Horizon explores: Railways Standards
Why we need the ‘Code’ and the ‘Manual’
The ‘Code’ and ‘Manual’ are key for effective governance of standards, and their January 2024 revisions brought some important updates.
Anna PlodowskiSenior Editorial Content Manager
The economic and operational benefits of having standards are compelling. By agreeing on a set of good practices for different organisations to follow, we can:
increase efficiencies
make it easier for different parts of an industry to cooperate
help ensure that equipment and people work reliably together
minimise the need to ‘reinvent the wheel’ to solve new problems.
Those are the benefits in principle. In practice, a key component of an effective standards system is its governance. Without adequate governance arrangements, standards can’t work. There might, for example, be a reluctance to use them correctly. Or there may be an attempt to deviate from them without permission. Proper governance underpins everything the rail industry does with standards. It provides assurance that there are fair, equitable, and agreed regulator-backed processes for the management of standards. This governance also gives our standards legitimacy in the industry.
What this means is that we must have agreed principles about how a standards system works. We must also have agreed processes for implementing those principles when developing, using, changing, or deviating from standards in that system.
There have been several variants of governance arrangements since RSSB was formed from Railway Safety in 2003:
The first ‘Railway Group Standards Code’ was published in 2004.
The Railway Group Standards Manual was separated from the Code for the first time in 2008.
The most recent versions of the Code and the Manual came into being in 2013.
The most recent versions applied to Railway Group Standards (RGSs) and were part of our standards responsibilities. The Code states what the principles for these standards are, and the Manual describes how those principles work. The Office of Rail and Road (ORR) approves the Code, and the Industry Standards Coordination Committee approves the Manual.
One indicator of the quality of the Code and Manual is that they are consistent with the World Trade Organisation principles for the development of International Standards. These were themselves agreed by the Technical Barriers to Trade Committee in 2000. Another is that although we encourage challenges to standards in the interests of improvement, there have been no challenges to the Code and Manual since their creation. The only instance of a potential challenge was based on a misunderstanding.
An important revision to the Code and Manual took effect on 1 January 2024. They still apply to RGSs, and now their remit explicitly includes Rail Industry Standards, Rail Industry Guidance Notes, and National Operational Publications.
The recent revision also incorporated several important updates, including:
legislative changes post EU-exit
process improvements
inclusive language
improved readability.
The overall effect is a necessary ‘tidying up’ given that the last update was in 2013. The new names in full are the Railway Standards Code and the Railway Standards Manual. However, they’ll still be known as ‘the Code’ and ‘the Manual’.
We are continuing to develop these. In particular, we will be taking the opportunity for a more fundamental look at everything underpinning the Code. This work will be done in tandem with the Department for Transport, the ORR, and wider industry. This gives us the opportunity to spread good practice further and increase the benefits we deliver to standards users.
Read all about the updated Railway Standards Code and Railway Standards Manual.
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