Office of Rail Transport Maps of silent sections in the European Union - News -

The Regulation 2019/774 has amended the Technical Specification of Interoperability with regard to noise (TSI NOI), introducing so-called silent sections. Those are parts of railway infrastructure of at least 20-km-length, where the average number of freight trains passing by daily at nighttime in the years 2015-2017 exceeded the level of 12. Since 8 December 2024 freight wagons operated on silent sections are to fulfil the TSI NOI requirements, ie. practically should be equipped with composit brake blocks instead of cast-iron ones.

 

In Poland silent sections appear on fragments of railway line nos. 3, 8, 93, 272 and 273. The lists and maps of silent sections have been provided by Austria, the Netherlands, Czechia and Slovakia. However a significant number of Member States have not provided their silent section lists, as required by the TSI NOI. What is of importance to Polish carriers, such list hasn't been provided by Germany either.

 

The motion to amend TSI NOI was adopted by EU Member States during the meeting of the Railway Interoperability and Safety Committee in January of 2019. Activities in order to have it amended had been undertaken since 2016. From the beginning they were of utmost interest to the Polish railway market representatives due to potentially high costs of necessary adjustment of the rolling stock.

 

Poland has been able to negotiate a so-called "special case", what has enabled further operation of rolling stock with cast-iron brake blocks, as such stock forms a significant part of the Polish rolling stock fleet. These wagons may be operated in internal transfers independently from the railway line status until the end of 2036. Until the end of 2026 they may also - without restrictions - be operated within Czech and Slovak railway systems.