Overview
ISO 25711:2025 - Railway applications - Vocabulary for fire safety of rolling stocks is the first edition (July 2025) vocabulary standard published by ISO/TC 269. Its sole scope is to define and standardize terms used in the field of fire safety for railway vehicles and rolling stock. The document provides clear, harmonized definitions that support consistent interpretation across design, operation, testing and regulatory activities. The standard contains no normative references and is intended as a reference vocabulary rather than a specification of test methods or performance limits.
Key topics
ISO 25711 organizes and defines terminology relevant to railway fire safety. Key topics and defined concepts include:
- Detection & alarm: definitions for alarm, local alarm, remote alarm, fire detection device, automatic public address system.
- Containment & resistance: fire barrier, fire barrier door, fire resistance, thermal insulation, integrity criterion (E), insulation criterion (I), radiation criterion (W).
- Fire-fighting equipment: fixed fire‑fighting equipment, portable fire‑fighting equipment, cylinder cabinet.
- Materials & surfaces: material, product, coating, exposed area, limited surface, fire performance.
- Operational elements & spaces: passenger area, staff area, gangway, corridor, luggage compartment/container/rack/stack, dead end, place of safety, rescue location, tunnel/tunnel length.
- Electrical & traction systems: electrical equipment, arc protection device, supply line, traction circuit, traction equipment, high power circuit.
- Safety management terms: operation category, design category, hazard level, running capability, running time, fire exposure time, refurbishment.
- Supporting entries include definitions for LPG, flammable liquid/gas, test specimen, technical cabinet and others.
Applications
ISO 25711 is a foundational tool used to:
- Harmonize terminology in standards, technical specifications and procurement documents for rolling stock fire safety.
- Improve clarity in design documentation, safety cases and conformity assessments.
- Support manufacturers, vehicle designers, railway operators, testing laboratories, regulators and maintenance teams in consistent communication.
- Aid training materials, incident reports and cross-border projects where consistent vocabulary reduces ambiguity.
Typical users: railway safety engineers, standards writers, certification bodies, procurement officers, vehicle manufacturers, operators and regulators.
Related standards
ISO 25711 references established vocabularies and related documents in its bibliography for contextual consistency:
- ISO 13943:2023 - Fire safety - Vocabulary (source for several definitions)
- ISO 7240-1 - Fire detection and alarm systems - Part 1: General and definitions
Keywords: ISO 25711:2025, railway fire safety vocabulary, rolling stock terminology, fire resistance, fire detection, train safety standards.
