National safety Rules

The Railway Safety Directive requires that each Member State notifies the National Safety Rules (NSRs) that are in use in that Member State on a range of issues, as listed in Annex II of the Directive. The purpose of the NSRs is to provide visibility to any potential open access operators from other countries of the rules that they will need to comply with if they want to operate in a particular Member State.

RSSB is responsible for proposing to the Department for Transport those Railway Group Standards (RGSs) that should be notified as NSRs against the Railway Safety Directive. The Department for Transport may need to notify additional legislative requirements in order to ensure the notified NSRs address all of the issues listed in Annex II.

The principles to be used to identify which Railway Group Standards (RGSs) need to be proposed to the Department for Transport as NSRs have been discussed and agreed by both the Industry Standards Coordination Committee (ISCC) and the Safety Policy Group (SPG). These principles are contained in the following document:

In accordance with this process, RSSB has provided the Department for Transport with a list of those RGSs proposed to be notified as NSRs for the GB mainline railway. The list of RGSs proposed as NSRs will be subject to periodic review as RGSs are developed or withdrawn. Updated lists of the proposed NSRs will be provided to the Department for Transport every two months, in line with RGS catalogue and Periodic Operating Notice (PON) dates.

The Department for Transport has indicated they understand that the European Railway Agency will be publishing the NSRs for all EU Member States later in 2008.

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