuant to paragraph 3.

(6) In the case of railway vehicle equipped with the data recorder, technical data purusant to paragraph 4 letter b) shall include also the information about data collection procedure, permitting read out from the device memory and data evaluation from the device as long as this information is not harmonised by the corresponding technical specification for interoperability.

(7) For the purpose of an additional authorisation the safety authority may check:

a) the railway vehicle technical compability with the existing railway system and

b) the railway vehicle compliance with technical and safety regulations relating to its operation in the existing railway system.

(8) The data referred to in paragraph 4 letters a) and b) may be called into question by the safety authority only when the existence of a substantial safety risk, as regard the safe operation of the railway vehicle in the existing railway system, may be demonstrated.

(9) For the purpose of an additional authorisation pursuant to paragraph 3 the safety authority may request the applicant:

a) for additional information and data to be supplied,

b) risk analyses to be carried in accordance with the safety methods, or

c) the railway vehicle test operation to be conducted in the existing railway system in order to verify the conformity of the datat referred to paragraph 4 letters c) and d).

(10) The safety authority shall define, after consultation with the applicant, the scope and content of the additional information and data, the risk analyses pursuant to paragraph 4 letter b) and the test operation requested pursuant to paragraph 4 letter c). Where the rail network capacity allows it, the infrastructure manager, in consultation with the applicant, shall ensure through the train path allocation that any test operation of the railway vehicle takes place within three months of the applicant's request submission. The safety authority shall take the measures, when necessary, to conduct the railway vehicle test operation.

(11) The safety authority shall decide pursuant to paragrpah 3 not later than:


a) four months after submission of the technical file referred to in paragraph 4,

b) two months after provision of any additional information and data referred to in paragraph 9 letter a),

c) two months after provision of the results of any test operation referred to in paragraph 9 letter c).

(12) If the safety authority fails to decide on the request, within the time limits pursuant to paragraph 11, the placing in service of the railway vehicle shall be deemed to have been authorised after prescribed period, but only for the existing railway system.

Article 79

Railway vehicles numbering system

(1) Any railway vehicle placed in service in any railway system in the European Union shall carry a European number assigned when the first authorisation for placing in service is granted. Details on the European number shall be specified by the technical specification for interoperability.

(2) The applicant for the first authorisation shall be responsible for marking the railway vehicle in question with the European number assigned to it.

(3) In case the railway vehicle operated or intended to be operated on the train path from or to the thitd State the track gauge of which is different from that of the main rail network within the European Community, the safety authority may accept the number identified according to a different coding system.

(4) A railway vehicle shall be assigned an European number only once, unless otherwise specified in the the technical specification for interoperability.

Article 80

National registers

(1) The national register of railway vehicles shall be established. It shall be kept by the safety authority; all the railway vehicles authorised by the safety authority for operation in the existing railway system shall be registered therein.

(2) The national register of railway vehicles shall:

a) comply with the common specifications specified by the European Commission27) for the register,

b) by independent of any railway undertaking,

c) be accessible to the safety authorities and investigating bodies as well as the regulatory bodies of the other Member States, to the European railway agency, the infrastructure managers, the railway undertakings and those persons registering railway vehicles or identified in the vehicle register; it shall be published on the Internet Site of the safety authority.

(3) The national register of railway vehicles shall shall contain at least the following data:

a) the European railway vehicle number,

b) the identification data of the keeper of the registered railway vehicle,

27) Article 18 paragraph 1 letetr a) of the Regulation (EC) No 881/2004 as amended by later regulation.


c) references to the EC declaration and indication of the issuing body

d) restrictions on how the railway vehicle may be used in the existing railway system,

e) the identification data of the person responsible for the railway vehicle maintenance and stated in the authorisation for placing in service.

(4) From the day of the establishment of the European register of authorised types of railway vehicles the reference to it also shall be indicated in the national register of railway vehicles.

(5) The keeper of a registered railway vehicle shall immediately notify to the safety authority, which granted the authorisation for placing in service to the railway vehicle, any modification to the data entered in the national railway vehicle register as well as the destruction of a railway vehicle or its intention to repeal the rayilway wehicle registration.

(6) The keeper of a registered railway vehicle shall mean a person registered in the national railway vehicle register using the railway vehicle as means of transport either as its owner or on the basis of the contract with the owner.

(7) In the case of the railway vehicle placed in service for the first time in a third State and authorised by the safety authority for placing in service in the existing railway system, that safety authority shall ensure that the data listed in paragraph 3 letter b) to e) can be retrieved through the national Railway Vehicle Register. Data referred to in paragraph 3 letter e) may be substituted by safety critical data relating to the railway vehicle maintenance schedule.

(8) As long as the national railway vehicle register is not linked with national registers of the other Member States, the safety authority shall update its register with the modifications made by another Member State in own national railway vehicle register kept by it.

(9) The national register of railway infrastructure shall be established; it shall be kept by the safety authority; this register shall, within the guidelines of the European Commission, indicate the main features of each subsystem or part subsystem involved and their correlation with the features laid down under the applicable technical specifications for interoperability. Detailed content of the registered data relating to any subsystem shall be specified by the technical specifications for interoperability.

Article 81

Notified person

(1) For the purpose of this Act the notified person shall mean a legal person established in the Slovak Republic possessing an identification number assigned by the European Commission, who is responsible for assessment of conformity and suitability for use of the components or for evaluation of the EC subsystem verification procedure in accordance with the technical specifications for interoperability. The assessment of conformity and suitability for use conducted by a notified person in the other Member State in accordance with the technical specifications for interoperability shall be accepted also in the Slovak Republic.

(2) Only the authorisecd legal person person established in the Slovak Republic, whose competence has been assessed by the Office of Standards, Metrology and Testing according to the criteria set out in the Annex No 7, may be notified; the scope of the authorisation shall be indicated. If the notified person does not longer meets criteria set out in the Annex No 7 the notifying body shall withdraw the certificate and forthwith inform the European Commission thereof.


(3) The notified person may be authorised for the EC procedure for assessment of conformity or suitability for use or the EC procedure for verification of subsystems or for both of such procedures.

(4) The notified person may be, within the procedures pursuant to paragraph 3, authorised for:

a) all stages of the conformity asessement and the verification and within them for all types of activities or for some stages or types of activities only,

b) for the structural subsystems pursuant to Annex No 1.

(5) Procedores for assessment of conformity with the European specifications shall be carried out by the legal person authorised in accordancewith special regulation.28)

P A R T F I V E

SAFTEY OF THE RAILWAY SYSTEM

Article 82

Safety requirements

(1) The safety of the railway system shall include the safety requirements for the railway system as a whole and for its structural and operational subsystems including the railway infrastructure operation and traffic operation management as well as the interaction between the infrastructure manager and railway undertakings.

(2) The safety of the existing railway system shall be based on:

a) the obligation to harmonise the national regulatory structure with existing technical specifications for interoperability for particular subsystems or their parts and in accordance with common safety targets (hereinafter referred to as the "safety target") asnd safety methods published in the Official Journal of the European Union,

b) defining obligations and responsibilities :

1. of the infrastructure manager and railway undertakings for establishing and use of the safety management system (Article 84),

2. of the safety authority for issue of the safety rules (Article 87) and safety certificates (Article 86),

3. of the safety authority for state supervision over the safety of this system, and

4. of the investigating body for accidents and extraordinary events investigation;

c) defining obligations and responsibilities of manufacturers, importers and railway vehicle keepers, procurement entities and suppliers of the material and the maintenance works and providers of services to ensure railway vehicles, installations, accessories, amterila and services supplied by them comply with the requirements and the conditions for use specified, so that they can be safely put into operation by the infrastructure manager and railway undertakings.

d) taking account of the need for a system-based approach to the development and railway safety improvement with regard to the evolution of European Community legislation and to scientific progress giving priority to the prevention of serious accidents,

28) Article 11 of the Act No 264/1999 Coll. as amended by later regulations.


e) monitoring of the safety development and collectting the information on common safety indicators (hereinafter referred to as the "safety indicator") through the annual reports of the safety authority sent to the European Railway Agency.

(3) The safety target pursuant to paragraph 2 letter a) shall mean a minimum safety level expressed in risk acceptance criteria, that must at least be reached by different parts of the railway system and by the railway system as a whole. The different parts of the railway system shall mean for example the conventional rail system, the high speed rail system, long railway tunnels or bridges, railway lines solely used for freight transport. The risks, without prejudice to existing liability rules relating to the personal responsibilty and individual risk, shall mean:

a) risks relating to passengers,

b) risks relating to the staff of the infrastructure manager and railway undertakings as well as to the staff of suppliers of services for the railway system,

c) risks relating to road traffic participants on the level crossing of the railroad and the road,

d) risks relating to unauthorised persons moving in the railroad precinct and premises of the infrastructure manager,

e) societal risks.

(4) The safety method pursuant to paragraph 2 letter a) shall mean the method developed by the European Railway Agency to describe how safety levels and achievement of safety targets and compliance with other safety requirements for the railway system are assessed.

(5) The safety indicators pursuant to paragraph 2 letter e) shall mean information of the the railwy system safety enabling to assess the system conformity with safety targets and to unify the method for calculation of costs for accidents and extraordinary events, and fascilitating to monitor the safety level of the railway system. The safety indicators shall be set out in annual reports of the safety authority and structured in accordance with Annex No 8.

Article 83

National safety regulations

(1) For the purspose of this Act the national safety regulations shall mean the Slovak legal regulations, operational regulations and decisions of the infrastructure manager containing the requirements for the safety of the existing railway system and intended for more than one rail network user. The national safety regulations shall be prepared with the aim to achieve the minimum safety targets pursuant to timetables set out in such targets.

(2) The national safety regulations shall be nortified to the European Commission and structured in accordance with Annex No 9 while the their area of application shalll be indicated along with the information about the main content of regulations and the references to the legal text and the type of document and with the designation of a body or a underating responsible for their publication. All their amendments shall subject to the notification; this shall not apply in case of the technical specifications for interoperability.

(3) The national safety regulations must be, depend on their legal nature, published in the Collection of Laws of the Slovak Republic in the Journal of the Ministry of Transport, Posts and Telecommunications or through the other effective method so that they can be comprehensible, public available or delivered to all infrastructure managers, railway undertakings, applicants for the safety certificate and to the safety authority.


(4) If a new national safety regulation shall be adopted, which requires a higher safety level than the technical specification for interoperability or which may affect operation of railway undertakings established in the other Member State on the territory of the Slvak Republic, the draft of a such regulation must be consulted with all interested parties and provided to the European Commission for examination, stating the reasons for introducing it.

(5) If the European Commission informs, after examination of notified draft of a new national safety regulation pursuant to paragraph 4, that the draft safety rule considers as incompatible with the safety method or the requirement for achieving the minimum safety target or considers that it constitutes a means of arbitrary discrimination or a disguised restriction on rail transport operations between Member States, a new national safety regulation shall not be issued.

