EU Commission refreshes the official list of technical standards underpinning the EU’s railway interoperability framework, adding new references, withdrawing obsolete ones, and flagging partial gaps in several standards covering rail accessibility for passengers with disabilities
April 13th, 2026 – The Commission has published Implementing Decision (EU) 2026/803, amending the list of harmonised standards supporting Directive (EU) 2016/797 on rail system interoperability. Under EU law, compliance with a standard on this list gives manufacturers of railway components automatic presumption of conformity with the corresponding legal requirements, which is a significant shortcut in the path to market, so keeping the list current is therefore a practical matter with real consequences for the rail supply industry.
The decision adds a number of new and revised standards. Notable among them are EN 50388-2:2025, addressing the coordination between electric traction power supply infrastructure and rolling stock, and EN 50728:2024, a new standard for electromagnetic compatibility testing with track circuits. The widely used RAMS standards (EN 50126-1 and EN 50126-2), which underpin safety cases across virtually all rail subsystems, are also updated through their 2024 amendments.
A significant portion of the update concerns the EN 16584, EN 16585, and EN 16586 series, covering the design of rolling stock for persons with disabilities and reduced mobility (PRM). Updated 2025 versions of all these standards are added, but the Commission has found that several fall short of fully satisfying the requirements of the PRM Technical Specification for Interoperability. Restrictions are attached to six of them, meaning manufacturers cannot rely on those standards alone for the specific requirements identified, which range from visual guidance provisions for passengers with sight impairments to a provision in EN 16586-2:2025 that would allow manual bridging plates, something the underlying regulation does not permit.
Fifteen standards are being removed entirely because they have been withdrawn by CEN or Cenelec, including older structural standards for railway vehicles and a long-standing series of track geometry and switch standards. A further eight are removed because they have been superseded by the updated versions introduced in this same decision, though manufacturers have until 13 October 2027 to transition away from those older references.
The decision entered into force on 13 April 2026, with new standard references effective immediately.
