15 Sep 2025

Code of Practice – Operating Road Rail Vehicles

The closing date for comments –Wednesday 15 October 2025

The Code of Practice – Operating Road Rail Vehicles draft is now open for Public Consultation.

How this product helps the rail industry 

Road rail vehicles (RRVs) are a ubiquitous part of the railways and are used in a wide variety of activities and tasks. Such use has seen several adverse incidents and instances of misuse throughout the country.

This Code of Practice (CoP) provides all users with relevant information and guidance on RRVs and their management. This aids the development and establishment of systems and procedures to ensure the safe and effective operation of RRVs.

About

This CoP has been developed for all those who use or have responsibility for, either directly or through contracting arrangements, the operation of RRVs. It applies to all vehicle types in use in the Australasian Rail Industry.

This Code enhances the former RISSB Guideline for Operation of RRVs by providing greater information on the safe use of RRVs and associated equipment. The CoP has also been updated to align with the recently published RISSB Standard AS 7502 Road Rail Vehicles.

How to contribute

Code of Practice – Operating Road Rail Vehicles will be available for public consultation for 30 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 dsutherland@rissb.com.au by Wednesday 15 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.