UIC and the development of worldwide railway standards - Unife

International Standards 

16 April 2012 

Emilio Maestrini , Director Rail System 

Department

Contents 

1. The Reasons for Standardisation 

Fundamental Values 

Characteristics 

Context 

Challenges 

2. Railway Standardisation 

Stakeholders’ Families 

Stakeholders’ Roles 

UIC Leaflets Development 

3. UIC Standardisation 

Specification Space 

Activity 

Guidelines and Products 

394 UIC Leaflets in the Rail System Forum 

4. UIC Agreements CEN/CNL Agreement , Revision and ISO proposal 

MOU Unife for Tec Rec 

MOU ERA and ECC for applications TSI 

2 A Path towards Standardisation/16 April 2012

The Reason for Standardisation 

for the market 

Standardisation facilitates the free movement of people and goods. 

Services 

Network Interoperability 

Means of Communication 

Technological Development 

Innovation 

are the items that pivot around 

Standardisation. 

Standards 

increase the competition, 

lower output and sales 

costs, 

benefiting economy as a 

whole and consumers in 

Standards produce significant 

particular. 

positive economic effects, for 

example by promoting 

economic 

interpenetration on the 

internal market and encouraging 

the development of new 

and improved products or 

markets and improved supply 

conditions. 

Standards may 

3 A Path towards Standardisation/16 April 2012 

- maintain and enhance 

quality 

- provide information 

- ensure interoperability 

and compatibility, 

- increase safety and 

value for consumers.

The Reasons for Standardisation 

Characteristics 

The Standardisation System should be a voluntary 

system, organised under principles such as 

• transparency 

• openness 

• impartiality 

• consensus 

• maintenance 

• availability 

• quality 

• stability 

• effectiveness 

• independence of specific interests 

• market relevance 

• coherence 



Context 

......... 



Challenges 

Standards help in the major societal challenges 

globalisation 

economic and financial crisis 

innovation 

market weaknesses 

climate change 

sustainable resource use 

ageing of population 

integration of people with disabilities 

consumer protection 

It is necessary to ensure that the role 

and the input of public and societal 

stakeholders in the elaboration of 

standards are strengthened. 

workers’ safety and conditions 

social inclusion 


Railway Standardisation 

Stakeholders’ Families 

Right Roles in the field of Railway Standardisation 

Stakeholders: 

• Operators (Railway Undertak. & Infra. Manag.) 

• Manufacturers 

• Standardisation Bodies (NSB,Cen/Cnl…) 

Service - Market - Essential Prerogatives of 

Railway 

+ 

(Multiform Geographical Reality) 

+ 

(Specific Interests) 



Stakeholders’ Roles 

Reestablish the ROLES of the 

different Stakeholders 

The focal point of Operators Transports shall be the Service to the 

Market. 

The role of the industry is to supply the instrumental tools by which the RUs (Railway 

Undertakings) & IMs (Infrastructure Managers) supply the services. They are involved 

in the Quality process . 

The NSBs (National Safety Bodies) have a role of definition, verification and control of 

the requirements which shall enhance safety. 

The V&V process (Validation & Verification) is based on the Standard applied by NoBo 

(Notified Bodies), thus Standards are a value for safety . 



UIC Leaflets Development 

How? 

Determine a STEP CHANGE in the Railway Transport: 

‣ to unify processes and instrumental tools to answer to the new safety 

requirements 

‣ to define the minim level of quality of the services 

‣ to analyse the sustainability to get the necessary resources 

What? 

Unify pre-competitive functionalities and their measurement through RAMS 

parameters (Reliability, Availability, Maintainability and Safety) and LCC (Life Cycle 

Cost). 

Standardisation arrives to the processes and, at last, to the measurability indexes (Key 

Performance Indicator - KPI) on which to build the business cases ( Asset 

Management) and consequently offer products in a competitive manner. 


UIC Standardisation 

Specification Space 

= LCC 

P = Requiments 

= RAMS 

= Functionalities 



Activity 

1. Need of Standardisation Activity for the new demands of the market . 

2. Definition of International Railway Standards (IRS) specify requirements used in the whole world 

3. International Railway Standards define and rely upon a description of the Railway System based 

on Level Systems and Subsystems mutually linked by defined Interfaces. 

4. Systems, Subsystems, Components and Interfaces are in the main interest of UIC Members because 

they are the main entities in charge of the production of the Railway Service . The UIC G.A. asked 

for the creation of a Working Group , named SWG (Standardisation Working Group) , charged to 

find out the most effective Leaflets that are of interest to Members. 

SWG 

Standardisation 

Working 

Group 

Classify UIC 

Leaflets for 

IRS 

Consider 

technology 

progresses 

Missing 

standards 

Answer to 

needs of 

UIC 

Members. 


To ensure a modern 

Leaflets today . 


