A Framework for Risk Management in Railway Sector: Application to Road-Rail Level Crossings

A major concern in rail industry worldwide is to ensure safety in railway operations in general and at road/rail level crossings in particular where the number of fatal accidents has been significantly increasing over the years. Accidents at level crossings are the result of complex interactions between factors arising from the design and operations of level crossings. An important first step towards eliminating the causes of these accidents is thru understanding and assessing the risks associated with a given level crossing and acting on them. This paper introduces a risk management framework that serves this purpose. The suggested framework involves several activities, including, hazard identification, risk analysis, evaluation, treatment and control. Having explained the suggested framework, this paper illustrates how it can be systematically applied to mitigate risk at a given Moroccan level crossing. The efficiency and success of the suggested risk management framework are pending its integration in a global rail safety management system also introduced in the paper.