BS EN 15227:2008+A1:2010

This European Standard applies to new designs of locomotives and passenger carrying rolling stock as defined in categories C-I to C-IV of Clause 4 taking into consideration the recommendations given in Annex E on the application of the standard (migration rule). It is intended to protect vehicle occupants, through the preservation of structural integrity, and does not extend to other railway employees and customers who are not in vehicles, or to third parties. The specified requirements relate to the technical and operational conditions of use that prevail in the CEN member countries. The design of new vehicles for use in passenger trains is based on operations with compatible rolling stock that also meet this standard. It is recognised that operational requirements will require new crashworthy and existing non-crashworthy vehicles to exist in the same train unit but such combinations of vehicles are not required to comply with this European Standard.

The requirements apply to the vehicle body, and to those mechanical elements directly associated with it that may be used to absorb energy in a collision, such as couplers, buffing systems etc. They do not cover the safety features of doors, windows, system components or interior features except for specific issues relating to the preservation of survival space.

The requirements do not cover all possible accident scenarios but provide a level of crashworthiness that will reduce the consequences of an accident, when the active safety measures have been inadequate. The requirement is to provide a level of protection by addressing the most common types of collision that cause injuries and fatalities.

The applicable design collision scenarios, and suitable parameters for normal European operations, are given in Clause 5. Annex A gives additional information regarding the derivation of the scenarios and describes situations when they may need to be modified and the processes that should then be followed.

This European Standard identifies common methods of providing passive safety that may be adopted to suit individual vehicle requirements. This European Standard also specifies the characteristics of reference obstacle models for use in the design collision scenarios. Not all vehicles in a train unit have to incorporate energy absorption provided that passenger train configurations formed entirely of new vehicle designs comply as a whole with this European Standard.

This European Standard also specifies the requirements for demonstrating that the passive safety objectives have been achieved by comparison with existing proven designs, numerical simulation, component or full-size tests, or a combination of all these methods.