Risk-Based Safety Improvements in Railway Asset Management

This paper describes results from a research and development (R&D) project at Trafikverket (Swedish transport administration). The purpose of the project is to establish a risk-based framework for continuous safety improvement in railway infrastructure asset management. The approach is based on a combination of methodologies and tools described in dependability standards, such as Fault Tree Analysis (FTA), Failure Modes, Effects and Criticality Analysis (FMECA) and Event Tree Analysis (ETA). The empirical material is related to railway track with focus on safety critical rail defects potentially leading to rail breaks and derailment, but also their management within Trafikverket. Besides identifying risks, barriers and improvements, the approach complies with regulations and mandatory standards. Examples of these are Common Safety Method for Risk Evaluation and Assessment (CSM-RA, EU 402/2013) and EN 50126—RAMS (Reliability, Availability, Maintainability and Safety) for railway applications. In addition, the approach complies with regulatory requirements related to enterprise risk management and internal control, i.e., effectiveness, productivity, compliance and reporting. The approach also supports asset management in accordance with the ISO 55000-series.