Threats and Resilience: Methodology in the Area of Railway Infrastructure

Abstract

Railway transport is one of the key sub-sectors of European critical infrastructure. Despite the high level of railway transport safety, railway infrastructure elements are exposed to constant threats arising from large-scale disruptive events, which can cause damage to the functionality of railway infrastructure elements and can endanger passenger safety. One possible approach to protecting these elements is to use the concept of resilience, which reduces the likelihood of potential disruptive events and the vulnerability of the system to their effects. To this end, the primary objective of this paper is to present currently available effective approaches and methods focusing on the protection of the railway infrastructure system, that is, approaches and methods in 1) the identification and specification of critical elements of railway infrastructure, 2) the identification and assessment of threats adversely affecting the operation of critical elements of railway infrastructure, 3) the assessment of the resilience of critical elements of railway infrastructure, and 4) strengthening the resilience of elements in the critical infrastructure system. The paper provides a multi-criteria comparative analysis, which aims to select a suitable methodological apparatus for addressing the issue.