200907 – Gardner & Hughes – Australian Standards for the Railway Industry

The Rail Industry Safety and Standards Board (RISSB) is wholly owned by The Australasian Railway
Association (ARA) its primary activity is to harmonise the Australian Rail Industry. One significant activity of RISSB is the publishing of Australian Standards for the Australian Rail Industry.

This paper will examine the evolution of standards from the state based rail systems through to the present environment. The issue of interoperability for train communications systems will be used as an example of how the industry identifies an issue at the strategic level and how RISSB develops it to the end product for publication.