National foreword

This British Standard is the UK implementation of EN 15528:2021. It supersedes BS EN 15528:2015, which is withdrawn.

The UK participation in its preparation was entrusted to Technical Committee RAE/1/-/8, Railway Applications - Vehicle/Track Interaction.

A list of organizations represented on this committee can be obtained on request to its committee manager.

Contractual and legal considerations

This publication has been prepared in good faith, however no representation, warranty, assurance or undertaking (express or implied) is or will be made, and no responsibility or liability is or will be accepted by BSI in relation to the adequacy, accuracy, completeness or reasonableness of this publication. All and any such responsibility and liability is expressly disclaimed to the full extent permitted by the law.

This publication is provided as is, and is to be used at the recipient’s own risk.

The recipient is advised to consider seeking professional guidance with respect to its use of this publication.

This publication is not intended to constitute a contract. Users are responsible for its correct application.

Compliance with a British Standard cannot confer immunity from legal obligations.

This British Standard was published under the authority of the Standards Policy and Strategy Committee on 31 December 2021.

This European Standard was approved by CEN on 30 August 2021.

CEN members are bound to comply with the CEN/CENELEC Internal Regulations which stipulate the conditions for giving this European Standard the status of a national standard without any alteration. Up-to-date lists and bibliographical references concerning such national standards may be obtained on application to the CEN-CENELEC Management Centre or to any CEN member.

This European Standard exists in three official versions (English, French, German). A version in any other language made by translation under the responsibility of a CEN member into its own language and notified to the CEN-CENELEC Management Centre has the same status as the official versions.

CEN members are the national standards bodies of Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Croatia, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Iceland, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Republic of North Macedonia, Romania, Serbia, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Turkey and United Kingdom.

European foreword

This document (EN 15528:2021) has been prepared by Technical Committee CEN/TC 256 “Railway application”, the secretariat of which is held by DIN.

This European Standard shall be given the status of a national standard, either by publication of an identical text or by endorsement, at the latest by June 2022, and conflicting national standards shall be withdrawn at the latest by June 2022.

Attention is drawn to the possibility that some of the elements of this document may be the subject of patent rights. CEN shall not be held responsible for identifying any or all such patent rights.

This document has been prepared under a Standardization Request given to CEN by the European Commission and the European Free Trade Association.

This document supersedes EN 15528:2015.

Significant technical changes between this document andEN 15528:2015are:

All information about dynamic compatibility was deleted including Annexes C, D, E andP (in future part of a TR prepared by TC250/SC1/WG 3/ TG DIBRST);
For coaches and multiple units an additional categorization is introduced for different values of standing passengers per m² in the load case Design mass with exceptional payload (MXD) according toEN 15663:2017+A1:2018;
Clarification of the informative character of Annex C (Annex F in the previous version) about speeds which do not require additional dynamic compatibility checks.

Any feedback and questions on this document should be directed to the users’ national standards body. A complete listing of these bodies can be found on the CEN website.

According to the CEN-CENELEC Internal Regulations, the national standards organisations of the following countries are bound to implement this European Standard: Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Croatia, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Iceland, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Republic of North Macedonia, Romania, Serbia, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Turkey and the United Kingdom.

Introduction

The existing European heavy rail system (seeEN 17343:2020) consists of elements designed for varying historical requirements. Most civil engineering elements of the heavy rail system were built before the introduction of the Technical Specifications for Interoperability (TSIs) and the Eurocodes for the design of structures.

This document specifies a line classification system to manage the interface between the load limits for rail vehicles and the payload limits for freight wagons and the vertical load carrying capacity of a line.

The line classification system takes into account parameters such as:

axle load (P);
geometrical aspects relating to the spacing of axles;
mass per unit length (p);
speed;

and provides a transparent method for determining whether the vertical loading characteristics of vehicles are compatible with the load carrying capacity of lines on the network.

The line classification system utilizes a suite of line categories specified in this standard by a load model.

1 Scope

This document is applicable to the lines with standard track gauge (1 435 mm) and wider track gauges of the heavy rail system1 and the vehicles that are operated on theselines. This includes machines used for construction, maintenance, inspection, repair and renewal when they are operated in running mode, but not, when they are in working or travelling mode.

This document specifies methods of classification of existing and new lines of the heavy rail system and the categorization of rail vehicles.

This document gives guidance to a reliable and established management of the interface between rail vehicles and the heavy rail network and does not impose any requirements on either vehicles or infrastructure.

The application of this document enables to ensure the static routecompatibility between a rail vehicle and the heavy rail network with respect to the vertical load carrying capacity.

It contains requirements relevant to:

classification of the vertical load carrying capacity of lines of the heavy rail network;
allocation of rail vehicles to line categories (categorization);
determination of payload limits of freight wagons.

This document does not apply to:

assessments of compatibility based on the parameter axle loadalone;
compatibility checks for cases where an additional dynamic analysis is required (for example according toEN 1991‑2);
requirements relating to the maximum total mass or maximum length of a train;
the system used in Great Britain, where all lines and vehicles are classified in accordance with the RA (RouteAvailability) System. A guide to the equivalent linecategories in accordance with this European Standard is given in Annex F;
the publication of line categories.

The requirements of this document do not replace any regulations related to running behaviour of vehicles described by the assessment quantities for running safety, track loading and ride characteristics (seeEN 14363).

2 Normative references

3 Terms, definitions, symbols and abbreviated terms

3.1 Terms and definitions

3.2 Symbols and abbreviated terms

4 Classification system

4.1 Definition of line categories

4.2 Correlation to types of vehicles

4.3 Correlation between line category and speed

5 Classification of infrastructure

5.1 Civil engineering structure

5.2 Track construction, track substructure and earthworks

5.3 Infrastructures classification results

6 Categorization of vehicles

6.1 General rules

6.2 Freight wagons

6.3 Locomotives

6.4 Multiple units and coaches

6.5 Special vehicles

7 Static compatibility of the interface between vehicle and infrastructure

Bibliography

BS EN 15528:2021

Railway applications. Line categories for managing the interface between load limits of vehicles and infrastructure

Current

Published:

31 Dec 2021