Article 84

Safety management system

(1) Infrastructure managers and railway undertakings shall be obliged to establish safety management systems. For the purpose of this Act, the safety managament system shall mean the organisation of activities and the measures established byt the infrastructure manager and the railway undertaking to ensure the safety operation and the reduction of risks associated with it.

(2) The safety management system shall comply with the national safety regulations (Article 83), meet the safety requirements of the technical specifications for interoperability and contain the minimum safety targets and basic elements referred to in Annex No 10 adapted to character, extent and other requirements for the activities performed in the existing railway system.

(3) The infrastructure manager and railway undertakingsshall be responsible for their corresponding part of the railway system and the safety operation thereof in relation to the railway users, passengers, emploees and the third persons including the maintenance works, the material supplies and the award of service contracts. When the infrastructure manager controls and evaluates the risks he shall cooperate with the Railway Police.

(4) The safety management system of the infrastructure manager shall take account of censewuences arising as result of operation of railway undertakings on the railway network and ensure that all railway undertakings may act in accordance with national safety regulations and technical specifications for interoperability. In addition, the safety management system must allow to coordinate the emergency procedures of the infrastructure manager with all railway undertakings that operate on its railway infrastructure.

Article 85

Safety report

(1) Each year all infrastructure managers and railway undertakings shall submit to the safety authority before 30 June an annual safety report concerning the preceding calendar year.

(2) The safety report shall contain:

a) the information on how the safety targets are met and the results of safety plans;

b) the information concerning the development of safety indicators referred to in Annex No 8,

c) the results of internal safety auditing, and


d) date on detected deficiencies, malfunctions and other events in the railway transport operation and in the railway infrastructure that might be relevant for the safety authority.

(3) When the infrastructure manager prepares the safety report he shall cooperate with the Railway Police.

Article 86

Safety certificate

(1) The safety certificate shall mean the decision of the safety authority stipulating the access of the railway undertaking to the railway network. The safety certificate may cover whole railway network or only a defined part thereof.

(2) The safety certificate issue confirms that the railway undertaking has established its safety management system and can meet requirements laid down in technical specifications for interoperability and legal acts of the European Community legislation as well as in national safety regulations in order to control all risks and provide transport services safely on the railway network.

(3) The safety certificate confirms an acceptance of:

a) the railway undertaking's safety management system pursuant to Annex No 10, and

b) the measures adopted by the railway undertaking to meet specific requirements necessary for the safe transport on the railway network.

(4) The safety certificate pursuant to paragraph 3 letter b) shall be based on the documentation submitted by the railway undertaking in accordance with Annex No 11. Specific requirements may include the application of the technical specifications for interoperability and national safety regulations, acceptance of operational staff certificates and authorisation to operate railway vehicles used by the railway undertaking.

(5) The safety authority shall be competent to grant:

a) the safety certificate to the railway undertaking starting its first transport operation in the Slovak Republic,

b) the additional safety certificate pursuant to paragraph 3 letter b) to the railway undertaking which is planning to provide the transport services in the Slovak Republic.

(6) The safety certificate must specify the type and extent of the transport services provided by the railway undertaking on the railway network.

(7) The safety certificate pursuant to paragraph 3 letter a) issued in the other Member State shall be valid for equivalent rail transport services in the existin railway system. The additional safety certificate pursuant to paragraph 5 letter b) shall be valid for territory of the Slovak Republic only.

(8) The safety certificate shall be renewed upon application of the railway undertaking at intervals not exceeding five years.

(9) The holder of the safety certificate shall be obliged to inform the safety authority of all major changes in the conditions of the relevant part of the safety certificate. In addition he shall notify the safety authority whenever new categories of staff are introduced or new types of railway vehicles are included into the rolling stock.

(10) The safety certificate must be updated whenever the type or extent of the railway undertaking operation is substantially altered. If substantial changes of the safety regulatory


framework in the field of railway system safety occured, the safety authority may alter the relevant part of the safety certificate.

(11) If the safety authority finds that the holder of the safety certificate no longer satisfies the conditions for a safety certificate which it has issued, or the safety certificate has not used it as intended in the year following its issue, it shall start proceeding to repeal a part of the safety certificate pursuant to paragraph 3 letter a) or b). The reasons for it shall be set out in the decision to repeal the part of the safety certificate.

(12) The safety authority that has withdrawn an additional national certificate pursuant to paragraph 5 letter b), shall promptly inform the safety authority of the other Member Satet that granted the safety certificate to the railwy undertakings.

(13) The safety authority shall be obliged to inform the European Railway Agency, within one months after the date when the relevant decision entered into force, of any safety certificate that has been granted, renewed, amended or withdrawn. It shall state the business name and address of the railway undertaking residence, its identification number, the date of granting the safety certificate, the type and scope od transport services, the validity of the safety certificate and, in case of withdrawal, the reasons for repeal or withdrawal.

(14) The models of safety certificates pursuant to paragraph 3 and the elements of applications shall be specified by the special regulation.29)

Article 87

Safety authorisations

(1) The safety authorisation shall mean the decision of the safety authority stipulating the management and operation of railway lines by the infrastructure manager.

(2) The safety authorisation shall comprise an acceptance of:

a) the infrastructure manager's safety management system as described in Annex No 10, and

b) the measures adopted by the infrastructure manager to meet specific requirements necessary for the safe design, maintenance and operation of the railway infrastructure and operation of the train control-command and signalling system.

(3) The safety authorisation shall be renewed upon application by the infrastructure manager at intervals not exceeding five years.

(4) The holder of the safety authorisation shall be obliged to inform without delay the safety authority of any substantial change relating to the railway infrastructure safety.

(5) If substantial changes of the safety regulatory framework in the field of safety of the existing railway system occured, the safety authority may alter the relevant part of the safety authorisation. The safety authorisation must be updated whenever the substantial changes are made to the railway infrastructure, signalling or energy supply or to the principles of its operation and maintenance.

(6) If the safety authority finds that a safety authorisation holder no longer satisfies the conditions for a safety authorisation it shall it shall start proceeding to repeal the safety authorisation. The reasons for it shall be set out in the decision to repeal the safety authorisation.

29) Commission Regulation (EC) No 653/2007 of 13 June 2007 on the use of a common European format for

safety certificates and application documents in accordance with Article 10 of Directive 2004/49/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council and on the validity of safety certificates delivered under Directive 2001/14/EC (OJ EU L 153,14. 6. 2007).


(7) The safety authority shall be obliged to inform the European Railway Agency, within one months after the date when the relevant decision entered into force, of any safety authorisation that has been granted, renewed, amended or repealed. It shall state the name or business name and address of the railway undertaking residence, its identification number, the date of granting the safety authorisation, the scope and validity of the safety authorisation and, in case of repeal, the reasons for it.

Article 88

Requirements for applications

(1) The safety authority shall take a decision on an application for safety certification or safety authorisation without delay. The safety authority shall take a decision not more than four months after all information required and any supplementary information requested by it has been submitted for the porpose of proceeding. If the applicant is requested by the safety authority to submit supplementary information, such information shall be submitted promptly.

(2) In order to facilitate the establishment of new railway undertakings and infrastructure managers and tu enable the submission of applications from from other Member States, the safety authority shall give to applicants detailed instructions on how to obtain the safety certificate and safety authorisation. It shall in partricular compile a list all requirements and provide to them with all necessary documents and free of charge guidance containing and explaining the requirements relating to the safety certificates, including a list of documents which shall submitted along with the application.

(3) The safety authority shall be obliged to provide special instructions to the railway undertaking aplying for the safety certificate for transport setvices on restricted part of the railway infrastructure; it shall in particular specify in detail the regulations applied to such a part of the railway infrastructure.

(4) Unless otherwise stated by the safety authority, the applications shall be submitted in the state laguage.

Article 89

Safety traning of the staff

(1) Whenever the training of the staff of railway undertakings or infrastructure managers is necessary for the fulfilment of requirements to obtain the safety certificate or the safety authorisation, the safety authority shal be obliged to monitor over the fair and non-discriminatory access ton the training for the railway undertaking nad the infrastructure manager. Such staff tranings shall include necessary knowledge of the railway lines, operational regulations and procedures, the train control-command system, the sunting and signalling and emergency procedures applied on the railway lines, in stations and depots.

(2) If the trainings pursuant to paragraph 1 include the granting of certificates proving their accomplishment, the safety authority shal monitor that the railway undertakings have the access to such certificates if it is a requirement of the safety certificate of the railway undertaking.

(3) The infrastructure manager as well as railway undertakings shall be obliged to ensure a necessary level of qualification of their staff fulfilling the tasks relating to the safety of the railway system.

(4) If the training are offered only through the services of one single railway undertaking or the infrastructure manager, it shall ensure that they are made available to other railway


undertakings and infrastructure managers at a reasonable and non-discriminatory price, which is based on actuall costs and the reasonable profit.

(5) When recruiting staff on board trains and staff performing other vital safety tasks in the railway infrastructure, a new employer must be able to take into account any previous training, qualifications and experience of new emploees acquirred from any former employer. For this purpose, a former employer must provide to previous emploee with document demonstrating received trainings, acquirred professional qualification and experience.

Article 90

Safety authority

(1) The safety authority shall:

a) authorise the placing in service of the structural subsystems constituting the railway system check that they are duly operated and maintained in accordance with the relevant essential requirements,

b) authorise the placing in service of new and substanionally altered railway vehicles that is not yet covered by a technical specification for interoperability,

c) apply exemptions from an identification of a person responsible for the railway vehicle maintenance,

d) issue the safety certificates and safety authorisations, decide on their amendment, repeal, withdrawal and renewal and check that conditions and requirements laid down in them are met and that infrastructure managers and railway undertakings are operating under the requirements of European Community law and national safety regulations,

e) monitor the application of legal regulations in the filed of the railway system safety and initiate their changes; for this purpose it shall cooperate with the infrastructure manager, railway undertakings and representatives of their staff as well as with the subsystems and components manufacturers, other users of the railway infrastructure and the maintenace undertakings;

f) supervise that the components are in compliance with the essential requirements,

g) supervise that operated railway vehicles are duly registered in the national register and that information related to the safety of railway system contained therein, is accurate and kept up to date,

h) supervise that the provision of trainings and the issue of certificates proving their accomplishment have been in compliance with the safety requirements set out in the technical specifications for interoperability or the national regulations,

i) conduct an active interchange of opinions and experience at the level of the European Community and for the purpose of the harmonisation of its decision criteria.

(2) The safety authority shall carry out its tasks pursuant to paragraph 1 in a non-discriminatory and transparent way. The safety authority may request the technical assistance of infrastructure manager, railway undertakings or other persons when it is carrying out the tasks.

(3) The tasks referred to in paragraph 1 may not be transferred to any infrastructure manager, railway undertakings or osubcontracted to other person.

