TSI TAF
TSI TAF
RailData is strongly involved in implementation of the TSI TAF (Technical Specification for Interoperability relating to the Telematics Applications for Freight subsystem of the rail system in the European Union).
TSI TAF has been published in the Official Journal (OJ) of the EU as Commission regulation No 1305/2014 of 11 December 2014 in all official EU members languages. English version of the text (amended in 2018 and 2019) can be downloaded as PDF file here.
Last offical release of TSI TAF has form of "Commission Implementing Regulation (EU) 2021/541 of 26 March 2021 amending Regulation (EU) No 1305/2014 as regard the simplification and improvement of data calculation and exchange and the update of the Change Control Management process (Text with EEA relevance)" and can be downloaded from Eur Lex.
Other related information can be found on the TAF TSI section of the European Union Agency for Railways (ERA) website. It includes also TAF TSI Technical Documents (TD´s). At the ERA website you can see also implementation Master Plan as well as Status reports on implementation.
How We support TSI TAF
RailData supports TSI TAF implementation in several ways: we help our Users to fulfil specific TSI TAF obligations of also contribute to the implementation and specifications improvement on EU level.
Consignment Note data
Railway Undertakings (RUs) connected to ORFEUS system fulfil the requirements set by the TSI TAF regulation for the Consignement note function. ORFEUS enables complete consignment note data exchange between collaborating RUs in any role (contractual, successive or substitute carriers). Thanks to the RailData and Joint Sector Group effort, supported by the EUAR, the TAF specifications shall be amended to be in line with COTIF. On the technical level, new version (1.6) of the ORFEUS message "ECN" has been developed fully in line with the TAF data catalogue. Finally this format (ECN v1.6) was adopted as the official XSD schema for the TAF "Consignment Order Message" (COM). While users of older ORFEUS messages are considered as "soft" compliant, any ORFEUS user on version 1.6 will be fully TAF compliant.
Wagon Movement
of the wagon
ISR is central tool for exchange wagon status information between Railway Undertakings. Therefore ISR is very relevant to fufil the requirements set by the TSI TAF regulation for the Wagon Movement function.
Since the ISR events map well with the ones required by TAF, EUAR issued soft compliance report for the existing Wagon Status Message (WSM). To achieve full compliance, RailData developed new WSM version (61) fully in line with TAF data catalogue, close to current version (60). Through the TAF change management, this new version (61) was adopted as the offical TAF schema for wagon movement reporting. In addition, new release of TAF core text has been amended and now is fully in line with ISR and uses WSM as universal message for all event types.
Train Running information
RailData receives Train Running Information from the TIS application of RailNetEurope, using the TAF TRI message and the TAF Common Interface. Train run data are enriched with wagon data and used for wagon status purposes and for train run information for the Railway Undertakings. As part of this service, translation between TAF CRD location codes and the UIC location codes is done using the look up table.
Support for TAF Revision
RailData also actively represent views of its Members and Users in the TAF related bodies, like TAF-TSI Steering Committee, Joint Sector Group or Telematics Cluster. RailData already submitted a number of Change Requests for the ongoing revision and improvement of TAF regulation. For years, there is own TAF working group working to support these activities. RailData also meets about twice a year with EUAR to exchange about TAF issues. On request from the Joint Sector Group, RailData established "Telematics experts groups" number 5 (for Consignment note function) and 6 (for Wagon movement function). Both "TEG 5" and "TEG 6" delivered change proposals for relevant TAF functions and acchived acceptance of their proposals in the TAF change management process.
Digital Platform Of European Rail Freight
