In order to pursue efforts to establish a single market for rail transport services, initiated by Council Directive 91/440/EEC of 29 July 1991 on the development of the Community's railways , it is necessary to establish a common regulatory framework for railway safety.

DIRECTIVE 2004/49/EC OF THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT AND OF THE COUNCIL of 29 April 2004 on safety on the Community's railways and amending Council Directive 95/18/EC on the licensing of railway undertakings and Directive 2001/14/EC on the allocation of railway infrastructure capacity and the levying of charges for the use of railway infrastructure and safety certification (Railway Safety Directive)

EUROPA - EU law and publications - EUR-Lex - EUR-Lex - 32004L0049 - EN - DIRECTIVE 2004/49/EC OF THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT AND OF THE COUNCIL of 29 April 2004 on safety on the Community's railways and amending Council Directive 95/18/EC on the licensing of railway undertakings and Directive 2001/14/EC on the allocation of railway infrastructure capacity and the levying of charges for the use of railway infrastructure and safety certification (Railway Safety Directive) // on safety on the Community's railways and amending Council Directive 95/18/EC on the licensing of railway undertakings and Directive 2001 /14/EC on the allocation of railway infrastructure capacity and the levying of charges for the use of railway infrastructure and safety ce ...[+++]rtification // Common Safety Indicators // Notification of national safety rules // Safety Management Systems // Declarations for network specific part of safety certificate // Principal content of accident and incident investigation report

The White Paper proposes a programme of some 60 measures, most of which can be grouped in the following categories: introduction of competition in the railways through regulated market opening; improvement and better enforcement of social and safety legislation in the road sector; promotion of intermodality, notably through the Marco Polo programme; carrying out targeted investment in the TENs for railways and other alternatives to road infrastructure, as provided for in the revision of the TEN Guidelines; creation of a Single European Sky; introducing a fair system of ...[+++] charging for the use of infrastructure; improving safety in transport, fixing the objective of a 50% reduction in road fatalities by 2010.

Accordingly, the various models of cars and even different versions of the same model must be treated as different products: similarly, a distinction must be made between first-class and second-class railway journeys.

"Where the distance by rail between the official's place of employment and his place of origin exceeds 500 km and in cases where the usual route includes a sea-crossing, he shall be entitled, on production of the tickets, to reimbursement of the cost of travel by air in the class immediately below luxury class or first class".