Foreword
Cliff Cork
Independent Chair of the Industry Standards Coordination Committee
Cliff CorkIndependent Chair of the Industry Standards Coordination Committee
The Industry Standards Coordination Committee (ISCC) met four times in 2024 as usual most members chose to attend the hybrid meetings in person. Additional workshops were held to support the development of future changes to the Railway Standards Code and Standards Manual. ISCC reviewed and approved its remit with helpful inputs.
Following the trend started in 2023 members have been encouraged to share their experience of standards application. Two presentations were given in 2024 from RIA and the RoSCo community and feedback was positive.
As usual the chairs of the standards committees all joined ISCC during the year to report on key activities within their respective committees. All confirmed their adherence to the Code and Manual. The Data Systems and Telematics was established in 2022 so it was good to see the first standard published by it.
The new Railway Standards Code and Manual came into force on 1 January 2024. This change brought the documents up to date with little change to current practice. A larger revision is now underway over the next few years to improve and simplify the standards framework. I’m pleased with the level of ISCC engagement. The committee has endorsed the approach and actively participated in the development of proposals including two workshops with more to come.
Standardisation at the European level and globally continues to be important. While there have been some changes in 2024 the UK continues to be well represented in the main European standards bodies European Committee for Standardization (CEN) and European Committee for Electrotechnical Standardization (CENELEC) and the international standards bodies International Organization for Standardization (ISO) and International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC). I continue to Chair the senior rail standardisation group in CEN TC 256 Railway applications.
This report shows the extensive work done in 2023 and 2024 on the revision to the National Technical Specification Notices (NTSNs) following updates to the European Technical Specifications for Interoperability (TSIs). There was strong industry pressure to move at pace following the TSI updates in September 2023. There has been very significant effort expended not only by RSSB but across the industry to produce revised NTSNs. ISCC members have expressed disappointment that the revisions have not yet been published and that there is a lost opportunity for Great Britain as a result. This is also effectively an unintentional and possibly detrimental divergence from EU practice.
Making standards is a highly collaborative effort. On behalf of ISCC thank you to all those across the rail industry as well as those in RSSB for your significant and impactful engagement in developing standards in the UK and across the world.
