Noise pollution is one of the major challenges of public transport systems. The impact noise and vibration, caused by the interaction between heavy vehicles and infrastructure, has on human health is a major concern in railway. Manufacturers, operators and infrastructure managers work together to develop new methods not only to mitigate the emissions but also to better measure it. Without precise measurement methods, no robust solution is possible.
In this context, CEN/TC 256 ‘Railway applications’ has recently issued a new version of an important tool: EN ISO 3095 ‘Railway applications - Acoustics - Measurement of noise emitted by railbound vehicles (ISO/FDIS 3095:2025)’. This document was prepared in collaboration with ISO/TC 43 ‘Acoustics’ in accordance with the Agreement on technical cooperation between ISO and CEN (Vienna Agreement).
This standard specifies measurement methods and conditions to obtain reproducible and comparable exterior noise emission levels and spectra for all kinds of vehicles operating on rails or other types of fixed track, hereinafter conventionally called “unit”. The document is applicable to type testing of units and provides measurement procedures for vehicle exterior noise (in general, a vehicle type test is carried out using only a selected subset of these tests): when the vehicle is moving at constant speed, when the vehicle is accelerating or decelerating, or when the vehicle is stationary in different operating conditions.
It does not include all the instructions to characterize the noise emission of the infrastructure related sources (bridges, crossings, switching, impact noise, curving noise, etc.), and it does not apply to the noise emission of track maintenance units while working, noise emission assessment and warning signal noise.
The results can be used for various applications, including to characterize the exterior noise emitted by units, to compare the noise emission of various units on a particular track section, or to collect basic source data for units.
This new version of EN ISO 3095 brings a series of changes to the previous version:
- an alignment of measurement conditions with ISO 3381:2021;
- an improvement of the tonality assessment;
- the introduction of specific measurement conditions for hybrid vehicles;
- a new informative Annex C providing guidance information on the track influence on pass-by test results;
- an improved specification for additional noise measurements on bridges and other elevated structures in concrete bridge sections; and
- a new informative Annex H specifying the measurement method for noise from parked trains to support a potential regulation aiming to take into account annoyance produced in that situation.
This standard is also very important at the regulatory level: its revision has been undertaken by CEN/TC 256 under the EC standardization request M/591 to support Directive (EU) 797/2016 on the interoperability of the railway system in the EU through the ‘Noise TSI’, the Commission Regulation (EU) No 1304/2014 of 26 November 2014 on the technical specification for interoperability relating to the subsystem rolling stock — noise amending Decision 2008/232/EC and repealing Decision 2011/229/EU.
EN ISO 3095:2025 was developed by CEN/TC 256, the Secretariat of which is held by DIN.
