Railway Applications — RAMS Part 1: Generic Process

Scope

Specifies the generic lifecycle process for defining and demonstrating reliability, availability, maintainability and safety (RAMS) requirements for railway systems, from concept through operation and decommissioning. It is the foundation of the CENELEC railway safety-assurance framework alongside EN 50126-2, EN 50128/50657 and EN 50129, and is applied by railway undertakings, infrastructure managers, suppliers and independent safety assessors. Amended by A1:2024; the IEC twin is IEC 62278-1.

EN 50126-1 specifies the generic lifecycle process for defining, allocating and demonstrating reliability, availability, maintainability and safety (RAMS) requirements for railway systems, spanning the full lifecycle from initial concept and system definition through design, manufacture, installation, operation, maintenance and eventual decommissioning. It sets out the RAMS management activities required at each lifecycle phase, including hazard identification, risk analysis, requirements allocation and the demonstration evidence needed to show that RAMS targets have been met before a system enters service. As the foundation of the CENELEC railway safety-assurance framework, it works alongside EN 50126-2, which provides guidance on the systems approach to safety, and the more specific software and signalling safety standards EN 50128/50657 and EN 50129. Railway undertakings, infrastructure managers, suppliers and independent safety assessors apply this generic process as the common reference when building and reviewing safety cases for new or modified railway systems. The current edition, EN 50126-1:2017+A1:2024, is the internationally aligned counterpart to IEC 62278-1.