Safety analysis in a modern railway setting

This paper provides a review of the current approach to risk analysis in the GB railway. It is set against a background of a comparatively high level of perceived safety. The railway is undergoing a modernisation that will result in new operating paradigms which rely on the interconnection of systems and integration of operating processes to obtain efficiencies. There is recognition that in the modern railway environment complexity has increased which has led to questions of whether current methods are still appropriate without modification or support. Conceptually current methods may be usable, but a robust analysis would prove complex and is difficult to demonstrate completeness. There is an understanding that a trade-off is required between complexity created by all the interconnections and the ability of the human engineer to understand. A modified approach is proposed that takes advantage of systems engineering to simplify the problem while at the same time capturing key system risks. There is an outline of the proposed further research to develop the method of analysis further.