Railway applications - Crashworthiness requirements for rail vehicles

Scope

Specifies passive-safety (crashworthiness) requirements for rail vehicle structures, defining reference collision scenarios, energy-absorption, survival-space and override-protection criteria by vehicle design category. It governs the structural crash design of new locomotives, multiple units and coaches and is applied by manufacturers and assessors under the LOC&PAS TSI.

EN 15227 specifies the passive-safety, or crashworthiness, requirements for the structures of rail vehicles, defining a set of reference collision scenarios against which a vehicle design must be assessed, together with the energy-absorption, survival-space preservation and anti-override (override-protection) criteria the structure must meet in each scenario. Vehicles are assigned to one of several crashworthiness categories depending on their intended operating environment, such as main-line passenger vehicles or vehicles expected to share track with different types of traffic, with each category associated with a specific set of collision scenarios and acceptance criteria. Manufacturers demonstrate compliance through a combination of calculation, computer simulation and, where required, physical crash testing of structural elements or complete vehicle sections, with the results reviewed by independent assessors as part of vehicle type approval. The standard is applied by manufacturers and assessors under the TSI for locomotives and passenger rolling stock (LOC&PAS), which references it as the mandatory crashworthiness standard for new vehicle designs. The current edition in force is EN 15227:2020+A1:2024.