Railway Group Standards

To complement Railway Group Standards, ATOC issues a number of documents (Approved Codes of Practice, Guidance Notes and Good Practice Guides*) for the benefit of its members. These cover both operations and engineering related subjects and typically address areas where the subject matter falls outside the criteria for inclusion within a Group Standard. Many of these documents have been included by Rail Safety & Standards Board (RSSB) as indicates below.

* ACOPs and Guidance Notes are version controlled and subject to periodic review. Good Practice Notes are generally intended as one off documents.

All ACOPs, Guidance Notes and Good Practice Guides issued on behalf of the ATOC Operations Council or one of its sib-groups are included (other than any that relate only to internal ATOC reporting requirements).

These documents were originally created when RSSB's predecessor (Railway Safety) was not permitted to include Vehicle Interiors in Railway Group Standards, so they were produced by Railway Safety under a memorandum of understanding with ATOC. The AV/STs are still the best staement of ATOC members' requirements and they are already Notified National Standards under the High Speed Interoperability TSIs. RSSB will consider and develop appropriate means of developing and integrating these documents as part of the implementation of the industry supported Strategy for Standards Management published by RSSB in November 2004.

In issuing these documents, neither ATOC nor RSSB makes any warranty, express or implied, that compliance with all or any documents published by RSSB on behalf of ATOC is sufficient on its own to ensure safe systems of work or operation. Each user is reminded not only of their own responsibilities to ensure health and safety at work, but also individual duties under health and safety legislation.