The Council of Ministers approved this Tuesday, November 10, a royal decree-law that will allow train drivers to stop a train or not resume its operation when they detect a situation of serious and imminent risk for railway safety. The measure comes after the serious Urda railway accident (Toledo), in which 69 people died.
With this decree, which was announced by the Government spokesperson and Minister of Inclusion, Social Security and Migration, Elma Saiz, the Government wants to improve the safety of trains and respond to some of the requests that the unions of the sector had made. To achieve this, changes have been made to the driving times of train drivers, safety inspections and the retirement conditions of some workers.
Furthermore, as reported by the Ministry of Transport and Sustainable Mobility, and reported by Europa Press, the standard also seeks to protect employees who report possible risks to railway safety.
Drivers will be able to stop trains if they detect a safety hazard
The main novelty of the decree is the one that has been advanced, that the drivers will be able to stop the trains or decide not to resume their operation if they consider that there is a serious and imminent danger to safety. This decision will have to be justified by the situation and must be communicated as soon as possible to the corresponding responsible parties.
On the other hand, another measure to improve security is that employees can report possible problems without fear of retaliation; To this end, internal communication channels and public systems will be established in which workers will be able to report detected risks, keeping their identity protected.
Furthermore, the rule provides that sanctions will not be imposed in certain cases, as long as the worker has previously reported the infraction, has stopped committing it and collaborates with the investigation.
Changes in driver driving times
Another measure that will directly affect train drivers is a change in the way the time they spend driving is counted. With the new rule, some stops and maneuvers that until now could not count as driving time will be taken into account.
This will include the maneuvers in which the driver has to move around the train and the interruptions during which he remains responsible for the vehicle or has to pay attention to the traffic.
Breaks of less than 45 minutes between two driving periods of the same worker will also be fully counted. This implies that, even if during that time the driver is not driving, does not have to monitor traffic or is performing other tasks, those minutes will also count as driving time.
In the case of tests, trials and revisions of trains, even interruptions of 45 minutes or more will be taken into account.
In addition, the standard includes driving times carried out on other railway networks and establishes how they should be accounted for when, exceptionally, two drivers share driving tasks.
On the other hand, the Government has reinforced the inspections of the State Railway Safety Agency (AESF). From now on, companies will have to provide inspectors with access to the trains, facilities and equipment that they need to inspect, even if they belong to another railway company.
Retirement age reduction coefficients are extended
This new decree also introduces changes related to the retirement of some workers in the sector. Specifically, the system is expanded that allows the retirement age to be advanced for certain employees who perform the same tasks as other workers who already have this right recognized.
These are the so-called reduction coefficients, which allow those who perform jobs considered especially hard or dangerous to retire earlier.
With this measure, the Government seeks to ensure that railway workers who perform the same functions can access the same retirement conditions, even if they belong to different companies.
To do this, Royal Decree 2621/1986 has been taken as a reference, which regulates this system for certain professional groups. In addition, it has been announced that it will be studied whether other workers in the railway sector can also benefit from these reducing coefficients.
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