TUV Rheinland wins contract for rolling stock approval in Ireland
Published January 14th, 2008
The Irish National Railway Safety Authority, the Railway Safety Commission, has awarded TÜV Rheinland a follow-on contract for consultancy services for rolling stock approval.
Cologne/Dublin. January 2007. The Celtic tiger period in Ireland has brought rapid growth to the Emerald Isle. This new wealth has resulted in an unprecedented level of investment to modernise Irish infrastructure and new transport services. Irish Rail (Iarnród Éireann) is currently one of Europe’s most rapidly changing national railway networks with the intercity fleet being transformed from the oldest to the newest in Europe.
The Railway Safety Commission was appointed by the Irish government to assess the safety of rolling stock before it is brought into service. New rolling stock is required to comply with national regulations as well as the Railway Safety Directive 2004/49/EC and Conventional Rail Directive 2001/16/EC respectively.
The TÜV Rheinland InterTraffic team has been providing technical and management consultancy to the Railway Safety Commission for the development of national approval processes, definition of safety criteria and has also performed rolling stock safety assessment since April 2007.
This initial contract encompassed technical consultancy for the approval of the eco-friendly diesel multiple unit class 22000 intercity railcar fleet. The 3 car sets with a top speed of 160 km/h were manufactured by a partnership between Rotem of South Korea and Tokyu Car Corporation of Japan, who supplied the bogies.
“The cooperation between the Railway Safety Commission, the TÜV Rheinland team, the engineers from Irish Rail, Rotem and Tokyu Car Corporation produced most fruitful results which speak for themselves. Just a mere two weeks after securing the final test results, the first trains went into service on the Dublin to Sligo route. We are looking forward to continuing this work in 2008”, reported Maik Wuttke, Senior Project Manager, TÜV Rheinland InterTraffic GmbH.
Due to the booming conditions in terms of modernisation of Irish infrastructure, TÜV Rheinland has been involved in various other projects including the Mark 4 push-pull sets for the Intercity fleet and the refurbishment of the EMU class 8100 DART carriages for the commuter fleet.
With the awarding of the follow-on contract for 2008, the Railway Safety Commission has demonstrated its continued confidence in TÜV Rheinland’s expertise. The team at TÜV Rheinland is looking forward to intensifying their good work with the authority and railway undertakings in Ireland.
Related Articles