(4) Checked infrastructure manager or railway undetakings shall be obliged to provide the safety authority with necessary interaction. When inspecting, they shall be obliged to


allow the authorised persons of the safety authority to have an access to premises, installations and equipment and provide them, at their request, with all relevant documents and explanations. In case of the ingringement of such an obligation the asdafety authority shall be authorised to impose a fine up to 3 000 EUR and in block proceeding up to 100 EUR.

(5) In proceedings pursuant to this Act, the safety authority shall allow all parties and other interested persons to be heard and and give reasons for background of decisions.

(6) Unless othewise stated in this Act, the basis rules of inspection activity30) shall be adequatelly used for conducting the inspection pursuant to paragraph 4.

Article 91

Annual report

(1) Each year the safety authority shall publish on its Internet Site an annual report concerning its activities in the preceding calendar year and send it to the European Railway Agency by 30 September at the latest.

(2) The annual report shall contain information on:

a) the development of existing railway system safety, including an aggregation of safety indicators pursuant to Annex No 8,

b) important changes in national safety regulations and regulation concerning the safety of the existing railway system,

c) the status of safety certification and safety authorisation,

d) results of and experience relating to performed inspections in the infrastructure manager and railway undertaking facilities,

e) used exemtions from an identification of a person responsible for the railway vehicle maintenance in placing in service of it.

A c c i d e n t a n d e x t r a o r d i n a r y e v e n t i n v e s t i g a t i o n

Article 92

Types of accidents and extraordinary events

(1) The accidents shall mean the serious accidents, minor accidents and extraordinary events involving the railway vehice in motion, with consequences pursuant to paragraph 2.

(2) For the purpose of this Act:

a) serious accident shall mean any train collision or derailment of trains, resulting in the death of at least one person or serious injuries to five or more persons or extensive damage to railway vehicles, the infrastructure or the environment or the property of the third persons, and any other similar accident with an obvious impact on the safety of the existing railway system or or the management of safety,

b) minor accident shall mean an unwanted or unintended sudden event or a specific chain of such events resulting in not more than four seriously injured persons, in damage of railway vehicles and infrastructure or extensive damage to the environment or the property of the third persons; they are divided in following categories:

1. collision of trains,

30) Article 8 to 13 of the Act of the National Council of the Slovak Republic No 10/1996 Coll. on inspection in

the State Administration as amended by later regulations.


2. derailments of trains,

3. train acciden at level-crossing the railroad and the road,

4. persona injury cased by the railway vehicle in motion,

5. fire, and

6. other accidents,

c) incident shall mean an event other other than accident associated with the movement of the railway vehicle and affecting the safety of operation, without consequences referred to in letters a) and b),

d) cause of the accident shall mean an action or omission of persons, an event, a condition or their combinations, which led to the accident,

e) extensive damage pursuant to letter s) shall mean material damage that can immediately be assessed after accident by the investigating body to cost at least EUR two million in total.

(3) For the purpose of this Act, an extraordinary event shall mean sudden event or a specific chain of such events not arising from railway infrastructure operation or railway transport but having the same conseqeunces as accidents; such an event may be in particular the railroad flooding or undemining, the strike of the bolt, the railway line backfilling, the fall of the aircraft on the train.

(4) Provisions on the investigation of accidents shall apply to the investigation of extraordinary events.

Article 93

Reporting obligation

(1) The infrastructure manager and railway undertaking shall be obliged immediatelly after finding to report an accident or an extraordinary event to the coordination centre of Integrated Rescue System, the investigating body an the Railway Police; this shall not apply in case of an incident and an extraordinary event of the incident importance. An extraordinary event of the incident importance shall be report to the Railway Police only when it is results from the human activity.

(2) The report pursuant to paragraph 1 shall include all data necessary to start the rescue works in particular the site, time, type, consequences and other known circumstances.

Article 94

Obligations after accident

(1) Prior to the arrival of rescue units and Police Corps there may be intervened in the wrecks and changed intitial condition of the site only within the scope necessary to relieve persons whose lives are directly threaten, to avoid the fire propagation and the ecological disaster or the other damages on health, property an environment; the operation may be restored only when the wrecks have not been thereby substantionally affected or the initial condition of the site has not been substantionally changed.

(2) When, in the interest of the actions pursuant to paragraph 1, the obstacle, the part of wrecks or the wreck has been removed or the initial condition of the site has been changed prior the arrival of Police Corps, the infrastructure manager and the railway undertaking shall be obliged to document the initial condition of the site through the schema, video record, photographs, securing the found things or through the other measure, which allow to determine the actual condition and circumstances important for the investigation.


(3) The infrastructure manager and the railway undertakings shall be obliged, immediatelly after reporting, to secure the site against the access of the other persons, ensure the persons evacuation and document the initial condition, start their own investigation and provide necessary interaction to rescue units, Police Corps and investigating body.

Article 95

Obligation to investigate

(1) The investigating body shall investigate the causes od circumstance of serious accidents occured in the railway infrastructure.

(2) The investigating body shall investigate also the minor accident or the extraordinary event, including technical failures in the structural subsystems or componets, which when repeating and under slightly different conditions might have led to serious accident. It shall take into account:

a) the seriousness of the accident or extraordinary event,

b) whether the accident or extraordinary event forms part of a series of events or a chain of associated events which might endanger the whole existing railway system,

c) whether the accident or extraordinary event has an impact also on the safety of the European Community railwy system, and

d) requests and suggestionss of the infrastructure manager, railway undertakings, the safety authority or authorities of the Member States.

(3) The accident or extraordinary event investigations shall be without prejudice to the obligation of the the infrastructure manager and the railway undertaking to determine their causes in their own operation and among their own employees with the aim to take measures to prevent from the accident repeating or to improve globally the railway system safety. They shall inform the investigating body and the safety authority about taken measures.

Article 96

Investigation of accidents and extraordinary events

(1) For the purspose of this Act, the investigation shall mean a procedure prevention which includes the gathering and analysis of information about the accident or the extraordinary event, the preparing the final report containing the conclusions and the determination of causes of the accident or the origin of an extraordinary event as well as the making of safety recommendations for the infrastructure manager and the railway undertaking. The objective of investigation shall be an accident prevention and options concerning the further improvement of the safety of the existing railway system and in no case the questions associated with apportioning blame or legal liability of particular persons.

(2) The extent of investigations, the person of investigator or the composoition of the investigation commission as well as the procedure to be followed in carrying out such investigations shall be determined by the investigating body, taking into account the objective and principles of the accident prevention and the lessons which may be used to improve the saafety of the existing railway system

(3) The investigation shall be conducted independently of any investigation carried out by the Police Corps or other body concerning the questions of the blame and liability of particular persons (hereinafter referred to as the "police inquiry") and of the investigation conducted by the infrastructure manager or the railway undertaking.


(4) The police inquire executor may apply the investigating body for investigation of the case other than the accident in the railway infrastructure. The investigating body may satisfy this requirement if such an investigation does not endager the investigation of a serious accident or the independence of its investigation. The same apply if the other state authority applies for investigation.

Article 97

Investigator

(1) For the person of this Act, the investigator shall mean a natural person charged by the investigating body to be responsible for the organisation, conduct and control of an investigation. When for the purpose of investigation the commission has been established, the tasks of an investigator must be ensured by ist chairman.

(2) The police inquire executor shall be obliged to enable as soon as possible for the investigator to carry out his duties according to this Act in the most efficient way and shortest time. The investigator shall, with the police inquire executor or separatelly, be given:

a) the access to the site of the accident or extraordinary event as well as to the railway vehicles, the railway line and train traffic control and signalling installations,

b) the right to an immediate listing of evidence and sampling from the wrecks or the wreckages of railway vehicles, installations and components for examination or analysis purposes,

c) the access to the contents of recorders and use of such contents for the purpose of the investigation,

d) the access to the results of examination of the bodies of victims and to the medical findings and reports and autopsy protocols,

e) the access to the results of examinations of the train staff and other railway staff involved in the accident or extraordinary event,

f) the opportunity to question the railway staff involved and other witnesses,

g) the access to any data, information and records held by the infrastructure manager, the railway undertakings involved and the safety authority and which are relevant for the investigation.

(3) In carrying his duties the investigator shall act independently and he shall be authorised, without any consent of the other person, to acces to the site of the accident or extraordinary event as well as to the wreckages of railway vehicles and railway infrastructure installations and to require the persons, who may contribute by their statements to the investigation, to provide the explanations.

(4) The acts pursuant to paragraph 2 may be applied also by the persons authorised by the infrastructure manager and railway undertaking to detect the causes of accidents or extraordinary events.

Article 98

Investigation procedure

(1) The investifation body shall be competent to investigate the accidents in the territory of the Slovak Republic. If it is not possible to establish whether the accident occurred in the territory of the Slovak Republic or in the other Member State, or if it occurred on or close to an installation on common state border with the other Member State, the investigating body


shall agree with investigating body of such other Member State, which one of them will carry out the investigation or shall agree to carry it out in cooperation. The other body of the other Member State shall in the first case be allowed to participate in the investigation and and fully share its investigation results.

(2) Whenever a railway undertaking established and licensed in other Member State is involved in the accident, the investigating body shall invite the investigating body of such a Member State to participate in an investigation. This provision shall not preclude the cooperation between competent investigating bodies on the basis of an agreement and in other circumstances.

(3) The investigation shall be carried out with as much openness as possible, so that all parties can be heard during investigation and can share the results. The infrastructure manager and relevant railway undertakings, the safety authority, victims and their relatives, subsystem and component manufacturers, rescue services as well as representatives of employees of the railway undertaking and representatives of other users of the railway infrastructure shall be regularly informed of the investigation and its progress and, as far as practicable, shall be given an opportunity to submit their opinions and views to the investigation and be allowed to comment the information in the draft of investigation reports.

(4) The investigating body shall conclude its examinations at the accident site within the shortest possible time in order to enable the railway undertaking to remove damaged railway vehicle and the infrastructure manager to restore the infrastructure operation for the railway transport.

(5) The investigating body shall be obliged to inform the European railway agency about the invetigation beginning within one week of such beginning.. Such information shall include the date, time and accident site, as well as its type and its consequences as regards the number of fatalities nad injuries and extent of the damage.

Article 99

Investigation reports

(1) The investigator shall draw up a report from any accident or estraordinary event investgtion. The report shall state the objectives of the investigations and contain, where appropriate, recommendations raleting to the safety of the railway system. The content and extent of the report shall corespond to the type and seriousness of the accident and the relevance of the investigation findings. The investigator report shall form a background for the final report of the investigating body.

(2) The investigating body shall publish a final report in the shortest possible time an not later than 12 months after the date of the accident. The content of the final report is set out in Annex No 12 and in special regulation.31)

(3) The investigating body shall provide the final report, along with recommendations to improve the safety of the railway system, to the safety authority and at the request it shall be obliged to provide it also to the Railway Police and the Police Corps. The investigating body shall inform the infrastructure manager, relevant railway undertaking, subsystem and component manufacturers, railway infrastructure users as well as bodies of other Member States and within reasonable extent also victims and thei relatives, rescue services and representatives of employees of the infrastructure manager and relevant railway undertaking, abou contents of the investigation.

