VDV-Schriften und -Mitteilungen — Recommendations and Reports Catalogue

Scope

VDV-Schriften und -Mitteilungen is the German Association of Transport Companies' (VDV) searchable catalogue of technical recommendations (Schriften) and communications (Mitteilungen), the German-language equivalent of a national industry standards framework for urban and regional public transport — trams, light rail, metro, buses and regional/urban rail infrastructure, vehicles and operations.

Produced through VDV's committee structure — six general and nineteen expert committees with over 400 volunteer experts — the catalogue is organised by numbered groups covering planning of transport facilities, vehicles, information technology, electrical energy installations, permanent way (Bahnbau), operations (Betrieb), depots and workshops (Betriebshöfe und Werkstätten), and business/legal topics, cross-referenced by theme (railway, railway regulations, train protection technology, communications technology, etc.) and searchable by number, year and publication type back to the 1970s. All documents are additionally indexed on the KnowHow@ÖV knowledge platform. Browsing and searching the catalogue is open to the public; downloading the underlying Schriften and Mitteilungen PDFs requires a VDV member login, consistent with how this library treats other registration-gated national/industry catalogues (e.g. NAT-GB-RSSB, NAT-AU-RISSB). VDV-Schriften function for German urban and regional rail broadly as UIC leaflets and RSSB Railway Group Standards do elsewhere — the sector's own operational and technical rulebook, sitting alongside EU TSIs and German national law (e.g. BOStrab for tramways, already in this library) and, in areas such as depot/yard operating rules, filling gaps those do not cover. It is classified industry legal_force, matching other consortium/association-issued frameworks.