Explore information on the rules and procedures which cover portable or transportable machinery or vehicle used for maintenance and inspection of track, structures, track formation, and fixed electric traction equipment.
In the rail industry the term ‘plant’ is used to describe any portable or transportable machinery, appliance, apparatus, tool, or vehicle used on the railway for maintenance and inspection of track, structures, track formation, and fixed electric traction equipment.
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This area of discipline can also be further categorised into:
- machinery and vehicles used on-track or designed or adapted for railway use – including on-track plant used in engineering possessions, on-track machines also capable of movement on the operational railway, and other plant designed or adapted for railway use
- fixed and mobile equipment – fixed equipment includes lighting, escalators and power supplies; mobile equipment includes machinery used on and off the rails.
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How our experts work with industry
We have a team of experts with considerable experience in all aspects of plant, and who have worked very closely with the people who operate plant as well as those who rely on it to get work done. They lend their expertise to the creation and review of relevant standards.
RSSB provides cross-industry governance for industry decisions and activities in many areas of rail improvement. Rail industry standards relating to plant are managed by the Plant Standards Committee. Specifically, the committee in conjunction with RSSB, oversees the development and maintenance of standards, guidance notes and other documents for use by train operators, infrastructure managers, and train manufacturers in developing plant designs, operating and maintaining plant, and developing and operating safety management systems for plant. It also oversees standards, guidance notes and other documents about the interfaces between plant and other railway systems, such as rolling stock, signalling, infrastructure, operations.