PROPOSAL FOR A NEW FIELD OF TECHNICAL ACTIVITY
Date of proposal
2011-11-17
Reference number
(to be given by Central Secretariat)
Proposer
ISO/TS/P 225
DIN / AFNOR
A proposal for a new field of technical activity shall be submitted to the Central Secretariat, which will assign it a reference
number and process the proposal in accordance with the ISO/IEC Directives (part 1, subclause 1.5). The proposer may be a
member body of ISO, a technical committee or subcommittee, the Technical Management Board or a General Assembly
committee, the Secretary-General, a body responsible for managing a certification system operating under the auspices of ISO,
or another international organization with national body membership. Guidelines for proposing and justifying a new field of
technical activity are given in the ISO/IEC Directives (part 1, annex Q).
The proposal (to be completed by the proposer)
Subject (the subject shall be described unambiguously and as concisely as possible)
Railway Applications
Scope (the scope shall define precisely the limits of the proposed new field of activity and shall begin with
"Standardization of ..." or "Standardization in the field of ...")
Standardization of all products and services specifically related to the Rail
Industry, including construction, operation and maintenance of parts and
equipment, methods and technology, interfaces between infrastructure and vehicles
and rail specific environmental aspects, excluding those electrotechnical and
electronic products and services for railways which are within the scope of
IEC/TC 9.
Purpose and justification (the justification shall endeavour to assess the economic and social advantages which would
result from the adoption of International Standards in the proposed new field)
Railway systems being originally often designed and operated within one country
are gaining importance for international transport of passengers and goods due to
the best safety records compared to other transport means and a very low
environmental impact.
Safe and interoperable railway transport is a benefit also for passengers and
carriers of freight. A low environmental footprint supports to reduce emissions
having an increasing political and social importance, not only for the benefit of
residents. Therefore, standardization activities need to be undertaken at an
international level in close cooperation to those actions already taking place at
regional and national standardization bodies.
Crossing of borders can be hindered by national technical regulation and
standards impeding the competitiveness with other transport means due to diverse
and partly contradicting requirements to be fulfilled by manufacturers,
operators, infrastructure managers, owners and lessors, increasing the costs for
manufacturing, bringing into service and maintaining railway products. Thus
international standardization in the domain of railway applications will bring a
considerable economic benefit to the whole sector due to the expansion of a
common view of the calculation and acceptance methods and of the use of
standardized products.
An increasing number of non-European projects request the application of UICleaflets and European standards. This leads to the assumption that a common
international platform is needed to maintain and to further develop a set of
internationally applied specifications.
FORM 1 (ISO)
Version/V2007.1
See overleaf
Programme of work (list of principal questions which the proposer wishes to be included within the limits given in the
proposed scope, indicating what aspects of the subject should be dealt with, e.g. terminology, test methods, dimensions
and tolerances, performance requirements, technical specifications, etc.) It is also possible to attach a detailed
programme of work showing proposed work item titles.
The work program of a future ISO TC on Railway applications should cover
1. a coherent set of generic standards describing general conditions and
interfaces as well as the environmental conditions and
2. a set of related product specific standards.
The drafting of generic standards is of major interest to have a common
understanding of the whole railway system and its needs. This will encourage
international experts to derive priorities for mid- and long-term standardization
strategies. Potential generic standards may be covering issues like i.e. basic
train functions, environmental conditions (noise, aerodynamics, vibration,
emissions etc.), fire safety, definitions of masses and similar items.
Based on a coherent set of generic standards, the need for further product
standards can be evaluated by the future ISO-TC. Clear benefits can be expected
by product standards defining a suite of interfaces between the track and the
vehicle.
When drafting those standards, the specific regional regulation characterized by
a set of mandatory standards must be taken into consideration. This should be
done by defining a cooperation framework (merging strategy) between the
relevant regional or national standardization organizations and ISO. As an
example, the already existing set of European standards could serve as a good
basis for future work as many of them are already applied on an international
level.
Survey of similar work undertaken in other bodies (relevant documents to be considered: national standards or other
normative documents)

EN-Standards with regard to Railway applications within CEN TC 256

IEC-Standards within TC 9 and CENELEC-standards within TC 9X

Regional and national technical regulations such as European Technical
Specifications for Interoperability (TSI) or Japanese Shorei etc.

UIC leaflets

National standards of participating NSBs as far as English translations are
available
FORM 1 (ISO) page 2
Version/2007.1
Liaison organizations (list of organizations or external or internal bodies with which cooperation and liaison should be
established)
In particular, but not limited to:
CEN/TC 256
IEC/TC 9
UIC (International Union of Railways)
AAR (Association of American Railroads), APTA (American Public Transport
Association)
RISC (Railway International Standards Center, Japan)
OSShD (Organization for Cooperation of Railways), OTIF (Intergovernmental
Organization for International Carriage by Rail)
UITP (International Association of Public Transport)
Further relevant organizations in the railway domain
Other ISO TC as far as products, specifications and methods are concerned with
direct impact on railway products or systems
Other comments (if any)
Furthermore, the proposer would like to inform the TMB that based on experience
at CEN-level, the expected workload as well as the need for specialization might
soon require a substructure of subcommittees. Such substructure should comprise
at least a SC for infrastructure and another for Rolling Stock.
It is the common view of the proposers that a future ISO railway TC would gain
most benefit if DIN could bring in its specific know-how from the secretariat
work of the railway TC 256 on CEN-level. Therefore DIN puts forward the request
to take the secretariat of a future ISO/TC Railways.
Berlin, 2011-11-18
Signature of the proposer
Dr.-Ing. Ulrike Bohnsack
Director Standardization
DIN / Germany
Comments of the Secretary-General (to be completed by the Central Secretariat)
Signature
FORM 1 (ISO) page 2
Version/2007.1
Sophie Clivio
Secretary to the TMB