ABSTRACT
Italy is the European country with the highest number of railway tunnels whose cover about 10% of the entire infrastructure. Rete Ferroviaria Italiana (RFI) is the company in charge of almost all the Italian railway network management and it ensures the safety conditions on over 1.500 km of tunnels, which have been built until 150 years ago and are still in service.
In this respect, RFI applies the current regulations of the sector, such as Italian Ministerial Decree - Safety in railway tunnels - 28/10/2005 and EU Regulation Safety in Railway Tunnels Technical Specify of Interoperability (SRT TSI).
These national and European regulations are relatively recent, since they have been developed in the last 20 years.
The paper will illustrate the criteria through which the Italian infrastructure manager defines of the safety requirements of tunnels in service and new projects.
