Railway coaches are classified under an international system developed by the

UIC UIC may refer to: Computing * Uranium Information Centre, a defunct website sponsored by uranium mining companies * User identification code, the user number of the Files-11 file system in the RSX-11 operating system Education * University of Ill ...

. This UIC classification of railway coaches replaced earlier national classification schemes in many countries, such as

Germany Germany, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It lies between the Baltic Sea and the North Sea to the north and the Alps to the south. Its sixteen States of Germany, constituent states have a total popu ...

. The coach class is expressed as a combination of letters. It is sometimes followed, for example in the

Deutsche Bahn AG (, ; abbreviated as DB or DB AG ) is the national railway company of Germany, and a state-owned enterprise under the control of the German government. Headquartered in the Bahntower in Berlin, it is a joint-stock company ( AG). DB was fou ...

, by a three-figure class number. In a broader sense the vehicle number displayed on the coach is also part of its classification, because it encodes other technical details such as the top speed or the type of heating system used. For example the full designation of a

passenger coach A passenger railroad car or passenger car (American English), also called a passenger carriage, passenger coach (British English and International Union of Railways), or passenger bogie (Indian English) is a railroad car that is designed to ca ...

, including its coach number, looks like this: 73 80 29-94 708-7 Bpmbz 293.6 This article explains how this classification code on the sole bar of each coach may be decoded.

Main letters

The classification of a coach begins with one or more class letters, in our example above, a capital ''B''. It describes the general class of coach:

Secondary letters (
Deutsche Bahn (, ; abbreviated as DB or DB AG ) is the national railway company of Germany, and a state-owned enterprise under the control of the German government. Headquartered in the Bahntower in Berlin, it is a joint-stock company ( AG). DB was fou ...
)

The following lower-case letters follow the main letters and describe the technical equipment and fittings of the coach. How the letters are used, is at least partly up to the individual railway company. This overview is based on the system used by

Deutsche Bahn (, ; abbreviated as DB or DB AG ) is the national railway company of Germany, and a state-owned enterprise under the control of the German government. Headquartered in the Bahntower in Berlin, it is a joint-stock company ( AG). DB was fou ...

: ; i : ''formerly:'' local- or regional-traffic passenger (''Nah- oder Regionalverkehrswagen'') coach with center aisle, gangway without rubber connectors : ''formerly:''

InterRegio The InterRegio, often shortened to IR, is a train categories in Europe, train category for mainly domestic train services in use in some European countries, with Swiss Federal Railways operating the most dense network. InterRegio trains are semi ...

coach ; l : regional-traffic passenger coach (''Regionalverkehrswagen'') with length of more than 24.5 metres, centre aisle in 2nd class, centre aisle or side corridor in 1st class, rubber gangway connectors (currently not used) : ''formerly:'' couchette coach (''Liegewagen''), later changed to c ; m : long-distance passenger coach (''Fernverkehrswagen'') with length of more than 24.5 metres, rubber gangway connectors (except on DDm) ; mm : long-distance modified passenger coach (''Fernverkehrswagen'') with length of more than 24.5 metres, rubber gangway connectors ; n : local-traffic passenger coach (''Nahverkehrswagen'') with length of more than 24.5 metres, centre aisle in 2nd class, centre aisle or side corridor in 1st class, two centre doors, with 36-pole control cable for push-pull operations ; x : local-traffic passenger coach (

S-Bahn The S-Bahn ( , ), , is a hybrid urban rail, urban–suburban rail system serving a metropolitan region predominantly in German language, German-speaking countries. Some of the larger S-Bahn systems provide service similar to rapid transit syst ...

) with centre aisle, centre doors, high performance brakes,

bus bar In electric power distribution, a busbar (also bus bar) is a metallic strip or bar, typically housed inside switchgear, panel boards, and busway enclosures for local high current power distribution. They are also used to connect high volt ...

for current collection, push-pull operations by default ; y : regional-traffic passenger coach (''Regionalverkehrswagen'') with length of more than 24.5 m, centre aisle in 2nd class, centre aisle or side corridor in 1st class, two centre doors, with 34-pole control cable for push-pull operations ; b : coach with equipment for the disabled (behindertengerecht) : ''formerly:'' coach with command-control cabling (Befehls-Leitung) ; c : couchette coach, compartment seats can be converted to couchettes ; d : coach with luggage, multi-purpose or bicycle section ; k : coach with bistro, kiosk, kitchen section or snack machines ; o : compartment coach with fewer number, without (ohne) air-conditioning ; p : open coach with centre aisle ( pullman type), air-conditioned ; s : ''on luggage vans:'' side corridor (Seitengang) : ''on sleepers:'' Special type (small single- or twin-bed compartments) : ''on compartment coaches:'' Service compartment ; v : compartment coach with fewer (verringerter) number (11 instead of 12 on Bm, 9 instead of 10 on Am, 6/4 instead of 6/5 on ABm), air-conditioned ; w : compartment coach with way fewer number (9 instead of 12 Bm, former Am) : ''formerly:'' seats with padding (weich) also in former third class and then new second class ; r : coach with high-performance brakes (Rapid-Bremse) KE-GPR (only with n or

