20 Mar 2026
AS 7520.2 Body Structural Requirements – Freight
The closing date for comments – Tuesday 19 May 2026
The latest review of AS 7520.2 Body Structural Requirements – Freight is now open for Public Consultation.
How this product helps the rail industry
This standard provides the rail industry with structural requirements for freight vehicle design based on best international and national practice. Adherence to the requirements and recommendations in this standard will assist the industry in developing specifications that will prevent structural failures.
About
The review of AS 7510.2 reflects advances in engineering practice, operational experience, and international benchmarking. The revised standard introduces several key improvements:
- Drawing on findings from an industry paper and comparison with an international standard, the revised standard addresses previously identified gaps by introducing additional load cases for impact, lateral, and twist conditions. Load factor application has also been clarified, resulting in a more robust and realistic representation of in-service forces.
- Structural performance is now defined in terms of draw load rather than train mass.
- The approach to fatigue analysis has been clarified.
- Insights from in-service failures have been incorporated into the revised load cases, ensuring the standard better reflects real-world conditions and known risk scenarios.
How to contribute
AS 7520.2 Body Structural Requirements – Freight is available for public consultation for 60 days. All interested parties are encouraged to provide comments during this time.
It is available to download here.
To make comments on the draft, please use the commenting tools in Adobe Acrobat or Acrobat Reader to comment in-line with the text. If needed you can find instructions here.
Please return your PDF with comments to fszanto@ariso.org.au by Tuesday 19 May 2026.
As the rail industry’s only accredited Standards Development Organisation (SDO), ARISO collaborates with government, rail operators and industry leaders to improve the efficiency and harmonisation of the Australia’s rail network, ensuring national interoperability, safety and sustainability into the future.