European Commission
European Commission

To reduce rail noise at its source the Commission adopted in 2002 a decision concerning the technical specification for interoperability relating to the " Rolling stock" including noise limit values for high speed trains.

For the conventional rail, the Commission adopted on 23 December 2005 a  decision [2006/66/EC] concerning the technical specification for interoperability relating to the noise of rolling stock. This Decision introduced for the first time noise limits for rolling stock used in the European Union. These limits apply to new and renewed rolling stock including freight wagons. New freight wagons have to be equipped with low-noise brake blocks (such as so-called K-blocks) reducing the noise by about 50%.

However, due to the long lifetime of rolling stock (and the logarithmic nature of noise), it will take several years before the overall noise emissions from freight trains can be reduced significantly if no additional measures addressing the existing fleet are introduced.

Workshop on rail noise

The Commission organised a workshop on rail noise on 27 April 2010 which was attended by about 70 experts from the Member States, the rail sector, manufacturing industry and the European Railway Agency.

Programme, conclusions and presentations