Railway Transport Safety

In railway transportation production, safety means controlling the loss of people or property to an acceptable level; that is, the possibility of loss is acceptable. If this possibility exceeds the acceptable range, it is considered unsafe.

Railway transportation safety exists alongside the production process. As long as transportation production activities exist, safety issues will arise. However, safety is also the prerequisite and guarantee of production; normal and orderly production is inseparable from the safe operation and management of the system. Therefore, in the railway transportation production process, the contradiction between safety and efficiency/effectiveness must be properly handled.

The key to railway transportation safety is management. The railway is like a large, interconnected machine; its transportation production process involves multiple stages of operation by various trades, including rolling stock, locomotives, engineers, electrical engineers, and rolling stock operators. The sheer number and variety of equipment, the extensive and continuous layout of equipment, and the independent and dispersed positions of operators mean that strict and effective management is essential for the coordinated cooperation of all trades and stages. Furthermore, although unsafe acts by people and unsafe conditions of equipment are often the direct causes of accidents, management, seemingly an indirect cause, is actually the fundamental and essential reason for accidents.