Channel Tunnel Intergovernmental Commission

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Regulations and guidance

For the use of the Fixed Link the IGC has published a number of binational regulations.

As safety authority, the IGC has notified the unified safety rules to the European Commission.

In addition a number of French texts are applicable in the French part of the Concession and UK texts in the British part of the Concession.

Entered into force on 25 August 2009 and replacing the regulation of 25 October 2005 on the usage of the Channel Tunnel.

Complete revised guidance as agreed on 17 July 2013.

On the 5 October 2016 a Memorandum of Understanding between the Channel Tunnel IGC and the European Union Agency for Railways concerning cooperation in preparation for implementation of the technical pillar of the 4th Railway Package was signed by Pascale Andreani, Head of French Delegation to the IGC, Christopher Irwin, Head of UK Delegation to the IGC and Josef Doppelbauer, Executive Director of the European Union Agency for Railways.

The capability of health and safety management systems is fundamental to the control of risks in the Tunnel. The IGC has decided to use the “Railway Management Maturity Model” (RM3) to assist its staff to analyse evidence about the capability of such systems, so that they can discuss areas of improvement with Channel Tunnel businesses. RM3 sets out 26 elements of management and describes what each of them looks like at five levels from “ad hoc” (poor) through to “excellence”. Inspectors, and the businesses themselves, can then compare evidence about their actual systems to the descriptions in RM3 and determine their level of attainment. They can also target the next level and improve if necessary.

Agreement between the National Safety Authorities of the French Republic and of the United Kingdom and the Channel Tunnel Intergovernmental Commission concerning cooperation in the field of safety and interoperability of railway activities - 7 January 2021
Appendix V : Supervision PDF (717.1 kb)