Standards Development

Scope

This document establishes a single set of definitions defining the concept of derailment.

This document provides terms and definitions for derailment detection and related basic parameters.

This document covers on-board derailment detection systems in all types of rolling stock.

This document only aims at providing definitions and does not include any requirement to install this equipment. 

Purpose

Derailments are one of the most frequent and costly accidents that occur during railway operation. In the past several years, a total of 5000 derailments (all over the world), that amount to an accumulated cost of 4 billion euros, have been recorded. It is estimated that the average cost of a derailment is 800 000 euros. Maximum recorded cost for a single derailment amounts to 182 million euros (data provided by the University of Koblenz).

In order to limit the damages to the infrastructure, rolling stock can be equipped with derailment detection devices. The purpose of this standard is to establish a single set of definitions in order to clearly define the concept of derailment. Furthermore, the current standard will also allow to draft universally accepted terms and definitions for derailment detection devices and their use. Such a single set of definitions will considerably simplify the drafting of specification for operators and manufacturers.