APRIL 8 marked a further step towards proper recognition of environmental considerations in European rail industry procurement policy. Delegates at a two-day meeting in Paris approved standard specifications for rolling stock developed in the UIC-funded Procedures for Rolling Stock Procurement with Environmental Requirements project.
Prosper provides a set of harmonised qualitative environmental specifications and guidelines for evaluating tenders in respect of their environmental implications. Phase II, starting later this year, will co-ordinate the legal aspects and recommended values for the environmental performance of new rolling stock.
There was also strong support amongst delegates for the Repid project to make widely available the Ravel methodology for including environmental considerations in design and procurement. Repid will provide a legal framework for dealing with standardisation of environmental performance indicators and data formats, as well as a tool for improving their usability. Project partners are UIC, Unife, Alstom, Bombardier, DB, IMI Chalmers and Semcon.
