Rail Standards Strategy
The Rail Standards Strategy is our five-year vision for standards-related activities. It outlines our plan to address broader industry objectives, challenges, and opportunities. We have continued to track progress against the objectives within the strategy. This year, we have been:
Responding to industry needs and adapting to challenges by delivering benefits to the industry of £74 million over the next five years through revisions to standards. Of particular note is the introduction of a new type of speed restriction.
Enabling digitalisation and better use of data by publishing a standard on ‘time and date’ in railway systems to exchange, aggregate, and compare data across systems reliably. Additionally, we play a significant role in developing an international standard for railway cybersecurity.
Supporting the new regulatory landscape by providing the Department for Transport (DfT) with industry recommendations on revisions to the National Technical Specification Notices (NTSNs). We carried out this work in line with government policy principles. The NTSNs allow all parts of our network to run as a whole system, benefiting our customers and society. This work was completed in February 2024.
Setting robust governance with the publication of revisions to the Railway Standards Code and the Standards Manual in January 2024. In 2024, we started another phase of revisions to clarify and simplify overarching frameworks and processes. As this is a fundamental revision of the Code and Manual, we will do this over the next three years. The approach to this work was agreed upon with ISCC, and the first set of issues and opportunities were discussed with group members.
In 2025, we will continue working with industry on this work. We will consult with them before moving on to the next stage of this work. This will involve developing and agreeing proposals for changes.
Delivering standards that the industry needs, and responding quickly to changes to European technical specifications. We gave recommendations on NTSN revisions within six months of the publications of the revisions in Europe. In 2024, we also launched a monthly standards newsletter that promotes newly published documents, previous standards and tools, and work we are currently doing.
Supporting implementation by developing guidance to apply NTSN requirements consistently. We are developing a general guidance note for topics spanning all NTSNs as well as guidance notes specific to each NTSN. This work will continue through 2025. In other areas, we are supporting industry in identifying alternatives to using detonators by supporting deviations and working on projects that review the scenarios in which they are used.
Learn how the Rail Standards Strategy is shaping the future of railway innovation.
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