Plant
2024 saw significant changes in the membership of Plant Standards Committee (PLT SC). After nine years as the Professional Head of Plant at RSSB, Neil Halliday retired in May. A former chair of the Committee, who had continued to serve on the committee, also retired. Neil Dinmore, who was the RSSB representative on the PLT SC since joining RSSB in 2018, was appointed Professional Head of Plant in March, and PLT SC approved his appointment as Chair. The RSSB representative seat on PLT SC has now been filled by a new member of RSSB’s rolling stock standards team, who joined RSSB in November 2024.
The committee has continued to alternate the scheduled bi-monthly meetings between virtual and hybrid formats. The May meeting was held as a face-to-face meeting in Stafford ahead of a technical visit to a supplier of on-track plant. Committee members have also undertaken additional document reviews in correspondence between the scheduled meetings. This has avoided potential delays to time-critical RSSB standards projects and supported quicker approval of deviations.
Following the publication of RIS‑1530‑PLT issue seven On-Track Plant, Trolleys and their Associated Equipment, issue 7.1 was published with minor updates in the March 2024 standards catalogue. A further update, issue 7.2, is planned for March 2025.
Issue 7.1 included updates to some referenced European standards (ENs) but allowed for older machines designed to an earlier EN to continue to comply with that earlier version, provided they are not being modified in the affected area. Issue 7.2 will take this a step further. Some of the ENs are now Designated against the UK Supply of Machinery (Safety) Regulations. (A Designated standard means that meeting the requirements of the BS EN confers a presumption of conformity with UK Regulations.)
In response to RAIB’s investigation into the fatality at West Worthing, point releases of RIS-1702-PLT Rail Industry Standard for the Design of On-track Machines in Working and Travelling Modes and its associated Railway Group Standard GMRT2400 Engineering Design of On-Track Machines in Running Mode have been prepared, to include a requirement to fit forward-facing CCTV to new machines. These are out for industry consultation with a plan to be published in March 2025.
RIS‑1710-PLT issue 2.1, Engineering Certification of Railborne Plant and the Assessment of Non-Railborne Plant is the plant-specific complementary document to RIS-2700-RST, Verification of Conformity of Engineering Change to Rail Vehicles. A revision to RIS‑2700-RST is currently planned for publication in March 2025, which will trigger a revision of RIS‑1710‑PLT to retain alignment with RIS-2700-RST. This update will include the requirements for assessment of software changes and will address a plant industry request to clarify when engineering and maintenance changes to a machine do not cause recertification.
The Plant Standards Committee has already approved a project to revise RIS-1530-PLT to issue 8. This will start when the new combined BS EN 15955:2025 series, Demountable machines, trailers and associated equipment, is published. The aim is to rationalise the RIS content so it will become the GB application of the BS EN 15955:2024 series and the BS EN 15746:2020 series, Road-rail machines and associated equipment.
Revised versions of the EN 14033 Railbound construction and maintenance machines series covering on-track machines (OTMs) are also due to be published in 2025. Thereafter, it is planned to revise RIS-1702-PLT and GMRT2400 to reflect the changes in the European standards.
Convenorship of the European Committee for CEN/TC 256/SC 1/WG5 ‘Track construction and maintenance machines’, has moved to Austria, but the plant standards committee continues to coordinate the UK input into WG5, including:
Preparation of EN 15955 series Demountable machines, trailers and associated equipment which is combining the EN 15954 Trailers and associated equipment and the former EN 15955 Demountable machines and associated equipment series. Following delays in the independent harmonised assessment (HAS) of prEN 15955-2 against the Machinery Directive, the formal vote on these documents has yet to be launched. Publication is expected in the first half of 2025.
Revision of EN 14033 Railbound construction and maintenance machines series covering OTMs has continued. The updated series was submitted to CEN for enquiry in November 2024, and publication is now likely to be late in 2025 or early in 2026.
A separate drafting group is producing a standard for Machines without Rail Wheels. This document will concentrate on railway specific topics using content derived from RIS‑1701‑PLT issue five, Non-Railborne Plant. This new standard was submitted to CEN for enquiry in January 2025.
The committee is also coordinating the UK input into international committee ISO/TC 269/SC 1/WG4 ‘Rail construction, maintenance and inspection machines’. This includes:
Preparation of ISO/TR 8941, Rail mounted construction, maintenance and inspection machines — Explanation of machine type. This technical report sets out the classification and characteristics of these machines and was published in May 2024.
Preparing a new ISO document covering trolleys and portable machines, which it is anticipated will replace BS EN 13977:2011, Safety requirements for portable machines and trolleys for construction and maintenance.
The 2024 refresh of the committee membership has been completed. One infrastructure contractor representative and one non-Network Rail infrastructure manager representative were re-elected. An election was also held for one OTM (Supplier) representative. Following the withdrawal of one Plant Assessment Body (PAB) from the market, representatives from the remaining two PABs were co-opted, on the understanding that an election will be held should a third PAB enter the market.
UK legislation ‘The Supply of Machinery (Safety) Regulations 2008, as amended by the Supply of Machinery (Amendment) Regulations 2011’ currently aligns with the Machinery Directive 2006/42/EU. The Machinery Directive is to be withdrawn in January 2027 and replaced across the EU member states by the Machinery Regulations 2023/1230/EU. The main changes cover the adoption of the term ‘machinery products’ to cover parts of machines and the introduction of new safety requirements for autonomous machines, human-machine collaboration, and the safe use of Artificial Intelligence systems in machinery. It is not yet clear whether the UK legislation will be amended in line with the EU changes. This means the UK may lag behind the European market, potentially creating technical disparity.
Neil DinmoreChair of the Plant Standards Committee
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