1. General requirements

1.1.1. The design, construction or assembly, maintenance and monitoring of safety-critical components, and more particularly of the components involved in train movements, must be such as to guarantee safety at the level corresponding to the aims laid down for the network, including those for specific degraded situations. 1.1.2. The parameters involved in the wheel/rail contact must meet the stability requirements needed in order to guarantee safe movement at the maximum authorised speed. The parameters of brake equipment must guarantee that it is possible to stop within a given brake distance at the maximum authorised speed. 1.1.3. The components used must withstand any normal or exceptional stresses that have been specified during their period in service. The safety repercussions of any accidental failures must be limited by appropriate means. 1.1.4. The design of fixed installations and rolling stock and the choice of the materials used must be aimed at limiting the generation, propagation and effects of fire and smoke in the event of a fire. 1.1.5. Any devices intended to be handled by users must be designed in such a way as not to impair the safe operation of the devices or the health and safety of users if used in a foreseeable manner, albeit not in accordance with the posted instructions. The monitoring and maintenance of fixed or movable components that are involved in train movements must be organised, carried out and quantified in such a manner as to maintain their operation under the intended conditions. 1.3.1. Materials likely, by virtue of the way they are used, to constitute a health hazard to those having access to them must not be used in trains and railway infrastructures. 1.3.2. Those materials must be selected, deployed and used in such a way as to restrict the emission of harmful and dangerous fumes or gases, particularly in the event of fire. 1.4.1. The environmental impact of establishment and operation of the rail system must be assessed and taken into account at the design stage of the system in accordance with Union law. 1.4.2. The materials used in the trains and infrastructures must prevent the emission of fumes or gases which are harmful and dangerous to the environment, particularly in the event of fire. 1.4.3. The rolling stock and energy-supply systems must be designed and manufactured in such a way as to be electromagnetically compatible with the installations, equipment and public or private networks with which they might interfere. 1.4.4. The design and operation of the rail system must not lead to an inadmissible level of noise generated by it: in areas close to railway infrastructure, as defined in point (3) of Article 3 of Directive 2012/34/EU, and in the driver's cab. 1.4.5. Operation of the rail system must not give rise to an inadmissible level of ground vibrations for the activities and areas close to the infrastructure and in a normal state of maintenance. The technical characteristics of the infrastructure and fixed installations must be compatible with each other and with those of the trains to be used on the rail system. This requirement includes the safe integration of the vehicle's subsystem with the infrastructure. If compliance with these characteristics proves difficult on certain sections of the network, temporary solutions, which ensure compatibility in the future, may be implemented. 1.6.1. The ‘infrastructure’ and ‘rolling stock’ subsystems must be accessible to persons with disabilities and persons with reduced mobility in order to ensure access on an equal basis with others by way of the prevention or removal of barriers, and by way of other appropriate measures. This shall include the design, construction, renewal, upgrade, maintenance and operation of the relevant parts of the subsystems to which the public has access. 1.6.2. The ‘operations’ and ‘telematics applications for passengers’ subsystems must provide for the necessary functionality required to facilitate access for persons with disabilities and persons with reduced mobility on an equal basis with others by way of the prevention or removal of barriers, and by way of other appropriate measures.

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Source: EUR-Lex (Cellar) · retrieved 2026-10-12 · Text as adopted (Official Journal); later amendments are not incorporated in this text.