Railway product certification

Product approval in the railway industry was fairly informal up to the 1990's with railway administrations using engineering led techniques that differed between disciplines. During the 1980s and 90s the complexity of previously simple products increased sharply due principally to a large rise in systems with embedded software. This was particularly significant in signalling, rolling stock, telecommunications and electrification control systems. During the same period there were major developments in engineering standards for systems employing software (eg IEC61508, EN50126, EN50128 & EN50129) and major legal changes in the European Union driven by a requirement to separate railway infrastructure management from railway operations (Directives 91/440/EC) and to achieve interoperability across the Trans European Network Directives 96/48/EC & 2001/16/EC).EN50128 was developed as one of a family of standards to provide railway specific guidance compatible to IEC61508, but avoiding railway suppliers using IEC61508 directly. The requirements for Certification or Type Approval of new railway systems or products are often uncertain, sometimes frustrating and usually time consuming. Lloyd's Register has used its experience in performing Independent Safety Assessment and Notified Body assessments under European Interoperability regulations to develop a new Railway Product Certification service against the EN family of railway standards. This paper describes the requirements for railway product certification and type approval and in particular the lessons learnt in developing this service against the European Standard EN50129 'Safety-related Electronic Systems for Railway Signalling'.

• Record URL:
  http://railknowledgebank.com/Presto/content/Detail.aspx?q=UmFpbHdheSBwcm9kdWN0IGNlcnRpZmljYXRpb24=&ctID=MTk4MTRjNDUtNWQ0My00OTBmLTllYWUtZWFjM2U2OTE0ZDY3&rID=NDMw&qcf=&ph=VHJ1ZQ==&bckToL=VHJ1ZQ==&
• Authors:
  • Cheeseman P
• Conference:
  • AusRAIL PLUS 2007, 4-6 December 2007, Sydney, NSW, Australia
• Publication Date: 2007

Media Info

• Pagination: 8p.
• Monograph Title: AusRAIL PLUS 2007, celebrating the past, creating the future, 4-6 December 2007, Sydney, NSW, Australia

Subject/Index Terms

• TRT Terms: Policy, legislation and regulation; Quality control; Railroad transportation
• ATRI Terms: Quality control; Rail transport; Transport regulation
• Subject Areas: Railroads;

Filing Info

• Accession Number: 01516848
• Record Type: Publication
• Source Agency: ARRB
• Files: ATRI
• Created Date: Mar 4 2014 7:55PM