introduction

The competitive nature of the transportation industry coupled with the rising public expectations in safety, comfort, punctuality and value for money demands a high degree of co-ordination, availability and inherent safety in each sector.

Railways represent a complex and highly interdependent system comprising people, rule/procedures, infrastructure/machines and increasing degree of automation. Whilst people and operational rules issues are subject to the traditions and evolving culture of the industry, infrastructure and automation represent new challenges in increasing complexity and rising demand for availability, reliability and safety. As part of a strategic initiative, the Systems and Safety department within Railtrack’s Electrical Engineering and Control Systems Directorate (EE&CS), instigated a project to catalogue and systematically analyse significant items of infrastructure systems and equipment under its jurisdiction. This was mainly driven by the needs of the approvals process as well as the requirements of the investment programme at the time.

The aim of this project, referred to as Infrastructure Risk Modelling, was to categorize and subsequently analyse all key signalling, telecommunications, electrification and plant/machinery systems and equipment, and provide a sound and rational basis for risk based decision making regarding safety, availability, maintenance and renewals of these assets.

The project, initiated in 1996, has resulted in a portfolio of systematic knowledge pertaining to 47 systems and significant items of the EE&CS related infrastructure. The methodology and process applied has been mainly devised at Railtrack EE&CS Systems and Safety and could equally be applied to other disciplines and equipment.

Originally in paper masters, the Infrastructure Risk Models and associated reports have now been updated and converted to electronic counterparts for ease of application, dissemination and further enhancement. In sharing these with the railways stakeholders, we expect to receive feedback and suggestions for corrections and enhancements with a view to generate a valuable knowledge repository for the industry, promoting better understanding of the assets and enhanced safety, availability and reliability.

Dr. Ali Hessami
Manager, Risk Assessment & Analysis, Systems Eng. Group
December 2000

Back to Main Menu