Gangways and inter-car connections
A gangway is a flexible enclosed structure connecting the passenger saloons of adjacent vehicles in a railway consist, permitting continuous passenger passage through the train and protecting occupants from external elements and aerodynamic pressure changes during transit.
A gangway system consists of a flexible bellows element, floor plate sections, structural end frames fixed to each vehicle body, and — in enclosed designs — interior lining panels.
Construction and mechanical function
The bellows accommodates relative motion between vehicles: rotation in the horizontal plane (yaw, on curves), in the vertical plane (pitch, on gradients), and lateral sway, as well as longitudinal compression and extension under buffer and drawgear forces.
Bellows are manufactured from rubber-coated fabric, with fire and smoke behaviour classified to EN 45545-2. Closed-cell or double-layer bellows improve acoustic isolation between vehicles; EN 16286-2 specifies the measurement method for gangway sound reduction indices.
Floor plates are typically reinforced rubber or metal, level with the vehicle floor to allow unobstructed wheelchair and pushchair passage.
Standards
EN 16286-1 (Railway applications — Gangway systems between vehicles — Part 1: Main applications) defines the technical and safety requirements applicable across all vehicle types: tram, metro, suburban, mainline, and high-speed. The standard includes structural requirements for the gangway attachment points and specifies minimum passage clear opening dimensions for normal operation; the mainline clear opening requirement is reported in the technical literature as 800 mm wide × 1,800 mm high.
A crash-scenario requirement specifies that the gangway passage must remain passable after the EN 15227 C-I design collision scenario at 36 km/h closing speed between two identical formations; the minimum post-collision clear opening is reported in the technical literature as 700 mm × 1,800 mm. This constrains crash-management zone design: deformable underframe elements must not fold into the gangway connection envelope.
High-speed and aerodynamic requirements
At speeds above 200 km/h, aerodynamic pressure variations at the inter-car gap generate transient loads on the gangway bellows and end-frame seals. High-speed gangway designs use stiffened end-frame profiles and aerodynamic fairings to minimise pressure loading on the flexible elements.
Pressure tightness is specified in relation to the maximum pressure wave the vehicle must withstand in tunnel transit, defined in EN 14067-5. The 2023 amendments under Commission Implementing Regulation (EU) 2023/1694 introduced harmonised gangway requirements in TSI LOC&PAS (Technical Specification for Interoperability — Locomotives and Passenger Rolling Stock) to facilitate Union-wide authorisation of passenger coaches operating on international services, replacing a patchwork of national specifications.