Analysis of selected aspects of the railway safety in the European Union

Abstract

Sustainable development of railway companies is conditioned by safety, which is why each railway operator should continually strive to improve safety and reduce the number of accidents. The requirements for reporting incidents and analyses are regulated at the European Community level. The regulatory authorities - national and European - are responsible for monitoring the safety culture. On the basis of the acquired data and safety indicators the authors analysed trends related to the European railways safety level. Comparative analyses carried out for individual EU countries allowed to find the main causes of accidents and indicate selected corrective actions that can be taken to improve safety and reduce accident costs. Previous practical experiences show that the costs of preventive actions are much smaller than the costs of eliminating the effects of accidents. Although the results of the analysis clearly show that consistent efforts in the safety area lead to a structural reduction in the number of accidents, there is still significant scope for improvements in many areas.