31) Annex H of the Regulation (EC) No 91/2003 of the European Parliament and of the Council.


(4) Safety recommendations set out in the final report from investigation shall be addressed to the safety authority and, where needed by reason of the scope, to other bodies or interested persons in other Member States. The safety authority shall be obliged to take the measures to ensure that the safety recommendations are duly taken into consideration, and, where appropriate, acted upon.

(5) A safety recommendation shall in no case create a presumption of blame or liability of a particular person for an accident.

(6) The safety authority and other bodies and persons, to which the safety recommendation has been addressed, shall be obliged to inform, at least annualy, the investigating body about measures taken or planned on the basis of the safety recommendation.

(7) Each year the investigating body shall publish by 30 September in the Journal of the Ministry and on its Internet Site the annual report on investigations carried out in the previous calendar year, on issued safety recommendations and measures taken in compliance with issued previous recommendations.

(8) The investigating body shall send to the European railway agency a copy of the final report form investigation pursuant to paragraph 2 and a copy of the final report pursuant to paragraph 7.

Article 100

Investigating body

(1) The investigating body shall be a permanent body intended to investigate the accidents and extraordinary events; it shall:

a) permanently comprise at least one investigator able to start promptly an investigation,

b) be independent in its organisation and legal structure from any infrastructure manager, railway undertakings, bodies and other persons whose interests could conflict with the tasks entrusted to the investigating body, and

c) be functionally independent from the safety authority and from any regulatory body.

(2) The infrastructure manager, the railway undertaking and the safety authority shall be obliged to report immediatelly an accident or extraordinary event to the investigating body. The investigating body must respond to such a report without delay and take forthwith necessary necessary arrangements to start the investigation no later than one week after receipt of the report.

(3) For each accident investigation the investigating body shall arrange for the appropriate means, comprising the necessary operational and technical expertises to carry out the investigation. The expertise may be obtained from inside or outside the body, depending on the character of the accident.

(4) During investigation the investigating body shall cooperate with investigating bodies of the other Member States. The investigating body shall be obliged to meet requirements of investigating bodies of the other Member States or the European railway agency and provide necessary interoperation in particular to provide data, expertises or to carry out techical inspections, analyses or assessments.

(5) The investigating body shall participate in cooperation with the European railway agency and investigating bodies of the other Member States in particular it shall conduct an active exchange of views and experience from investigation for the purpose of developing


common investigation methods, drawing up common principles for follow-up of safety recommendations and adaptation to the development of technical and scientific progress.

P A R T S I X

STATE ADMINISTRATION

Article 101

Public administration bodies

The public administration bodies in the field of railroads shall consist of:

a) the Ministry of Transport, Posts and Telecommunications (hereinafter referred to as the "Ministry"),

b) the Railway Regulatory Authority (hereinafter referred to as the "Authority"), and

c) the higher terittory unit.

Article 102

Ministry

(1) The Ministry shall:

a) manage and control the execution of the state administration relating to the railroads, except for the tasks pertinent to the regulatory or safety authority in matters of railpaths and cable ways,

b) authorise the persons to execute of the State supervision, issue the licences to them and keep the register of issued licences,

c) act as an investigation body in case of accidents and extraordinary events occured on railpaths,

d) act as a body for appeals in matters in which in administration proceeding

1. the decision shall be taken by the Special Construction Office,

2. the decision shall be taken by the higher territorial unit,

e) make proposals concerning the railway lines of the existing railway system or the new railway lines in contruction, which should become a part of the Trans-European Rail system,

f) determine which railway lines shall be the main and the secondary railway lines and such classification publishes on its Internet Site,

g) decide on an application of essential requirements to the existing railway system the railway lines of which do not make a part of the Trans-European Rail system and they will be subjected to the upgrading or renewal and in the case of the construction of new railway lines it shall decide which of them will be a part of the existing railway system,

h) decide, at the request of the suggester and after professional assessment of the safety authority, on exemption from the application of the technical specifications for interoperability pursuant to Article 70 paragraph 5, as well as that the new or revised technical specifications for interoperability will not be, totally or partly, applied to projects being at an advanced stage of development or projects covered by the contract which is fulfilled in the time of their publishing.


i) represent the State in case of an acquisition of railrods not being in the ownership of the Slovak Republic and in conclusion of the constracts with the infrastructute manager,

j) decide, upon agreement with the Ministry of Defence of the Slovak Republic, on dissolution of a railway line;

k) decide, upon agreement with the Authority, on the part of the railway infrastructure that will be proposed as the specific case to which the verification procedure pursuant to Annex No 14 doesn't apply,

l) send to the European Commission the documents and projects relating to an applied exemption from technical specification for interoperability,

m) decide and publish the European specifications which will be used to assess a conformity of the subsystems and componenets if the technical specification for interoperability doesn't apply,

n) compile a list of the national safety regulations, inform of it and its amendments the European Commission, publish it in the Journal of the Ministry and on the Internet Site, notify particular safety regulations, develop a legal framework in the filed of the railway transport safety and monitor the observance of the national safety regulations,

o) carry out all notifications resulting from this Act and form legal binding acts of the European Community withn the railway except for those which are by this Act assigned to the Authority functioning as the safety or regulatory body,

p) monitor that the contents of a rendered staff training and the granting of an education facility confirmation, if applicable, is in conformity with the safety requirements specified in technical specifications for interoperabilityor in national safety regulations,

q) authorise the legal persons to:

1. educate and verify the professional competence of the employees of railroad operators and railroad undertakings, except for cableway operators,

2. asses the medical and psychological fitness of the employees of railroad operators and railroad undertakings,

3. verify the railroad vehicle technical capability for the operation,

4. carry our the technical inspection of railroad vehicles before they willl be placed in service and during their operation,

5. carry our the tests of railroad vehicles,

6. issue certificates to the maintenance workshops to maintaind the freight wagons;

r) publish the lists of authorised legal persons referred to in letter q) in the Journal of the Ministry and on the Internet Site,

s) act as an approval body for the railroad vehicle type-approval, except for cableway vehhicles,

t) provide opinions to the approach and proposal of the Concept of the territoral development of the Slovakia,

u) ensure the function of an examining commission intended to verify the special professional competence of examination commissioners for carrying out the technical and safety test of the railroad vehicles and the practical test of applicants for obtaining the licence to drive


the railroad vehicles; it shall issue and withdraw the examination commissioner certificates and publish a list of their holders,

v) ensure a verification of the professional competence of the chairmens of examining commissions intended to verify the professional competence and to carry out activities on designated electric technical devices and to knit the cables and cast the cable endings and connections used in cableway installations; it shall issue the document on professional competence,

w) impose an obligation to the railroad operator, railroad undertaking and other persons participated in the railroad operation or the traffic on the railroad, to conduct the works, the carriage or to provide the technical means within extent necessary to protect the human and animal lives and health and the environment or to remove the consequences of an accident or extraordinary event and in the time of the state defence readiness,

x) provide the infrastructure manager with subsidies from the state budged for the railway infrastructure operation pursuant to Articles 56 and 61,

y) provide the infrastructure manager with compensation to ensure the balanced management in the amount of the fixed costs incurred on the railway infrastructure operation,

z) grant an exemption from the construction and technical requirements for design, construction and operation of the railroads and from technical conditions of the railroad vehicle design and operation.

(2) The Ministry, through the generally binding regulations, shall establish:

a) the railroad construction and technical order in which it shall arrange the details on the construction and technical requirements for design, construction and operation of the railroads, the railroad technical parameters, the technical and safety test of structures and the railroad test operation and on railroad mutual contact.

b) the transport railroad order in which it shall arrange the details on operation of particular railroad types and their parts, the traffic on the railroads, the railroad vehicle operation, the railroad vehicle technical and safety test, the railroad vehicle technical survey and on the timetable completion,

c) the specification of designated technical devices and details concerning the verification and approval of the capability of designated technical devices to operate on the railroads, the requirements for assurance of the safe operation and attendance and specifications of designated technical devices, the obtaining of the professional competence for activities on designated technical devices and the details on performing the defined activities,

d) the scope and type of preventive medical examinations and psychological surveys, the details concerning the professional training, the verification of the professional competence of persons, the examining commission and the examinations and requirements for the professional competence, the medical and psychological fitness of persons conducting activities on railroads,

e) the details on items of an application for starting the proceeding relating to the authorisation to operate the railroad and the items of such authorisation,

f) the details on items of an application for subsidies referred to in Article 61, the methodology of the cost calculation and the details concerning the provision of subsidies.


A u t h o r i t y

Article 103

(1) The Authority shall be a nation-wide competent state administration body having its residence in Bratislava. The Authority may establish permanent or temporary workstations outside its residence.

(2) The Authority shall:

a) act as the safety authority for railroads, special and cable ways and for the railway vehicles,

b) act as the regulatory body for railpaths, special and cable ways,

c) the investigating body for accidents and extraordinary events occured on the special and cable ways,

d) act as the Special Construction Office for the railroad and its parts constructionand for structures within the protective railroad zone serving for the railroad operation or the traffic on the railroad, except for the special ways,

e) act as the competent body in territorial and construction proceedings for structures within the protective railroad zone not serving for the railroad operation and the traffic on the railroad, except for the urban railroads,

f) carry out the State professional supervision in the matters of railroads, ecxept for the urban tram and trolleabus way (hereinafter referred to as the "urban railroads") and the State professional technical supervision.

(3) In addition the Authority shall:

a) issue an approval to carry out activities within the protective protective railroad zone, except for the urban railroads,

b) give opinions, in territorial planning activities, to the layout, the concept and the draft of the region territorial plan with regard to the rialroads location within territory, their connections and crossings and the technical and operational parameters,

c) recognize the sources of jeopardy of railroads and their parts and order their elimination, except for the urban railroads,

d) decide on the need of a new authorisation for placing in service of the subsystem after its upgrading or renewal,

e) decide, on the proposal of an owner, on siddings or special way dissolution,

f) decide, on the proposal of a railroad operator, on the station and stop names and on their changes, except for the urban railroad station and stop names,

g) fulfil the tasks resulting from the position of a safety autoprity in matters of designated technical devices and activities,

h) verify nad approve the capabilty of designated technical devices and authorise the legal person for such activity,

i) verify the fulfilment of requirements for conducting designated activities and authorise the legal person for such activities,


j) issue and withdraw the document of professional competence for revisions, inpections, tests and attendance of designated technical devices in operation on the railroad and for the check of activities in welding and non-destructive tests,

k) verify the professional competence to carry out activities on designated technical devices and authorise a legal person for such verification,

l) issue and repeal the authorisation to operate a railroad, except for the urban railroads,

m) establish, through the generally binding regulation, the regulatory framework in which it specify the details on procedure of charges detrmining, scope and details of the application of principles related to the railway infrastructure charging, scope and details on determining the reasonable profit and economically substantiated costs incurred on the train operation,

n) authorise legal persons to educate the employees of cableway operators and the railroad undertakings on cableway and verify their professonal competence,

o) keep the national register of the vehicles and the railway infrastructure and issue confirmation on the registration,

p) assign the register numbers to railway vehicles,

q) impose the fines for offences and for other administrative deliquences committed on railroads, cable and special ways,

r) issue and withdraw a train driver licence and licence to control the erunning of the cable, way

s) cooperate with safety authorities of the other Member States and the European Railway Agency; in case of development of European legislation it consults the opinions with the Ministry,

t) issue authorisations and additional authorisations for placing in service of railway vehilces,

u) approve, register and issue a confirmation on the mark of a railway vehicle owner,

v) determine, through the generally binding regulation, the charges for access to the railway infrastructure within extent of a minimum assess package and track access to service facilities pursuant to Annex No 13, Part B.

