Building Trust on the Tracks

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Railway systems demand the highest levels of safety and reliability. As software takes on an increasingly central role in infrastructure and onboard equipment, ensuring compliance with certification standards while maintaining long-term software stability has become more complex and costly.

With diesel vehicles accounting for 30% to 50% of greenhouse emissions at a mine site, replacing them with a battery-electric fleet is a sure way to drastically reduce overall CO₂ emissions, but how else can mines benefit from this technology?

Leading underground manufacturers Normet believe the answer lies with SmartDrive. This architecture for battery electric vehicles (BEV) was developed in collaboration with customers, building on feedback, predicting future trends, and assessing the limitations of diesel engines, and comes with a wealth of benefits for operators.

AdaCore equips the rail industry with the tools, technologies, and expertise to develop high-assurance software conformant to rigorous certification standards such as EN 50128 and EN 50657. Whether supporting safety-critical signaling infrastructure or embedded onboard control systems, AdaCore’s qualifiable solutions enable developers to deliver software that is not only robust and certifiable but also built to last.

With long-term support, strict control over updates, and toolchains that reduce the cost of verification and certification, AdaCore helps rail software developers avoid the pitfalls of code obsolescence and inconsistent tool behavior.

EN 50128: Software Safety for Control and Protection 

EN 50128 is issued by CENELEC, the European Committee for Electrotechnical Standardization, and governs software used in railway control and protection applications. Together with EN 50126 and EN 50129, this standard establishes the core RAMS (Reliability, Availability, Maintainability, Safety) objectives that railway software must meet. 

AdaCore supports compliance through tools qualified for: 

• Static and dynamic analysis 
• Code verification including formal proof
• Compilation with traceability and reproducibility guarantees

These capabilities reduce certification risk while improving code quality and lifecycle confidence. 

EN 50657: Certification for Rolling Stock Software 

EN 50657 extends the principles of EN 50128 into the rolling stock domain, focusing on onboard systems such as braking, door control, and driver interfaces. It retains RAMS goals but tailors them for embedded systems in motion, where environmental and operational variables are more dynamic. 

 AdaCore’s experience in embedded and safety-critical domains ensures customers have access to: 

• Qualification material for DO-330/ED-215–style tool assessment
• A formally verifiable language (SPARK) for high-integrity use cases
• Lifecycle support aligned with the needs of long-term platform deployments 

AdaCore’s offerings are particularly well-suited for organizations seeking a long-term technology partner—not just a supplier. By combining open-source foundations with commercial support and certifiability, AdaCore enables rail customers to adopt a modern development approach without compromising on assurance.

Why Use SPARK for Railway Software? 

• Eliminates classes of run-time errors at compile-time
  
• Enables formal proofs of safety and security properties 
  
• Supports high-assurance development with traceability from requirements to code 

AdaCore is your trusted partner for high‑integrity automotive software. 

For over 30 years, AdaCore has equipped developers with the tools to build safe, reliable, and secure systems. We provide open-source toolchains for Ada, SPARK, and Rust—languages chosen for their relevance and rigor in the safety-critical space. 

AdaCore offers a unified development and verification environment across multiple languages and platforms, providing a consistent and reliable toolset. We support high-integrity industries by offering compiler-toolchain, analysis-tool qualification, and certification evidence for compliance with industry standards. With a commitment to long-term support, AdaCore ensures the continuity and reliability of its toolchains for decades. Our open-source toolchains include a software bill of materials and timely vulnerability reports, helping developers maintain secure supply chains and build on a trusted foundation.