The STRMTG, in charge of safety for ropeways and guided public transport for the French Ministry of Transport, edited in 2012 a guidebook relative to the “Ergonomics of drivers’ cab in tramways”. It aims to set minimums for designers of rolling stock to assure an appropriate visibility to drivers and to gather the needs of the tramway operators.
Safety of tramway systems is in particular based on line-of-sight driving principle but no regulation or standard existed on visibility requirements. Therefore, the STRMTG got into process for elaborating a frame of reference shared with concerned professionals.
These specifications concern in particular:
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Visibility: close and far-off outside fields of vision, inside field of vision, area swept by windscreen wipers, etc.;
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Location and type of controls;
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Windscreen and side windows.
The two driving positions are studied (centred and off-centre) and a specific part of the guide deals with tram trains regarding the compatibility with conventional railway standards.
Because the field of the STRMTG is exclusively safety, in 2015 the original guide was divided into two parts: the STRMTG guide concerns safety prescriptions and a second guide deals with comfort specifications. This second guide is co-edited by the UTP (union of French operators in public transport) and the GART (union of French public authorities in charge of transport policy).
This revision of the guide also enabled to associate public authorities in charge of transport policy to the process as they are decision-makers in the choice of the rolling stock design.