(4) The Authority shall each year by 31 Mai provide the National Council of the Slovak Republic with the report on activities and management for previous calendar year.

(5) The Authority internal organisation shall be arranged by the statute which, at the request of the Authority chairman, shall be approved by the Minister of Transport, Posts and Telecommunications of the Slovak Republic (hereinafter referred to as the "Minister"); the stature shall be published by the Authority in the Ministry Journal and on Authority Internet Site.

Article 104

(1) The Authority shall be a budgetary organization coupled through financial relations with the State budget by means of the budgertary chapter managed by the Ministry.

(2) At the head of the Authority shall be a chairman appointed and recalled by the Government of the Slovak Republic on the motion of the Athority chairman.


(3) The chairman of the Authority shall manage the Authority, is responsible for its activities, act as a statutory body in all matters, sign the decisions and other legal acts and approve the Authority organisation order.

(4) The chairman shall be, in the case of absence or non-competence to perform his function, represented by the vice-chairman appointed and recalled by the Minister on the motion of the Athority chairman.

(5) The chairman’s and the vice-chairman’s functional period shall be six years from the day of their appointment for the function. The same person may perform the same function for a maximum of two consecutive functional periods.

(6) The Authority chairman and vice-chairman during their function shall not:

a) perform a function in the political party or motion or publicly act for the advantage or disadvantage thereof,

b) perform a function in other State authority or be a member of statutory body or of managing, supervisory or control body of a legal person or act ,

c) be the employee, partner or dealer of he railroad operator or the railroad undertaking, or hold a share of equity capital or have the share of vote rights or act for the their advantage; this limitation shall apply also to their closely related persons.

(7) The Authority chairman’s and the vice-chairman’s function performance shall terminate:

a) after expiration of function period,

b) by the function resignation,

c) upon death,

d) by the recall from the function,

e) upon loss of good repute.

f) if they have been deprived the competence to legal acts or such a competence has been limited.

(8) The Authority chairman may resign his function through the written notification delivered to the Prime Minister of the Slovak Republic and the vice-chairman may resign his function through the written notification delivered to the Minister.

(9) The Authority chairman and vice-chairman may be recalled from function if they:

a) are in conflict with limitations pursuant to paragraph 6,

b) fail to ensure the fulfilment of Authority obligations imposed by this Act,

c) do not perform their function during at least six consecutive months.

Article 105

Higher territorial unit

(1) The higher territorial unit, as transferred performance of the State administration, shall:

a) fulfil tasks resulting from the function of safety authority and regulatory body against to urban railroad operators,


b) fulfil tasks resulting from the function of investigating body for accidents and extraordinary events occured on urban railroads,

c) be competent as the Special Construction Office for urban railroad structures and structures in theri protective zone, which serve for the railroad operation or the traffic on the railroad,

d) detect the sources of the risk for urban railroads and require their elimination,

e) perform the State professional supervision over the urban railroads,

f) issue and repeal the authorisation to operate the urban railroads,

g) give a consent for activities in the protective zone of urban railroad,

h) issue and withdraw the licence to drive the railroad vehicle of the urban railroad,

i) decide on dissolution of the urban railroad,

j) deal with the offences pursuant to construction regulations32) in matters of the urban railroad contruction,

k) impose the fines for offences pursuant to Article 108 and for other administrative deliquences committed on urban railroads pursuant to Article 109 and pursuant to construction regulations.33)

(2) The higher territorial unit shall act as a locally competent body in which territorial area the urban railroad is located.

(3) The higher territorial units shall provide opinions to the draft of timetable in view of needs of the primary region transport servicing.

S t a t e s u p e r v i s i o n

Article 106

(1) The state supervision on the railroads shall be perform as the State professional supervision and the State professional technical supervision.

(2) Through the State professional supervision shall be verified whether:

a) railroad operators observe conditions and fulfil obligations referred to in this Act and implementing regulations, in particular whether they operate the railroad in accordance with the authorisation,

b) infrastrucure managers and railway undertakings fulfil tasks in accordance with the national safety regulations, the safety management system, the safety certificate and safety authorisation,

c) railroad operators, railroad undertakings, consignors and consignees of the goods and other persons, involved in the traffic on the railroad, the loading and unloading of the goods, the maintenance and repairs of railroad vehicles, fulfil obligations in accordance with this Act and national safety regulations.

(3) Through the State professional technical supervision shall be verified whether:

a) designated technical devices meet requirements for the technical safety and whether they are capable for safe opertation,

b) designated activities are carried out by legal persons under the granted authorisation and within its scope,

32) Article 105 of the Act No 50/1976 Coll. as amended by later regulations. 33) Article 106 of the Act No No 50/1976 Coll. as amended by later regulations.


c) revisions, surveys, tests and attendance of designated technical devices in operation, the steel rope tangling and repairs, the casting of ends and connections of the ropes used in cableways installations and the check of welding and non-destructive testing activities are carried by natural persons having a valid professional competence certificate pursuant to Article 18,

d) operators of the designated technical devices observe the conditions for placing in service of such devices and for the operation, the attendance, the maintenance and repairs of such devices and for verification of the designated technical device capability.

Article 107

(1) Unless otherwise provided below, the basic rules of an inspection activity34) shall apply to the execution of the State supervision and to the authorisations and obligations of persons authorised to the execution of the State supervsion and ofthe checked persons performing activities subjected to the inspection (hereinafter referred to as the "checked person").

(2) The State supervsion shall be executed by the employees of the Ministry, the Authority and higher territorial unit, to whom the the licences have been issued by the Ministry pursuant to Article 102 paragraph 1 letter b) (hereinafter referred to as the "authorised persons"). The licence shall include the holder data and the data concerning the scope of the licence.

(3) In executing the State supervision, the authorised persons shall submit the licence issued by the Ministry and the executive licence; the separate written authorisation for inspection execution is unnecessary. Employees of other bodies or legal persons, as invited persons, shall not participate in performace of the State supervision.

(4) In executing the State supervision, the person referred to in paragraph shall be authorised to:

a) enter the lands, the area of the railroad and its parts and the railroad vehicles of an inspected person,

b) require an inspected person to submit the documentation, documents, registrations, expertises and other acts necessary to demonstrate and assess the technical safety and the capability of designated technical devices, the railroad operation safety and the safety of traffic on the railroad, and explanations of the checked person emplyees,

c) inspect the documentation, documents, registrations and other papers referred to in letter b), make the extracts form them and require an inspected person to make copies free of charge;

d) order to remove detected deficiences and set out a reasonable time limit for such purpose,

e) use, free of charge, the signalling and telecommunications installations and the information technique equipment of an inspected person and use, free of charge, the carriage in the public passenger transport.

(5) An inspected person shall be obliged to:

a) enable to person pursuant to paragraph 1 to execute the State supervision and provide it with necessary interaction pursuant to paragraph 4,

34) Articles 8 to 16 of the Act of the National Council of the Slovak Republic No 10/1996 Coll., as amended by

later regulations.


b) remove, within a specified time limit, the deficiences detected by an authorised person and report such removal to the State supervision authority.

(6) If the person, executing the State supervision, detects an infringement of obligations or other deficiency in activities of an inspected person, it shall prepare on the spot a protocol and inform the head of an inspected departement abou its contents. It shall deliver a protocol to an inspected person and order to it the elimination of detected infringement of obligations or other deficiency within a specified time limit.

(7) The order fine35) may be imposed up to 1 000 euros, in block proceeding up to 100 euros.

Article 108

Offences

(1) The offence shall be committed by a person who:

a) perfoms, in the railpath protective zone, a prohibited or an unauthorised activity or activity, jeopardizing the railroad operation or the safety and fluency of the traffic on the railroad,

b) at the request of the safety authority, plants, raises, doesn't maintain, doesn't trim or remove, within the railroad precinct, the trees and shrubberies jeopardizing the railroad operation or the safety and fluency of the traffic on the railroad,

c) damages the railroad body or the part thereof, or infringes the function of communication, interlocking and telecommuniocation installations of the railroad,

d) performs designed or other activities requiring the professional competence, the medical and psychological fitness without necessary valid certificate relating to such competence and fitness, doesn't carry such document at the inspection or performs such activities under influence of a substance reducing the sense-perception or motional ability or in the condition of working disability,

e) passes the railroad outside the specified passage or level-crossing area or enters the railroad without concent of the railroad operator, enters the railroad precinct or other area inaccessible for the public and indicated with the marking "Entry prohibited",

f) enters without valid transport document or other authorisation the station spaces indicated with the marking "Entry prohibited without valid transport document",

g) doesn't observe the operation rules in the station and stop spaces in particular prohibitions and commands of the railroad operator or instructions of the staff of the railroad operator or the Railway Police.

(2) The fines up to 1 000 euros may be imposed for offences pursuant to paragraph 1 letters a) to d); the fines up to 300 euros may be imposed for offences pursuant to paragraph 1 letters e) to g).

(3) The fines up to 50 euros may be imposed in block proceeding for offences pursuant to paragraph 1 letters a) and b) and letters e) to g); the fines up to 100 euros may be impoesed in block proceeding for offences pursuant to paragraph 1 letters c) and d).

35) Article 16 paragraph 1 of the Act of the National Council of the Slovak Republic No 10/1996 Coll. as

amended by later regulations.


(4) Offences pursuant to paragraph 1 shall be dealt with the safety authority unless, in accordance with special regulation36) , the relevant Railway Police shall be competent for such dealing.

(5) A common regulation on offences shall aply to the offences.36) Receipts from fines for offences shall form a state budget income. Receipts from fines for offences imposed by the higher territorial unit shall form its budget income.

