Months of work between VTG Rail UK and the Office of the Rail Regulator (ORR) on the development of an accreditation process to become an Entity in Change of Maintenance (ECM) culminated earlier this month when the first full certificates were awarded.
The ORR approached VTG at the end of 2011 and asked if they would cooperate with the Regulator on an ECM accreditation pilot scheme for freight wagons.
Having agreed to help on the pilot, VTG made available to the ORR its vast knowledge and experience gained as owner of Britain's largest freight wagon fleet. The ORR looked at all aspects of VTG’s maintenance sites and regimes as the accreditation process developed.
The pilot was successfully completed in May 2012, so VTG applied formally on 1 June to become an ECM and was duly granted that status on 4 October 2012, the first day of accreditation award.
The Railway and Other Guided Systems (ROGS) regulations passed into UK law on 26 August 2011, when it became a legal requirement for both passenger and freight wagon owners to have an Entity in Charge of Maintenance. With that, it became a criminal offence for wagon keepers not to have an ECM appointed for every wagon on the network and for that ECM not to have a maintenance regime for that wagon.
Each ECM has to ensure that, through a system of maintenance, a vehicle for which is it responsible is safe to run on the mainline railway. The system of maintenance is the maintenance of a vehicle in accordance with:
- the maintenance file for that vehicle;
- applicable maintenance rules; and
- applicable technical specifications for interoperability.
VTG Rail UK acts as keeper and ECM for all the wagons in its fleet, utilising its unrivalled “in-house” Engineering and Fleet Management capability.
The Rail UK’s team of 16 highly trained and experienced staff are based at its modern Birmingham offices from where it administers its UK fleet of around 1,800 rail freight vehicles.
In addition, as part of Europe's No.1 provider of private wagon hire services, with in excess of 53,000 wagons, VTG has at its disposal a wealth of experience and resources from throughout its organisation.
VTG also offers a service to “private” wagon owners who do not have such capability in-house, either by buying the wagons then leasing them back or by developing a bespoke wagon management package, enabling owners to rest assured they will be fully compliant with ROGS regulations.
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Note to editors:
- VTG Rail UK, a subsidiary of VTG Aktiengesellschaft (SCN: VTG999), is one of Europe’s leading wagon hire and rail logistics companies.
- The company has the largest private wagon fleet in Europe. Globally the fleet consists of about 50,000 rail freight cars with a focus on tank cars and state of the art high capacity freight cars and flat cars.
- In addition to the hiring of wagons, the Group offers global tank container transport and comprehensive multi-modal logistics services mainly around rail transport.
- With the combination of its three interrelated divisions Wagon Hire, Rail Logistics and Tank Container Logistics VTG offers its clients a high-performance platform for international transport of their freight.
- The Group has many years of experience and specific know-how in particular in the transport of liquid and sensitive goods. Its customers include numerous well-known companies from almost all industrial sectors such as, for example, chemicals, mineral oil, the automobile or paper industries.
- This release was issued on behalf of VTG Rail UK by Woodhouse Communications
- For more information contact Woodhouse on 01444 221000 or email info@woodhousecommunications.co.uk