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) ; f : coach with driving cab (Führerstand), 36-pole control cabling or time-division multiplexed push-pull operations ; q : coach with driving cab, 34-pole control cabling for push-pull operations (only non-modernised vehicles without n or y) ; u : coach with 34-pole control cable for push-pull operations ; uu : coach with 36-pole control cable for push-pull operations (included in f or n) ; h : coach which power supply from axle generators (some with additional bus-bar) : ''formerly:'' non-converted local passenger train coaches of ''Reichsbahn'' origin ; z : coach with power supply from bus-bar (no axle generators) ; a : coach with automatic door operation ''( TAV)'' ; e : ''formerly:'' coach with electrical heating

Secondary letters (
Austrian Federal Railways The Austrian Federal Railways ( , formally or () and formerly the or ''BBÖ'' ), now commonly known as ÖBB (), is the national railway company of Austria, and the administrator of Liechtenstein's railways. The ÖBB group i ...
)

The Austrian Railways use different secondary letters for twin- and four-axled coaches. The following letters have been in force since 1981. The letters ''d'' for

double-decker coach A bilevel car (American English) or double-decker coach (British English and Canadian English) is a type of Passenger railroad car, rail car that has two levels of passenger accommodation as opposed to one, increasing passenger capacity (up t ...

, ''l'' for push-pull coaches and ''s'' for driving cars are written after a dash (e.g.: Bmpz-ds).

Secondary letters (
SNCF The Société nationale des chemins de fer français (, , SNCF ) is France's national State-owned enterprise, state-owned railway company. Founded in 1938, it operates the Rail transport in France, country's national rail traffic along with th ...
)

In addition to secondary letters, SNCF includes

superscript A subscript or superscript is a character (such as a number or letter) that is set slightly below or above the normal line of type, respectively. It is usually smaller than the rest of the text. Subscripts appear at or below the baseline, wh ...

characters to indicate the number of compartments or sections within a coach. (Example = A⁸tuj)

Secondary letters (
Swiss Federal Railways Swiss Federal Railways (, SBB; , CFF; , FFS) is the national railway company of Switzerland. The company was founded in 1902 and is headquartered in Bern. It used to be a State-owned enterprise, government institution, but since 1999 it has be ...
)

The Swiss Federal Railways currently uses secondary letters for their fleet of Eurofima coaches and to denote special type carriages. {, , c , Couchette car , ----- , m , Passenger coach with a length of more than 24 meters , ----- , p , Open center aisle coach (Chair car) or Panorama coach , - , r , Bar or Buffet coach (not currently in use) , ----- , s , Salon coach , ----- , t ,

Driving trailer A control car, cab car (North America), control trailer, or driving trailer (UK, Ireland, Australia and India) is a non-powered rail vehicle from which a train can be operated. As dedicated vehicles or regular passenger cars, they have one or t ...

Vehicle number

The fifth digit of the Coach number defines the type: * 0 = private coach * 1 = first class seating coach (A) * 2 = second seating class coach (B) * 3 = mixed classes seating coach (AB) * 4 = first or mixed class couchette coach (Ac, ABc) * 5 = second class couchette coach (Bc) * 7 = sleeper coach (any class)

Sources

Reisezugwagen-Gattungszeichen
Passenger rail transport Passenger coaches Classification of railway coaches Rolling stock classification systems Railway vehicles register numbers

Main letters

Secondary letters (Deutsche Bahn (, ; abbreviated as DB or DB AG ) is the national railway company of Germany, and a state-owned enterprise under the control of the German government. Headquartered in the Bahntower in Berlin, it is a joint-stock company ( AG). DB was fou ...)

Secondary letters (Austrian Federal Railways The Austrian Federal Railways ( , formally or () and formerly the or ''BBÖ'' ), now commonly known as ÖBB (), is the national railway company of Austria, and the administrator of Liechtenstein's railways. The ÖBB group i ...)

Secondary letters (SNCF The Société nationale des chemins de fer français (, , SNCF ) is France's national State-owned enterprise, state-owned railway company. Founded in 1938, it operates the Rail transport in France, country's national rail traffic along with th ...)