Article 109

Other administrative deliquences

(1) The safety authority shall impose a fine from 1 000 euros to 15 000 euros to the railroad operator that:

a) fails to ensure the undisturbed and safe condition of the loading gauge, in particular doesn´t remove fallen trees and stones and fails to ensure the undisturbed and safe condition of the stationary traction installations,

b) operates the railroad without employing a responsible representative with professional qualification or without valid authorisation to operate a railroad,

c) fails to ensure that the particular activities have been carried out by the employees satisfying the requirements for professional competence, medical and psychological fitness for the perfomance of works,

d) doesn´t provide information necessary to assess the development of the traffic on the railroad, the level of transport services and the observance of national safety regulations and to maintain the registration and statistics,

e) failed to ensure the staff participation in retraining or examination or medical examinations and psychological surveys,

f) uses in railroad operation designed technical devices incapable for service or doesn´t meet the specified conditions and requirements for assurance of the safety in operation or doesn´t conduct a maintenace or regular surveys and repairs,

g) operates on railroad the railroad vehicle of a non-approved type or without an authorisation to operate,

h) enables that a railroad vehicle would be driven on the railrod by an emploee without the valid licence to drive a railroad vehicle and in case of a tram or trolleybus driver without the driving authorisation of category B or D, or in case of a train driver without a train driver licence and certificate pursuant to special regulation13).

(2) The safety authority shall impose a fine from 800 euros to 10 000 euros to the siding owner, who fails to maintain the diverging track of the switch in linking-up the siding with the railway line in accordance with design parameters of the railway line or doesn´t allow the infrastrucure manager to operate or maintain the railway line.

(3) The safety authority shall impose a fine from 1 000 euros to 15 000 euros to the railroad undertaking that:

a) didn´t provide information necessary to assess the safety condition on the railroad and the traffic on the railroad, the level of transport services and the observance of national safety regulations and to maintain the registration and statistics,

36) Act of the National Council No 372/1990 on offences as amended by later regulations.


b) failed to ensure the staff participation in retraining or examination or medical examinations and psychological surveys,

c) uses in railroad operation designed technical devices incapable for service or doesn´t meet the specified conditions and requirements for assurance of the safety in operation,

d) uses on railroad the railroad vehicle of a non-approved type or without an authorisation to operate,

e) enables that a railroad vehicle would be driven by an emploee without the valid licence to drive a railroad vehicle and without the driving authorisation of category B or D in case of a tram or trolleybus driver, or without a train driver licence and harmonised additional certificate.

(4) The safety authority shall impose a fine from 500 euros to 4 000 euros to the designated technical device operator that:

a) fails to ensure that activities on designated technical devices would be performed only by persons with valid professional competence document,

b) enables that designated activities would be performed by persons without authorisation granted by the safety authority,

c) didn´t inform without delay the rise of the extraordinary event and didn´t call up the rescue units of Integrated Rescue System,

d) didn´t secure the site of the extraordinary event against other persons or didn´t keep the initial condition until the members of the Police Corps come,

e) didn´t perform his own finding of an extraordinary event cause or didn´t take measures necessary to prevent the extraordinary evens or didn´t inform the sadety authority about them.

(5) The safety authority shall impose a fine from 1 000 euros to 15 000 euros to the railroad owner who fails to maintain the railroad in an operational capable condition, fails to care of the railroad development in accordance with the technical progress and requirements for the safety and fluency of the traffic on the railroad, and ensure neither the railroad operation by other person nor offer it for sale.

(6) The safety authority shall impose a fine from 2 000 euros to 30 000 euros to the infrastructure manager that:

a) didn´t establish or doesn´t use the safety management system or such a system is not in compliance with the national safety regulations or the safety requirements of technical specifications for interoperability or it doesn´t contain the minimum safety targets and essential elements set out in Annex No 10 or measures necessary to assurance of the safe management of the railway infrastructure operation and the traffic on it, and the risks control,

b) uses on the railway lines of an existing railway system the subsystem without authorisation or additional authorisation of the safety authority or the railway vehicle withou registration number,

c) didn´t submit by 30 June an anual report on safety for previous calendar year,

d) allow an access to the railway undertaking network without a valid safety certificate,


e) didn´t inform about substantial changes of the regulatory framework which are important for the safety authorisation validity or operates the railway infrastructure without a valid safety authorisation,

f) failed to ensure the staff participation in training related to satisfying the safety authorisation requirements, or the non-discriminatory access of railway undertakings to such a staff training.

(7) The safety authority shall impose a fine from 2 000 euros to 30 000 euros to the railway undertaking that:

a) didn´t establish or doesn´t use the safety management system or such a system is not in compliance with the national safety regulations or it doesn´t contain the minimum safety targets and essential elements set out in Annex No 10 or measures necessary to assurance of the safe management of the safe railway transport operation and the risks control,

b) uses on the railway lines of an existing railway system the subsystem without authorisation or additional authorisation of the safety authority or the railway vehicle withou registration number,

c) didn´t submit by 30 June an anual report on safety for previous calendar year,

d) operates the railway transport without valid safety certificate,

e) didn´t ensure the staff training for fullfilment of the safety certificate requirements.

(8) The regulatory body shall impose a fine from 800 euros to 10 000 euros to the railroad operator that:

a) doesn´t issue or publish, in the stations and stops, the timetable or its amendment,

b) doesn´t maintain the order, accessibility and cleanness in the station, stop and platform spaces,

c) didn´t implement or maintain, in the station, stop and platform spaces, the information system necessary for the passenger orientation including the hear or sight disabled passengers, or doesn ´t provide with other necessary information relating to the railroad operation or the traffic on the railroad,

d) didn´t take sufficient measures to enable the use of public passenger transport on the railroad for disabled persons and persons with child´s cart or animals,

e) didn´t provide the stations or other buildings, located within the railroad precinct and designated for the public passenger transport, with necessary spaces for the railroad undertaking so that a proper run of the public passenger transport and the services for passengers would be ensured;

f) didn´t mark the employees authorised, within the railroad precinct, to give instructions to other persons relating to the railroad operation or the traffic on the railroad,

g) didn´t indicate the names of operated stations and stops or didn´t mark the direction of railway vehicles movement,

h) didn´t mark the spaces in which the smoking or alcoholic beverage drinking is prohibited by the act and which are located within the railroad precinct, with the pictogram or the words,

i) didn´t allow up to all applicants ,satisfying the requirements for the railroad use, an acces to the railroad under the equitable and non-discriminatory terms and until the entire


railroad capacity is allocated; this shall apply in the railway transport fort applicants having the licence and safety certificate,

j) without serious reasons, didn´t stop or restrict the traffic on the railroad or didn´t ensure a minimum extent of the traffic during the employees strike,

k) didn´t prepare or maintain in an up-dated condition the list of working positions and activities requiring the professional competence and the medical and psychological fitness or didn´t define the topic orientation of the training in authorised educational institution, or didn´t ensure that the employees would be subjected to the professional training and the examination for obtaining the professional competence document or to the regular trainings for the professional competence maintenmance.

(9) The regulatory body shall impose a fine from 1 000 euros to 15 000 euros to the infrastructure manager or the railway undertaking that:

a) didn´t prepare the business plan,

b) doesn´t manage or operate the railway infrastructure in due course, in particular it fails to ensure its maintenance and investments for its upgrading or significant renewal,

c) allocates the infrastructure capacity on an unfair and discriminatory basis or in conflict with the framework rules set out by the regulatory body,

d) didn´t develop a railway network statement, didn´t follow it or proceeds on an unfair and discriminatory basis causing thereby deficiences in scheduling the international train routes, in submitting the applications for railway infrastructure allocation and delaling with such applications or in completing the timetable,

e) restricts the right to access to the railway infrastructure or railway services withou legal reasons or doesn´t allow an access to a minimum access package and track access to service facilities,

f) doesn´t cooperate with the managers of connecting railway infrastructures in capacity allocating on more railway networks and it obstruct thereby an organisation of the international train routes,

g) doesn´t follow the timetable compiling rules in particular the negotiation and coordination rules thereof or doesn´t declare the congested infrastructure or didn´t prepare a capacity analysis and an infrastructure capacity enhancement plan,

h) didn´t draw up an emergency plan to solve the emergency situations,

i) doesn´t observe the regulatory body decisions.

(10) The investigating body shall impose a fine from 1 000 euros to 15 000 euros to the railroad operator and the railway undertaking that:

a) didn´t provide the investigating body or the police body with technical assistance and information necessary to investigate the accident or the extraordinary event,

b) doesn´t detect the causes of an accident or extraordinary event or didn´t notify to the investigating body the serious accident or the extraordinary event having the serious accident consequences,

c) didn´t draw up an emergency plan for the case of an accident or extraordinary event or didn´t issue an internal rule regulating the procedures of the detection of accident or extraordinary event causes, the method of reporting their occurences, the tasks of organisation units and railroad undertakings envolved in the causes detection,


d) doesn´t care of prevention of the accident origin through the regular training of employees.

(11) The investigating body shall impose a fine from 800 euros to 10 000 euros to the infrastructure manager and the railway undertaking that:

a) don´t report immediatelly an accident or extraordinary event to the coordination centre of Integrated Rescue System and the investigating body,

b) didn´t ensure the place of the accident or extraordinary event against other persons or changed initial condition without serious reasons or didn´t record an initial condition in place,

c) don´t carry out his own detection of reasons of accident or extraordinary event causes or didn´t inform the investigating body about the taken measures.

(12) The regulatory body shall impose a fine from 1 000 euros to 15 000 euros to the infrastructure manager that:

a) defined the charge outside the regulatory framework laid down by the regulatory body,

b) didn´t ensure that the charging system would have been based on the same principles applied to entire network or that from the charging scheme would result the equitable and non-discriminatory charges for all railway undertaking performing transport services of equivalent nature in a similar part of the railway transport market, and that the charges would be actually applied in accordance with the rules laid down in the railway network statement,

c) didn´t provide the railway undertaking with necessary information about particular charges for afforded services pursuant to Annex No 13, Part B.

(13) The procceding on fine imposition pursuant to paragraphs 1 to 12 may start within six months form the day, when administration authority has been inform about the administrative delinquency but at the latest within three years from the day when administrative delinquency has occured. In the case of permanant activity or omission, the period will start to lapse on the last day of the end of such permanent activity or omission.

(14) When specifying the fine amount the administration authority shall be obliged to take account of circumstances in which the administrative delinquency occured in particular the seriousness of consequences for the railroad operation and the traffic on the railroad, the duration of an illegal status as well as whether it is a repeated activity or an omission. In case of a repeated administrative delinquency of the same person occuring within two years from the date when a preceding decision has entered into force, a fine may by imposed in the amount of doubled rate pursuant to 1 to 12.

(15) The fine receipts shall form a part of the state budget revenue. If a fine has been imposed by the higher territorial unit, the fine receipt shall form a part of its budget revenue.

P A R T S E V E N

COMMON, TEMPORARY AND FINAL PROVISIONS

Article 110

Common provisions

(1) As the person with good repute in accordance with this act shall be considered the person who has not been sentenced by court for committing a deliberate crime or for negligence crime the subject-matter of which is connected to the function or the railroad


operation, the traffic on the railroad, the railroad vehicle driving or the tax and fee obligations against the public budget, or the person whose imposed sentence has been erased or the person to whose the activity prohibition has not been imposed in criminal or offence proceeding or the prohibition perios has already expired. A good repute shall be demonstraded by the an extract from the crime register not older than three months.

