Notified National Technical Rules

National Technical Rules (NTRs) are those rules (standards) which the Interoperability Directives require each Member State to notify in the absence of Technical Specifications for Interoperability (TSIs). ‘In the absence of’ includes situations where a TSI has not been written yet, where it contains an identified ‘open point’ or where a derogation from a TSI has been notified. The purpose of the notified NTRs is to provide additional controls to ensure that the essential requirements as specified in the Interoperability Directives are met. The standards notified will not supplement the TSIs on performance related issues, nor repeat requirements mandated by the TSIs

RSSB is responsible, on behalf of the industry, for proposing to the Department for Transport those industry standards that should be notified against each of the TSIs for use on the GB mainline railway. The Department for Transport may need to notify additional requirements (eg, environmental Regulations) in order to ensure the notified NTRs address all of the essential requirements.

The industry process for identifying and managing NTRs for the GB mainline railway is being revised by the industry representatives and the Department for Transport at the Industry Standards Coordination Committee (ISCC). Once this process has been agreed, it will be published on this page.

RSSB provides the Department for Transport with lists of Railway Group Standards (RGSs) which the industry proposes should be notified as NTRs for each of the TSIs, either published or under development. The NTRs provided by RSSB are intended for use only by Contracting Entities and Notified Bodies on the GB mainline railway, as defined in the Railways and Other Guided Transport Systems (Safety) Regulations 2006.

The Department for Transport publishes the NTRs that have been notified by them to the European Commission for use in Great Britain. These notified NTRs are available from the Department for Transport’s website.

The lists of NTRs and related documents will be subject to periodic review in response to changes in the status of the TSIs (eg, from unpublished to published), the closing out of open points in the TSIs and as GB standards are developed or withdrawn. Updated lists of the proposed NTRs will be provided to the DfT every two months, in line with RGS catalogue and Periodic Operating Notice (PON) dates.

Please contact Adam Milligan on 020 7904 7629 if you require further information regarding NTRs.