Anyone wishing to use a structural subsystem on the mainline railway – infrastructure or rail vehicle – must get an authorisation from us before putting the subsystem into use.
What is Interoperability?
All new, upgraded or renewed infrastructure or rolling stock must:
- be authorised by us before it can be put into use. We call this 'authorisation to place into service' or 'interoperability authorisation'
- comply with common technical standards set out in National Technical Specification Notices (NTSNs) or National Technical Rules (NTRs)
An interoperability authorisation has a direct relationship to safety, but has a wider purpose of ensuring technical compatibility, reliability, performance and accessibility of new or substantially modified rail vehicles or infrastructure.
Conformity with interoperability obligations, including conformity with NTSNs, does not guarantee that safety obligations under the Railways and Other Guided Transport Systems (Safety) Regulations 2006 ROGS), the Health and Safety at Work Act 1974, or other legislation related to rail safety are met.
You must ensure that you apply all relevant health and safety legislation, including application of the Common Safety Method for Risk Evaluation and Assessment (CSM REA) before using the subsystem.
The process of getting interoperability authorisation requires you to compile a technical file identifying the relevant rules and standards for your project, explaining your arrangements for demonstrating conformity with them and having these verified by an independent approved body (for NTSNs) or designated body (for NTRs).
Our role is to check that you have carried out this process correctly. If we are satisfied that you have applied the process correctly, we will issue an authorisation to place into service based on the technical file that you submit.
Your project plan should allow time for our assessment of your application, which takes four weeks. If there are shortcomings in the application you will have to rectify them and resubmit for a further assessment. We recommend that you engage with us at the earliest opportunity and in any event well ahead of when you plan to submit the technical file.
More detailed information about our approach to interoperability authorisations is available.
Will my project need an interoperability authorisation?
Interoperability is likely to affect anyone who wants to build new railway lines or change the existing mainline rail network in the UK, or anyone who wants to place new, renewed or upgraded rolling stock into use on the mainline railway in the UK.
This could cover infrastructure managers, operators of passenger and freight trains, rolling-stock leasing companies and manufacturers or suppliers of trains.
If you are planning to do this, you will require an ORR Interoperability authorisation before you put the new vehicles or infrastructure into use.
Only vehicles or infrastructure on the mainline railway require an authorisation from us. Railways which are non mainline are treated differently.
Anyone who is introducing new or substantially altered vehicles or infrastructure into operation on a non mainline railway must carry out a safety verification process before they use it. In short, the safe introduction of the new or changed equipment must be verified by an independent competent person.
More guidance on safety verification is included in our guide to ROGS.