(2) For the purpose of this Act, the Member State shall mean:

a) the Member State of the European Union, except for the Republic of Cyprus and the Republic of Malta,

b) the state which is a contracting party of the European Economical Area Agreement, except for the Republic of Iceland, and

c) the Swiss Confederation.

(3) Unless excluded by nature of the matter or otherwise provided by special act,36) the provisions of the Part Two on accidents and extraordinary events investigations in the existing railway system, shall accordingly apply also to accident and extraordinary event investigations occured on railroads ousite the existing railway system and to investigations of extraordinary events in the operation of designated technical devices referred to in Part One.

Article 111

Procedural provisions

(1) Unless otherwise provided below, the general regulation on administrative proceeding shall apply to the proceedings referred to in this Act. The general regulation on administrative proceeding shall not apply to the procedures of the infrastructure manager relating to the infrastructure capacity allocation, the network timetable and network statement preparing.

(2) Unless otherwise provided in this Act for the period necessary for decision, such period shall be 60 days from the day when, on the proposal, the proceeding on the motion began. When provison of the expertise, the subsystem and component tests or sampling from the wrecks or the wreckages of railway vehicles or the State supervision execution or the investigation are necessary for obtaining the supporting documents for the purpose of decision-making, the time nedded for their obtaining or execution shall not be included into such period.

(3) Objections may be submitted against Authoriy decisions; this shall not apply in case of decisions of the Authority acting as the Special Construction Office. The Authority chairman shall decide on objections on proposal of a special commission established by him.

Article 112

Temporary provisions

(1) The Authority pursuant to this Act shall mean the Railway Regulatory Authority established pursuant actual regulations.

(2) The functional periods of the Authority chairman and vice-chairman shall expire by elapsing the periods for which they have been appointed in accordance with actual regulations.

(3) Authorisations for the railroad operation, safety authorisations, safety certificates and other valid decisions and price acts as well as all types of licences, certificates and similar documents issued in accordance with actual regulations, shall remain in force until their validity periods expire or they are cancelled in proceedings pursuant this Act.


(4) Proceedings opened under actual regulations shall be completed in accordance with this Act. In proceeding on the offence or other administrative deliquency only such sanction may be imposed, which will be equal to the amount allowed by regulations being in force in time, when the offence or administrative deliquency has been committed; this amount shall be converted into euro pursuant to the exchange rate.

(5) Payments for infrastructure manager to ensure a balanced management in the amount of fixed costs incurred on the operation of the railway infrastructure shall be provided by the Ministry by 31 December 2011 up to the amount approved for this purpose in the Act on the state budged for relevant budget year.

(6) Charges for an access and use of the railway infrastructure and for services provided in a minimum access package and track access to service facilities and the provision of services pursuant to AnnexNo 13, Part B, points 1. and 2. pursuant to Article 53, shall be specified from 1 January 2011; till this date, the price regulations on the control of prices for use of the railway transport road in national passenger and freight transport, in the wording being in force by 1 January 2010, shall be followed.

Article 113

Legal acts of the European Communities and the European Union specified in the Annex No 15 shall be transposed by this Act.

Article 114

Repealing provisions

The following shall be repealed:

1. Act of the National Council of the Slovak Republic No 164/1996 Coll. of 17 May 1996 on railroads and on amendment of the Act No 455/1991 Coll. on Small Trade Business (the Trade License Act) as amended by later regulations in the wording of the Acts No 58/1997 Coll., No 260/2001 Coll., No 416/2001 Coll., No 114/2004 Coll., No 725/2004 Coll., No 109/2005 Coll., No 466/2005 Coll., No 479/2005 Coll., No 1/2007 Coll., No 109/2007 Coll. and No 330/2007 Coll.

2. Regulation of the Government of the Slovak Republic No 594/2006 Coll. on technical requirements for interoperability of of trans-European high-speed rail system as amended by the regulation of the Government of the Slovak Republic No 619/2007 Coll.

3. Decree of the Federal Ministry of the Transport No 61/1982 Coll. on designated technical devices.

4. Decree of the Federal Ministry of the Transport No 72/1984 Coll. on conditions of the capability of ISO containers for the safe and fluent operation.

5. Decree of the Federal Ministry of the Transport No 7/1988 Coll. on crossing the roads and railroads at the level of the track.

6. Decree of the Federal Ministry of the Transport No 38/1990 Coll., establishing the lifting devices for the hangling with ISO containers of series 1.

7. Decree of the Ministry of Transport, Posts and Telecommunications of the Slovak Republic No 249/1997 Coll. on the model for preparing the transport order on railroads.

8. Decree of the Ministry of Transport, Posts and Telecommunications of the Slovak Republic No 250/1997 Coll., issuing the railroad transport order.


9. Decree of the Ministry of Transport, Posts and Telecommunications of the Slovak Republic No 113/1999 Coll. on the outfit and marking of the railroad operator staff and the staff of the operator of traffic on the railroad.

10. Decree of the Ministry of Transport, Posts and Telecommunications of the Slovak Republic No 499/2007 Coll. on medical, sensory and psychological fitnesses of persons in operating the railroad and the traffic on the railroad.

11. Arrangement of the Federal Ministry of the Transport No 19 239/74 of 17 July 1974 on periods of supervisory activity of the state professional technical supervision (registered in the Part 15/1974 Coll.).

12. Arrangement of the Federal Ministry of the Transport No 26 049/76 of 29 December 1976, issuing the Examination order for drivers, conductors, controllers, dispatchers and workers of the carriage control of the urban mass transport (registered in the Part 8/1977 Coll.) as amended by the Arrangement of the Federal Ministry of the Transport of 12 February 1982 No 7129/1982-025 (registered in the Part 9/1982 Coll.).

13. Arrangement of the Federal Ministry of the Transport No 19 022/1978 of 25 September 1978 on professional competence in the electrical engineering on railroads (registered in Part 32/1978 Coll.).

14. Arrangement of the Federal Ministry of the Transport No 9737/84-025 of 8 October 1984 on carriage of military container consignments (registered in Part e 22/1984 Coll.).

15. Arrangement of the Federal Ministry of the Transport No 5095/85-ÚÚŽZ of 20 June 1985 issuing the guidelines on nedical fitness of the staff on railways (registered in Part 16/1985 Coll.).

16. Arrangement of the Federal Ministry of the Transport No 8969/1985-025 of 4 December 1985 specifying certain conditions of the execution of the State professional technical supervision for assurance of the safety of series 1 ISO containers (registered in Part 24/1985 Coll.).

17. Arrangement of the Federal Ministry of the Transport No 25 188/76-025 on Rules of railways technical operation (registered in Part 3/1977 Coll.).

18. Arrangement of the Federal Ministry of the Transport No 25 110/77-025 on Rules of cableways technical operation (registered in Part 11/1978 Coll.).

19. Arrangement of the Federal Ministry of the Transport No 16 349/79 on Rules of sidings technical operation (registered in Part 27/1979 Coll.).

20. Order of the Railway Regulatory Authority No 654/2005 Coll., establishing the scope of the price control in railway transport.

21. Rules of urban railroads technical operation issued by the Ministry of Transport (registered in Part 25/1970 Coll.) as amended by arrangement No 10461/70-SMD issued by the Ministry of Transport, as amended by arrangement No 8632/72-25 issued by the Federal Ministry of the Transport (registered in Part 7/1972 Coll.) and arrangement No 12445/77 issued by the Federal Ministry of the Transport (registered in Part 12/1977 Coll.).

Section II

Act No 50/1976 Coll. on on the country planning and the construction order (Building Act) as amended by the Act of the National Council of the Slovak Republic No 139/1982 Coll.,


Act No 103/1990 Coll., Act No 262/1992 Coll., Act No 136/1995 Coll., Act of the Slovak National Council No 199/1995 Coll., finding of the Constitution Court of the Slovak Republic No 286/1996 Coll., Act No 229/1997 Coll., Act No 175/1999 Coll., Act No 237/2000 Coll., Act No 416/2001 Coll., Act No 553/2001 Coll., finding of the Constitution Court of the Slovak Republic No 217/2002 Coll., Act No 103/2003 Coll., Act No 245/2003 Coll., Act No 417/2003 Coll., Act No 608/2003 Coll., Act No 541/2004 Coll., Act No 290/2005 Coll., Act No 479/2005 Coll., Act No 24/2006 Coll., Act No 218/2007 Coll., Act No 540/2008 Coll. and Act No 66/2009 Coll. shall be amended as follows:

1. In Article 108 ods. 2,the letter l) shall read:

„l) structures of the railroad and its parts and structures in protective railroad zone serving for the railroad operation or fot the traffic on the railroad, for an access to the railroad or its part or for the purpose of providing the railroad operation or the traffic on the railroad,10h)".

The footnote to the reference 10h shall read: "10h) Article 11 Act No 513/2009 Coll. on railroads and on amendments of some acts.".

2. In Article 126 paragraph 1, the text "and on the traffic on the railroad" shall be inserted after the text "railroads".

Section III

Act of the National Council of the Slovak Republic No 372/1990 Coll. on offences as amended by the Act Slovenskej národnej rady No 524/1990 Coll., Act of the Slovak National Council No 266/1992 Coll., Act of the Slovak National Council No 295/1992 Coll., Act of the Slovak National Council No 511/1992 Coll., Act of the National Council of the Slovak Republic No 237/1993 Coll., Act of the National Council of the Slovak Republic No 42/1994 Coll., Act of the National Council of the Slovak Republic No 248/1994 Coll., Act of the National Council of the Slovak Republic No 249/1994 Coll., Act of the National Council of the Slovak Republic No 250/1994 Coll., Act of the National Council of the Slovak Republic No 202/1995 Coll., Act of the National Council of the Slovak Republic No 207/1995 Coll., Act of the National Council of the Slovak Republic No 265/1995 Coll., Act of the National Council of the Slovak Republic No 285/1995 Coll., Act of the National Council of the Slovak Republic No 160/1996 Coll., Act of the National Council of the Slovak Republic No 168/1996 Coll., Act No 143/1998 Coll., finding of the Constitution Court of the Slovak Republic No 319/1998 Coll., Act No 298/1999 Coll., Act No 313/1999 Coll., Act No 195/2000 Coll., Act No 211/2000 Coll., Act No 367/2000 Coll., Act No 122/2001 Coll., Act No 223/2001 Coll., Act No 253/2001 Coll., Act No 441/2001 Coll., Act No 490/2001 Coll., Act No 507/2001 Coll., Act No 139/2002 Coll., Act No 422/2002 Coll., Act No 190/2003 Coll., Act No 430/2003 Coll., Act No 510/2003 Coll., Act No 515/2003 Coll., Act No 534/2003 Coll., Act No 364/2004 Coll., Act No 533/2004 Coll., Act No 656/2004 Coll., Act No 570/2005 Coll., Act No 650/2005 Coll., Act No 211/2006 Coll., Act No 224/2006 Coll., Act No 250/2007 Coll., Act No 547/2007 Coll., Act No 666/2007 Coll., Act No 86/2008 Coll., Act No 245/2008 Coll., Act No 298/2008 Coll., Act No 445/2008 Coll., Act No 479/2008 Coll., Act No 491/2008 Coll., Act No 8/2009 Coll., Act No 70/2009 Coll., Act No 72/2009 Coll., Act No 191/2009 Coll., Act No 206/2009 Coll., Act No 387/2009 Coll. and Act No 465/2009 Coll. shall be amended as follows:

1. Article 23 shall be deleted.

2. In Article 52 letter c), the text "safety regulations predpisov" shall be replaced by the text "regulations on railpaths and on the safety".


