About Us

The EuroSpec consortium is composed of six active members: six European train operating companies, i.e. Nederlandse Spoorwegen (NS), Deutsche Bahn (DB), SNCF Mobilités (SNCF), Österreichische Bundesbahnen (ÖBB), Schweizerische Bundesbahnen (SBB) and the Railway Delivery Group (RDG). An it started in 2011.

The Vision of the EuroSpec initiative is:

to align passenger train operator’s needs in order to reduce the whole life cycle cost of the train, shorten the delivery time and speed up the innovation cycle and the deployment of innovations.

The objectives of EuroSpec are:

• To reduce diversity in the operator’s request to the industry for more competitive and mature products by writing common specifications.
• To provide to the industry free “Customer needs” for their future R&D program, through requirements that are not yet fulfilled by existing product nor solution.
• To promote through our common requirements to the industry the availability of information required for improving operation performance and ensuring long term sustainability of our assets, supporting open interfaces.
• To reduce the overall need of resources from operators in the harmonization and standardization processes:   Do the same work smarter with less people in a shorter time.
• To contribute to the development of a network of European Railway experts: share views, develop competencies.

The approach of EuroSpec is:

• To fill in gaps, not yet covered in any harmonization/standardization work.
• To focus on the areas where the diversity and the costs are large, or innovation is needed on the short term.
• To support and speed up the ‘regular’ international standardization processes by aligning the operators’ needs in advance. And deliver input for EN-standards.
• To exchange each others needs to the industry from the initiation stage (project brief) to the final document (EuroSpec). EuroSpec can be a sparring partner for industries for their developments.

The EuroSpec Values

• Being a lean organization: EuroSpec is based on networking and the willingness of members to work together based on an effective process.
• Being open, transparent and available for exchange with the industry and other operators.
• Sharing each individual points of view and look for convergence. But EuroSpec also accept  differences, and the fact that the team do not always reach consensus on each requirement.

The EuroSpec organisation: Organisation explanation

The organisational structure is in line with our values and working principles: transparent, efficient and shared. Two level organization for the daily activities: a Steering Group and several Working Groups. More information about the latest organization can be found here.

EuroSpec Achievements

Application and dissemination of EuroSpec documents:

• Discussion with individual manufacturers;
• Exchange and discussion with UNIFE-members;
• Already used in tenders by all EuroSpec members;
• Recognized, understood and included in new (standard) designs of manufacturers;
• Used as starting point for new EN-standardisation work
• Elements used as input for Shift2Rail-projects or as input for new Regulations

Knowledge sharing:

• ‘Experts’ and ‘design managers’ meeting each other sharing experience and the same long term ideas