Certification is the future

European legislation means liberalisation of the market; resulting in competition. These factors have a major influence on the railway industry. Products and processes have to meet ever-higher requirements.

This results into an increasing workload for those responsible for these products and processes. For instance; do you know the specific requirements that your rolling stock and railway system have to meet? Do your processes meet legal requirements and can your suppliers show that they use the appropriate railway materials?
These questions do not have to be answered by yourself. KEMA Rail Transport Certification (RTC) will be pleased to assist you in the testing and certification of your products and processes, both during preparation and execution.

Tests
Subsystems and components in railway applications have to meet essential requirements in the fields of:

• Safety
• Reliability & Availability
• Health
• Environment
• Technical compatibility

KEMA RTC: one stop shopping

KEMA RTC performs both compulsory and voluntary certifications. Furthermore, KEMA RTC is active in all specialist areas of the railway industry, thanks to its know how and experience. For the mandatory certification this refers to Energy, Infrastructure, Rolling Stock, Control, Command and Signalling (ETCS), environmental, Operation and Maintenance. For the voluntary certification the use of materials and calibration of instruments must be added.
KEMA RTC is an independent foundation. This guarantees the impartiality in all its certifications and verifications

Voluntary certification

Apart from European and national legislation, certification is also undertaken on a voluntary basis thanks to agreements made by manufacturers and clients.
It means that you, as client, can establish the specification, which the products and processes of your suppliers have to meet.
As a supplier, you have to be able to show that you meet these standards.
The co-operating railway companies have established rules in the UIC (Union Internationale des Chemins de fer) for the application of voluntary certification in the railway industry.
The co-operating railway companies have established rules in the UIC (Union Internationale des Chemins de fer) for the application of voluntary certification in the railway industry. It is expected that the rules which belong to the OTIF (International treaty for the exchange of rolling stock between railways) will soon be split into rules for technical acceptance and rules for exploitation.
Products and processes involved in technical acceptance will have to be certified on a mandatory basis, while for exploitation, voluntary certification will be sufficient.

Mandatory Domain
There are international regulations governing every industry. For railways, this is European directive 96/48. Dutch law, which is based on this, requires mandatory certification for components and subsystems to be used for the high-speed railway systems. Since the legislation for interoperability is effective, particularly energy, rolling stock, control & command, infrastructure and environmental aspects must meet established specifications, so that interoperability is guaranteed.

The testing, examination and certification of these components and subsystems are carried out by a Notified Body, an independent institute, which is officially recognised by the Ministry of Transport. KEMA RTC is notified as Notified Body for the railway industry.