Section IV

Act of the National Council of the Slovak Republic No 145/1995 Coll. on administrative fees as amended by the Act of the National Council of the Slovak Republic No 123/1996 Coll., Act of the National Council of the Slovak Republic No 224/1996 Coll., Act No 70/1997 Coll., Act No 1/1998 Coll., Act No 232/1999 Coll., Act No 3/2000 Coll., Act No 142/2000 Coll., Act No 211/2000 Coll., Act No 468/2000 Coll., Act No 553/2001 Coll., Act No 96/2002 Coll., Act No 118/2002 Coll., Act No 215/2002 Coll., Act No 237/2002 Coll., Act No 418/2002 Coll., Act No 457/2002 Coll., Act No 465/2002 Coll., Act No 477/2002 Coll., Act No 480/2002 Coll., Act No 190/2003 Coll., Act No 217/2003 Coll., Act No 245/2003 Coll., Act No 450/2003 Coll., Act No 469/2003 Coll., Act No 583/2003 Coll., Act No 5/2004 Coll., Act No 199/2004 Coll., Act No 204/2004 Coll., Act No 347/2004 Coll., Act No 382/2004 Coll., Act No 434/2004 Coll., Act No 533/2004 Coll., Act No 541/2004 Coll., Act No 572/2004 Coll., Act No 578/2004 Coll., Act No 581/2004 Coll., Act No 633/2004 Coll., Act No 653/2004 Coll., Act No 656/2004 Coll., Act No 725/2004 Coll., Act No 5/2005 Coll., Act No 8/2005 Coll., Act No 15/2005 Coll., Act No 93/2005 Coll., Act No 171/2005 Coll., Act No 308/2005 Coll., Act No 331/2005 Coll., Act No 341/2005 Coll., Act No 342/2005 Coll., Act No 473/2005 Coll., Act No 491/2005 Coll., Act No 538/2005 Coll., Act No 558/2005 Coll., Act No 572/2005 Coll., Act No 573/2005 Coll., Act No 610/2005 Coll., Act No 14/2006 Coll., Act No 15/2006 Coll., Act No 24/2006 Coll., Act No 117/2006 Coll., Act No 124/2006 Coll., Act No 126/2006 Coll., Act No 224/2006 Coll., Act No 342/2006 Coll., Act No 672/2006 Coll., Act No 693/2006 Coll., Act No 21/2007 Coll., Act No 43/2007 Coll., Act No 95/2007 Coll., Act No 193/2007 Coll., Act No 220/2007 Coll., Act No 279/2007 Coll., Act No 295/2007 Coll., Act No 309/2007 Coll., Act No 342/2007 Coll., Act No 343/2007 Coll., Act No 344/2007 Coll., Act No 355/2007 Coll., Act No 358/2007 Coll., Act No 359/2007 Coll., Act No 460/2007 Coll., Act No 517/2007 Coll., Act No 537/2007 Coll., Act No 548/2007 Coll., Act No 571/2007 Coll., Act No 577/2007 Coll., Act No 647/2007 Coll., Act No 661/2007 Coll., Act No 92/2008 Coll., Act No 112/2008 Coll., Act No 167/2008 Coll., Act No 214/2008 Coll., Act No 264/2008 Coll., Act No 405/2008 Coll., Act No 408/2008 Coll., Act No 451/2008 Coll., Act No 465/2008 Coll., Act No 495/2008 Coll., Act No 514/2008 Coll., Act No 8/2009 Coll., Act No 45/2009 Coll., Act No 188/2009 Coll., Act No 191/2009 Coll., Act No 274/2009 Coll., Act No 292/2009 Coll., Act No 304/2009 Coll., Act No 305/2009 Z .z., Act No 307/2009 Coll., Act No 465/2009 Coll. and Act No 478/2009 Coll. shall be amended as follows:

1. In Annex, item 70, the following letters i) and j) shall be added:

"i) Authorisation of the rail vehicle test in running (driving) for railpaths .................... 15 eur;

j) Issuing the second copy of the type-approval document pursuant to letters a) to h) 7 eur.".

2. In Annex, item 71, the following letters e) to o) shall be added:

"e) Assignment of the railway vehicle owner logo....................................................... 115 eur;

f) Modification of registration data of the railway vehicle owner ............................... 40 eur;

g) Repeal of the railway vehicle owner logo................................................................. 20 eur;

h) Authorisation for placing in service of the railroad vehicle ..................................... 40 eur;

i) Modification of the authorisation for placing in service of the railroad vehicle ...... 15 eur;

j) Assignment of the registration number to the railway vehicle ................................ 40 eur;

k) Modification or repeal of the railway vehicle registration number .......................... 15 eur;

l) Entry of the railway vehicle into national register of railway vehicles .................... 40 eur;


m) Additional authorisation for placing in service of the railway vehicle equipped with the authorisation for placing in service in railway system, issued in the other Memberr State

................................................................................................................................... 65 eur;

n) Modification or repeal of the additional authorisation pursuant to letter m) ........... 20 eur;

o) Issuing the copy of document pursuant to letters e) to k) and m) and n) ................. 7 eur.".

3. In tem 75 letter c), the text "carrier on nationwide or other regional railroad" shall be replaced by the text "railway undertaking".

4. In Annex, item 75, the following letters d) to i) hall be added:

d) Issuing the safety authorisation for the infrastructure manager .............................. 200 eur;

e) Modification or repeal of the safety certificate pursuant to letter c), or the safety authorisation pursuant to letter d) ............................................................................ 15 eur;

f) Issuing the train driver licence ................................................................................. 30 eur;

g) Modification or repeal of the train driver licence pursuant to letter f) ...................... 15 eur;

i) Issuing the copy pursuant to letters c) to g) ............................................................ 7 eur.“.

5. In Annex, item 89, letters a) and b) shall read:

"a) Issuing the authorisation for operation of the:

1. railway line .......................................................................................................... 500 eur; 2. special way, cable way ....................................................................................... 500 eur; 3. tram way, trollejbus way and the networks of such ways .................................. 500 eur; 4. siding .................................................................................................................. 200 eur;

b) Granting the licence to operate the traffic on:

1. railway lines ....................................................................................................... 500 eur; 2. the special way, cable way ................................................................................. 300 eur; 3. the networks of tram and trolleybus ways .......................................................... 300 eur; 4. the one line of the tram or trolleybus way ........................................................ 100 eur.".

Section V

Act of the National Council of the Slovak Republic No 18/1996 Coll. on prices as amended by the Act No 196/2000 Coll., Act No 276/2001 Coll., Act No 436/2002 Coll., Act No 465/2002 Coll., Act No 520/2003 Coll., Act No 523/2004 Coll., Act No 68/2005 Coll., Act No 117/2006 Coll., Act No 659/2007 Coll., Act No 382/2008 Coll. a Act No 488/2009 Coll. shall be amended as follows:

1. In Article 1 paragraph 3, the text "basic fare and special fare for transport services provided of the basis of the public service contract in the railway transport" shall be inserted before the text "and international tariffs".

2. The footnote to the reference 1 shall be added with the following: "the Act No 514/2009 Coll. on the traffic on railroads, the Act No 513/2009 Coll. on railroads and on amendments of some acts.".

3. In Article 4a paragraph 2 letter e), the text "for the traffic on the railpath7a)" as well as the reference to the footnote 7a and the text of the footnote shall be deleted.


4. In the footnote to the reference 18a the following text shall be deleted: "Act of the National Council of the Slovak Republic No 164/1996 Coll. as amended by later regulations.".

5. In Article 23e paragraphs 1 and 2, the text "the end of the period of obligatory dual price displaying22)" shall be replaced by the text "31 December 2010" and in paragraph 1 the text "letters b) and c)" shall be replaced by the text "letters b), c) and f).".

The the footnote to the reference 22 shall be deleted.

6. The following Article 23f including the title shall be inserted after Article 23e:

„Article 23f

Temporary provisions to amendments entering into force on 1 January 2010

(1) Proceedings on infringement of the price discipline opened before 1 January 2010 will be completed by the price control bodies within their competence in accordance with this Act, pursuant actual regulations.

(2) From 1 January 2010, the price control bodies shall perform a control within their scope of competence established in Article 20 paragraphs 3 to 6 and Article 23e and in accordance with Article 11 paragraph 2 also for the period before 1 January 2010.".

Section VI

The Act No 143/1998 Coll. on civil aviation (Aviation Act) and on amendment of some acts in the wording of the Act No 37/2002 Coll., Act No 136/2004 Coll., Act No 544/2004 Coll., Act No 479/2005 Coll., Act No 11/2006 Coll. and Act No 278/2009 Coll. shall be amended as follows:

The following Article 56a including the title shall be inserted after Article 56:

„Article 56a

Provision of subsidies in civil aviation sector

(1) At the written request of the airport company or the air navigation service provider, the Ministry may grant a subsidy for the purpose of the safe operation, the management, the maintenance and investments in the airport infrastructure, the airport security and the flight control and dispatching exempt from the payments without prejudice to the rules for provision of the state aid pursuant to special regulation.14a) The provision of subsidies is covered by special regulation.14b)

(2) After subsidy approval, the Ministry shall grant it on the basis of the contract on granting the subsidy concluded between the Ministry and the subsidy recepient.

(3) Details on the subsidy provision and on items of an application for subsidy shall be established by the generally binding legal regulation issued by the Ministry..“.

The footnotes to the references 14a and 14b shall read: „14a) Articles 87 to 89 of the Treaty establishing the European Community as amended by later Acts. Act No 231/1999 Coll. on State Aid as amended by later regulations. 14b) Article 8a of the Act No 523/2004 Coll. as amended by the Act No 383/2008 Coll.“.


Section VII

Entry into force

This Act shall enter into force on 1 January 2010 exempt from the section I, Article 114, point 20., which shall enter into force on 1 January 2011.

Ivan Gašparovi� s. m.

Pavol Paška s. m.

Robert Fico s. m.

Documents

Act No. 513/2009