700 UIC Leaflets of which 400 in the Rail System Forum 

state-of-the-art : a first step is to evaluate the development of UIC 

Categories 

Work 

Program 

0 Good as they are 

A Direct global importance, sometimes they have to be updated with the 

highest priority 

B Important and in need of being updated 

C Outdated and to be frozen 

D The new themes asked by Market in the Structure of the Railway System 




Leaflets Groups 0 A B C D 

Rolling Stock 53 3 80 136 3 

Train Track Interaction 8 3 6 4 0 

Track and Structures 30 1 20(^) 1 0 

Signalling & Operations 0 14 0 19 0 

Energy Management 0 4 9 0 0 

Total 91 25 115 160 3 

(^) Category B or C on the base of the decisions taken by the RSF Sectors 




Classification of the UIC Leaflets 

The UIC Leaflets have been classified into 3 classes according to the goal 

Railway System’s Structure. 

of the 

System 

Requirements related to Operation and Traffic Management 

Transverse Items 

Requirements to ensure safety and interoperability of the Railway System’s 

Components and Equipment 

Components 

Requirements of elementary items, groups of items, Subassemblies or Complete 

Assemblies of Equipment incorporated into a Railway Subsystem; they generally are 

the minimum unity of maintenance . 




Leaflets Groups Sy TI Co 

Rolling Stock 25 105 145 

Train Track Interaction 11 9 1 

Track and Structures 7 11 34 

Signalling & Operations 6 11 16 

Energy Management 11 1 1 

Total 60 137 197 


Co-operation between the UIC and CENELEC and 

between UIC and CEN 

> Two « Memorandum of Understanding » (MoU) 

One MoU is signed between UIC and the CEN (European Committee 

for Standardisation) 

One MoU is signed between UIC Regional Assembly Europe and the 

CENELEC (European Committee for Electrotechnical 

Standardisation). The MoU is limited to Europe due to the Dresden 

agreement. 

> The benefits expected from the use of this agreement include: 

increasing transparency of work ongoing in UIC to ESB 

(European Standardisation Bodies) members, and their 

possibility to influence the content of EN standards; 

avoidance of duplication of work and structures, thus 

allowing expertise to be focused and used in an efficient 

way for the benefit of international standardisation; 


Revision agreement CEN/CNL and Proposal ISO 

The Memorandum of Understanding signed in 2005 with CEN and CENELEC 

needs to be revised to include new issues. 

UIC has offered a huge 

Standards. 

number of Leaflets to be converted into European 

We need to find a new agreement including the development of ENs and UIC 

Leaflets and a better definition of the IP (Intellectual Property). 

UIC cannot be an active Member of ISO because it is not a National 

Standardisation Body (NSB) . However, it already is an associated Member of 

this Organisation . 

ISO has delivered a new TC (Technical Committee) for the Railway field, with 

the participation of NSBs. 

UIC offers a “world vision” for railways with a sole knowledge in the field, which 

is fully supported by Oriental Countries . 

The future of UIC is the standardisation of requirements and functions of the 

Rail System more than standardisation of industrial components. 

For this reason UIC is looking for new agreement with CEN/CNL and ISO . 


Co-operation between the UIC and UNIFE 

> UNIFE and UIC have agreed to work together and decided to jointly 

publish Technical Recommendations (TecRecs). 

> A TecRec is a UIC/UNIFE standard of which, the primary field of application 

will be the European rolling stock domain and its interfaces with other 

subsystems, and is the preferred solution by both partners for, in 

particular: 

Product and interface standards such as standardisation of 

component interfaces 

Publication of results of common research programs 

Acceleration and better influence over the European Standardisation 

works 

Pending the publication of a European standard a TecRec will serve as a 

common comprehensive standard, approved by UIC and UNIFE to improve 

the competitiveness of the European railway systems. 

TecRecs are managed by a joint UIC/UNIFE Co-ordination Group. Priorities 

and resolution of conflicts are provided by a joint high-level TecRec 

Steering Board. 


Co-operation between the UIC and UNIFE 

TECs-RECs 

2 types: 

1. The rail sector’s internal agreement on exchangeable spare 

parts (without expiry time) 

2. A technical recommendation that can be transferred to CEN 

and CENELEC within 3 years (expiring after 3 years) 


Co-operation between UIC and UNIFE 

TECs-RECs 

UNIFE 

UIC 

Interface 

(type 1) 

TecRec 

Standard 

(type 2) 

European 

Project 

TEC-REC 

CEN 

/ 

CENELEC 


Agreement between UIC and ERA 

• UIC and ERA have signed on 5 th October 2012 a MoU strengthening the 

cooperation in the field of GSM-R Specifications. 

• Main purpose was to review the requirements defined in the EIRENE 

specifications and classify them in: 

a) Requirements that are relevant for the Interoperability in Europe 

b) Requirements that are needed to define together with a) a viable 

working system and options. 

• The MoU also defines the role of ERA, European ERTMS system authority, 

and UIC – technical body for the European processes and developer of the 

system for Europe and worldwide. 

• The full set of requirements are defined in a new EIRENE version (FRS 

7.3.0 and SRS 15.3.0), including the Interoperability requirements for 

Europe, gathered in the so called “ERA GSM-R Baseline 0”. 


Agreement between UIC and ECC 

• UIC and the ECC (Electronic Communication Committee) have signed in 

October 2011 a MoU on changing information and seeking for a common 

European approach concerning the use of radio frequencies, in 

particular in the field of present and future wireless railway 

communications. 

• The working groups of the two parties contain now observers from each 

other for a better information exchange and common support. 

• UIC may submit proposals to relevant ECC bodies. 

• This MoU is seen as extremely usefull for the work on sensible issues like 

for instance GSM-R interferences coming from public operators. 


Thank you for your kind attention 

cau@uic.org

UIC and the development of worldwide railway standards - Unife

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