Progress developing standards for system and subsystem interfaces in rail passenger vehicles

The Transportation Cooperative Research Program (TCRP) is sponsoring a two phase project whose objective is to design a process for developing consensus standards (physical, logical and electrical) for system and subsystem interfaces for elements of electric rail passenger vehicles (light rail, heavy rail and commuter rail vehicles). Using the process, one or more standards will be produced. Under Phase I, completed last summer, the TCRP project supported organization of the Rail Transit Vehicle Interface Standards Committee (RTVISC), a consensus based standards committee of the IEEE Vehicular Technology Society. It also assisted the RTVISC to identify system and subsystem interfaces which require standardization and to form eight working groups to draft standards. This paper describes key aspects of the consensus standards process and its implementation within the IEEE, and summarizes the Phase I activity. Phase II, which is currently underway, is supporting the RTVISC to actually draft, ballot and implement these interface standards.