Railway applications — Software for railway control and protection (IEC twin of EN 50128)

Scope

Specifies the process and technical requirements for developing software for programmable electronic systems used in railway control and protection applications, covering lifecycle activities, organisational roles and competencies, and tool qualification, with requirements graded by software safety integrity level. As the international (IEC) twin of EN 50128, it is applied by signalling suppliers and independent assessors, particularly in markets outside the CENELEC area.

IEC 62279 specifies the process and technical requirements for developing software used in programmable electronic systems for railway control and protection applications, covering lifecycle activities, the organisational roles and competencies required of the development team, and the qualification of software development tools, with requirements graded according to the software's assigned safety integrity level. As the international IEC twin of the CENELEC standard EN 50128, it applies substantially the same technical content and lifecycle model, making it the reference used by signalling suppliers and independent assessors operating in markets outside the CENELEC area where EN standards do not directly apply. Edition 2.0, published in 2015, remains the current edition, with a stability date of 2030 and no successor edition yet announced, meaning it has not followed EN 50128 in being replaced by a merged software standard. It continues to be applied in tenders and safety cases referencing IEC rather than CENELEC standards, particularly outside Europe. Signalling suppliers active in both European and international markets often need to demonstrate conformity with both this standard and the current successor to its CENELEC counterpart.