This European Standard specifies the conditions for obtaining reproducible and comparable measurement results of levels and spectra of noise emitted by all kinds of vehicles operating on rails or other types of fixed track, hereinafter conventionally called "train", except for track maintenance vehicles in operation.
This standard is applicable for:
¾ type testing;
¾ periodic monitoring testing.
The results may be used, for example:
¾ to characterise the noise emitted by these trains;
¾ to compare the noise emission of various vehicles on a particular track section;
¾ to collect basic source data for trains.
The test procedures specified in this European Standard are of engineering grade (grade 2, with a precision of ± 2 dB), that is the preferred one for noise declaration purposes, as defined in EN ISO 12001.
The procedures specified for accelerating and decelerating tests are of survey grade.
NOTE 1 Although this standard is for characterising noise emission for vehicles, the wheel-rail rolling noise often contains a significant and sometimes dominant noise contribution from the track.
NOTE 2 This Standard aims to specify the conditions for obtaining reproducible and comparable measurement results of noise emitted by railbound vehicles and the method described may also be used to monitor the noise emissions in ordinary traffic. In the latter case it is not necessary that track and vehicle conditions fulfil the requirements described in the standard. Therefore the results of such tests are only representative of a "particular" situation.