Fire protection and evacuation safety services for the rail industry

What are fire protection And Evacuation safety services for the rail industry?

Rail vehicle and rolling stock manufacturers and operators as well as infrastructure managers face the challenge of guaranteeing personal safety including fire protection and protecting the value of assets and preservation of objectives (vehicles, stations, tunnels) as well as the protection of the environment.. In addition to legal and regulatory requirements, also criteria of product and operator liability must be considered. Both in Europe and worldwide, standards and regulations are harmonised, continuously updated and often made more rigorous. National and international laws, standards and directives form an important basis for assessment of rail vehicles, infrastructure and components to ensure compliance with the defined protection objectives. It is mandatory to comply with the specifically defined protection goals. Documentation and records must meet these requirements throughout the entire lifecycle process (with reference to the V-model according to EN 50126). Our fire protection testing services, starting with system design, risk assessment and development through to acceptance, support you in addressing all these challenges to ensure safe rail operation.

Why are fire protection testing services FOR RAILWAY SYSTEMS important?

The services of an independent and accredited inspection and testing body are vital to ensure safe rail operations, especially when it comes to fire protection for railway technology. Those services provide rail manufacturers and operators various benefits:

• Save time and money by identifying possible weaknesses early and by meeting all requirements and specifications, thus avoiding costly and time-consuming rework
• Minimise risks by identifying safety-related weaknesses to avoid excessive technical or operational measures

• Boost your credibility and reputation with providing safe products certified with a global test mark

• Increase efficiency by working together with an expert partner who also assists you in reducing disproportionate third-party measures

TÜV SÜD supports your fire safety assessment and component certification needs

TÜV SÜD has long-standing experience and wide-ranging expertise in fire protection and personal safety in the rail sector. We are recognised worldwide as a railway safety assessor. Many of our experts are also recognised by German and other European and international authorities as experts and assessors.

We apply a multidisciplinary, integrated testing approach for all aspects of safety assessment of vehicle technology, system technology for infrastructures and for railway operation in general. With our independent testing and assessment services, we offer support for rolling stock operators and owners, infrastructure operators, and vehicle and component manufacturers to ensure approval-ready product design and implementation throughout process chains. Our professional, process-oriented and risk-based system approach helps you to avoid excessive technical measures without compromising on essential safety.

We can provide authorities with the necessary technical basis for evidence based decisions. For this purpose, information on the current state of the art and regulatory developments can be provided, as well as advice on possible disproportionate requirements. Our proactive approach to our customers’ individual situations generates enormous potential savings in our customers’ value chain, mobilised by our testing services we perform - from defining certification requirements to optimising certification management.

TÜV SÜD's experts are able to moderate FMEAs, risk, consequence and sensitivity analyses required for system assessment and provide technical support to clients without influencing the measures to be taken by the client. As accredited partner we offer assessment services as inspection body/testing body (proof of correct implementation of measures), NoBo (Notified Body), DeBo (Designated Body), AsBo (Assessment Body) and ISA (Independent Safety Assessor).

Our fire protection testing services for railway systems

With our testing services for fire protection you will meet all relevant fire protection requirements.

Certification

We provide system-related fire protection assessment according to recognised standards and regulations at national and international level, e.g. EN 45545-2, as a basis for the issue of operating licences or vehicle/infrastructure acceptance. We supply expert confirmations of the correctness of engineering design and operating concepts for vehicles or technical systems (test reports, confirmations, expert assessments and certificates).

PROCESS SUPPORT BASED ON THE LIFECYCLE MODEL ACCORDING TO EN 50126

With our independent testing and assessments services we support you, amongst others, in the following areas:

• Inspection of operator requirements, system/ technology design and verification management
• Ongoing verification of approval capability/ acceptability of technical solutions as part of design and manufacturing process
• Issue of certification

Verification Assessment  

• Fire and evacuation simulation models for vehicles and infrastructures
• Practical fire tests for purposes including proof of design fires or proof of equivalent safety in system assessments (vehicle/infrastructure/operation)
• Practical function testing for fire detection and fire-fighting systems according to ARGE Directives, e. g. with real-time smoke simulation

• Monitoring amendments to standards and regulations
• Verification of safety based on the assessment of fire risks and FMEAs in new developments and modernisations
• Determination of potential risks
• Specification of requirements in deviations from recognised rules of technology where allowed by regulations and/or authorities

FIRE PROTECTION SERVICES ACCORDING TO EN 45545-2

• Certification
• Minimisation of documentation: Our certification mark guarantees comprehensive conformity with the requirements of EN 45545-2. Successful certification minimises the certification-related documentation that you must submit to your client; this safeguards your company’s in-house product expertise.

TRAININGS

Our training programmes focus on the issues of most concern to our customers and incorporate case studies where required. Focal areas include:

• Introduction to regulations and examination of the associated restrictions on evidence
• Definition of specific product requirements for purposes including materials
• Instructions for performance of fire risk assessments and impact analysis
• Introduction to the creation of vehicle-related fire protection and evacuation concepts
• Incident, rescue and emergency schemes for rolling stock/overall rail systems

Here you can find the ARGE Guidelines for your information:

• Part 1 – “Fire detection in railway vehicles”
• Part 2 – “Fire fighting in railway vehicles”
• Part 3 – “System functionality of fire detection and fire fighting systems in railway vehicles”