Keywords: railway operations, interoperability, rulebook, code of operating rules, harmonization, comparing, railway operating processes.

This paper presents a proposed methodology for analysing, comparing and harmonizing technical regulations in railway operations. The methodology has been developed to support the European Union's effort to create a fully interoperable railway network. Railway operations are strictly controlled for safety reasons. These controls are presented in rulebooks that set forth specific regulations for planning, operating and post-processing train trips. Rulebooks have been developed over time since the beginning of railways. In most cases they are developed for one specific railway and are often very country-specific. Furthermore, there is no international glossary with a comprehensive collection of railway rulebook terms. These factors mean that railway rulebooks have different structures, contents and language, which makes comparison very labour-intensive. The proposed methodology provides a structured approach for analysing technical regulations with the ultimate objective of helping develop harmonized rules that can be used throughout Europe. This paper describes the proposed five-step methodology and presents an example application.

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