27 Aug 2025
AS 7633 Infrastructure Clearances
The closing date for comments – Monday 27 October 2025
The AS 7633 Infrastructure Clearances draft is now open for Public Consultation.
How this product helps the rail industry
AS 7633 helps the rail industry manage safety risks arising from the interaction between rail infrastructure and rolling stock.
By defining minimum clearances and maintenance tolerances, it enables safer operations and reduces the risk of damage or network disruption. It establishes a single, transparent framework that helps operators, manufacturers, and asset managers streamline design, approvals, and modifications across all rail sectors including passenger, freight, regional, and interstate.
The Standard’s harmonised approach supports innovation, boosts safety, and eliminates duplication, making it easier to align with national rail reform priorities. Adopting this Standard is another step toward a more efficient, interoperable, and future-ready rail network for Australia.
About
AS 7633 Infrastructure Clearances provides nationally consistent guidelines for safe distances between trains and infrastructure, addressing hazards such as train collisions with infrastructure and passing trains, and out-of-gauge incidents.
This review refines existing requirements to address evolving industry needs, incorporating recent operational needs (e.g., double-stacked containers) and continues alignment with national and international best practice.
The Standard applies to permanent infrastructure on for passenger, freight, and interstate services; temporary structures are handled separately.
How to contribute
AS 7633 Infrastructure Clearances will be available for public consultation for 60 days. All interested parties are encouraged to provide comments during this time.
It is available to download here.
To make comments on the draft, please use the commenting tools in Adobe Acrobat or Acrobat Reader to comment in-line with the text. If needed you can find instructions here.
NOTE: There is a recognised fault with some versions of Adobe Acrobat where a message displays ‘This is restricted file – The owner of this file has locked it from receiving comments or other changes.’ This message is incorrect and does not prevent you from adding comments to the PDF and saving the file prior to emailing to RISSB.
Please return your PDF with comments to [email protected] by Monday 27 October 2025.
As the rail industry’s accredited Standards Development Organisation (SDO), RISSB continues to collaborate with government, rail operators and industry leaders to improve the efficiency and harmonisation of the Australia and New Zealand’s rail network, ensuring national interoperability, safety and sustainability into the future.