Rolling Stock


The eight Sector Expert Teams (SETs) within the Rolling Stock Sector cover passenger related items, freight-related items, running gear, braking, rolling stock maintenance, diesel, traction, data communication and driver’s cab, traction expertise, diesel expertise and rolling stock maintenance, as well as engineering solution development (TrainDy).

Rolling Stock Standardisation

Standardisation is one of the most important aspects in developing an efficient, competitive and safe rail system. The UIC has considerable experience in this area through the production of our standards (UIC leaflets) and it is upon this basis that UNIFE and UIC have agreed to work together in the field of voluntary rail standardisation and have decided to jointly publish a series of standards called Technical Recommendations (TecRecs).

UIC Codes / Codes UIC / UIC Merkblätter

UIC/UNIFE Technical Recommendations (TecRec)

A TecRec is a UIC/UNIFE standard of which, the primary field of application will be the European rolling stock domain and its interfaces with other subsystems, and is the preferred solution by both partners for, in particular:

  • Product and interface standards such as standardisation of component interfaces
  • Publication of results of common research programs
  • Acceleration and better influence over the European Standardisation works

Pending the publication of a European standard a TecRec will serve as a common comprehensive standard, approved by UIC and UNIFE and therefore recognised as a voluntary sector standard aimed at speeding up the standardisation process and thereby improving the competitiveness of the European railway system.

The general hierarchy within which a TecRec sits is in order of prevalence:

  1. EN elaborated by CEN/CLC
  2. TecRec elaborated by UIC and UNIFE
  3. Standards elaborated by UIC (leaflets)

Topics for TecRecs are selected according to well defined criteria under the supervision of the joint UIC/UNIFE TecRec management co-ordination group (TMT). The partners will agree on a topic and will seek to develop those that are founded on a solid business case.

The TecRec drafting is either done in projects with joint UIC and UNIFE member participation or in dedicated TecRec working groups. The drafting process is then followed by a technical consultation at expert level and a formal approval stage at management level by both partners.

Once approval has been obtained, the TecRec will be published in the English language and placed on this website. Priorities and resolution of conflicts are provided by a joint high-level TecRec Steering Board.

Click here to access the UIC/UNIFE TecRec homepage!

Rolling Stock related TecRecs

Project Reliability, availability, maintainability, safety – Implementation of EN 50126 – for Mechanical Components in Railways

The Project “Reliability, availability, maintainability, safety – Implementation of EN 50126 – for Mechanical Components in Railways” was developed by the Rail System Forum – Rolling Stock Sector – SET 6 “Running Gear” and it ended in 2015.

The aim of the project is to make it possible to calculate characteristic RAMS values on the basis of EN 50126 to determine the reliability and safety of railway rolling stock running gear.

RAMS – Analysis are important to demonstrate the current safety level, as well as the reliability and availability to internal “High Management” and\or external Authorities.
With Life Cycle Costs (LCC) the improvements can be assessed by their cost impact.

For each of the three languages (en, fr, de) there are two guidelines for RAMS and LCC including the corresponding tools (MS Excel and MS Powerpoint), each as a separate zip-file. With these files the user is able to start RAMS and LCC assesssments by himself. Those files have to be seen as complementary to the UIC Technical Reports B126/RP29, B126/RP43 and B126/RP44 available on the ETF website.

  • Rams Guidelines
  • LCC Guidelines

UIC leaflets on Combined Transport

  • Note for the application of the UIC 592 – 25th March 2015 (available in EN, FE and DE)
  • « UIC 596-6 – 6th Edition January 2014 – Annex H1 (available in EN, FE and DE) updated on the the 5th of December
    UIC IRS 50596 - Appendix H1
    List of codes of certified bodies that awarded certification - List of competent authorities - Nationality numbers of the RU and combined transport companies
    UIC IRS 50596 - Annexe H1
    UIC IRS 50596 - Anlagen H1
  • UIC 596-6 – 6th Edition January 2014 – annex H2 (available in EN, FE and DE)
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