AS 7520.1 – Rolling Stock Body Structural Requirements – Part 1: Locomotive

This document describes requirements for the structural strength of railway locomotive bodies.

The objective of this Standard is to—

1. prescribe the minimum structural integrity level of the vehicle body to ensure safe performance under normal operating conditions and extreme operating conditions; and
2. minimize risks to train crew and members of the general public in the event of collisions or derailments.

AS 7520.1 is an Australian standard for railway vehicle structural requirements. It was subjected to a targeted review following a commitment made by RISSB to the Australian Transport Safety Bureau (ATSB) after the tragic XPT passenger train derailment at Wallan, Victoria in February 2020. This accident resulted in the death of 2 crew members and numerous injuries to passengers and onboard crew.

The ATSB report into the derailment identified that AS 7520.1 did not include structural requirements for cab doors, or other performance-based requirements, that addressed the protection of train crew in the case of vehicle overturn (refer ATSB-RO-2020-002 Derailment of passenger train ST23).

The targeted review has resulted in several important changes:

• Updated crashworthiness section to add requirements for rollover events and collisions
• Amended reference standard for penetration resistance to align with current industry practice
• Strengthened requirements for cab-mounted doors to minimise debris ingress during rollover events
• Added requirements for windscreens to remain attached during emergency incidents
• Added requirements for all glazing to meet standards for aerodynamic loads, pressure pulse tests, and passenger containment tests

The updated standard aims to influence future designs of locomotives and locomotive power cars by:

• Specifically detailing requirements for crew areas to maintain a safety cell during incidents
• Improving the survivability of train crew during and after an incident
• Updating crashworthiness requirements primarily for rollover events or level crossing incidents

The standard helps manage several critical risks including:

• Harm to train crew
• Harm to infrastructure
• Harm to rolling stock
• Derailment incidents
• Collision events

A systematic approach is recommended:

• Review AS 7520.1 against your internal applicable standards
• Review existing contemporary or under-development rolling stock designs for use by your organisation
• Identify common areas and variances between standards
• Where commonality exists, use your organisation’s change management process to update requirements to reference AS 7520.1
• Where variances occur, assess whether AS 7520.1 provides better safety and/or interoperability outcomes against your organisation’s risk profile and SFAIRP argument
• If AS 7520.1 results in improved outcomes, amend organisational standards to reference AS 7520.1
• If your internal standards provide better outcomes, you may still reference AS 7520.1 but include a derogation or deviation statement within your organisation’s standards