This document specifies measurement methods and conditions to obtain reproducible and comparable exterior noise emission levels and spectra for all kinds of vehicles operating on rails or other types of fixed track, hereinafter conventionally called “unit”.

This document is applicable to type testing of units.

It provides measurement procedures for vehicle exterior noise (in general, a vehicle type test is carried out using only a selected subset of these tests):

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when the vehicle is moving at constant speed;

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when the vehicle is accelerating or decelerating;

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when the vehicle is stationary in different operating conditions.

It does not include all the instructions to characterize the noise emission of the infrastructure related sources (bridges, crossings, switching, impact noise, curving noise, etc.).

This document does not apply to

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the noise emission of track maintenance units while working,

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environmental impact assessment (collection of data to be used in a prediction method for environmental assessment),

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noise immission assessment,

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guided buses, and

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warning signal noise.

The results can be used, for example

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to characterize the exterior noise emitted by units,

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to compare the noise emission of various units on a particular track section, and

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to collect basic source data for units.

NOTE            Additional guidance is provided in Annex E for measurements in the specific case of urban rail vehicles.