Industry recommendation for changes to some National Technical Specification Notices
Technical Specifications for Interoperability (TSIs) were revised in the EU. This meant decisions were needed in Great Britain on changes to National Technical Specification Notices (NTSNs).
NTSNs were published in 2021 to replace TSIs in Great Britain. In September 2023, most TSIs were revised in the EU. This project needed to assess the TSI changes and then recommend changes to NTSNs to DfT. This was done for:
- Control Command and Signalling (CCS)
- Infrastructure (INF)
- Persons with Reduced Mobility (PRM)
- Rolling Stock – Locomotive and Passenger (LOC&PAS)
- Rolling Stock – Freight Wagons (WAG)
- Rolling Stock – Noise (NOI)
- Operation and Traffic Management (OPE)
- Energy (ENE)
RSSB produced technical analysis and reached industry agreement for recommendations to DfT.
This was a significant piece of work. Analysis covered over 800 topic areas, with over 600 pages of impact assessments.
During this work, RSSB:
- Set up and chaired mirror groups with experts from across the industry.
- Consulted widely. We received over 700 comments across the NTSNs.
- Assessed changes to TSI requirements as they were drafted.
In February 2024, RSSB submitted industry recommendations for revision to seven NTSNs to DfT. In March 2024, RSSB submitted a separate RSSB recommendation for the ENE NTSN.
These revisions will deliver benefits for GB. This includes those arising from continued alignment between GB and EU requirements.
The benefits are a combination of improvements across a wide range of areas.
The most significant are:
- Enabling new technologies
- Cost efficiencies
- Greater clarity in application
- Updating references to specifications in other documents
- Addressing existing issues.
The revisions largely mirror the TSIs. However, they also have GB-specific changes that better serve GB interests. These include keeping current National Technical Rules or adding specific cases which reflect GB practices.