Is the safety index of modern safety integrity level(SIL) truly appropriate for the railway?

Yuan Cao; Yuntong An; Shuai Su; Yongkui Sun

doi:10.1016/j.aap.2023.107267

Is the safety index of modern safety integrity level(SIL) truly appropriate for the railway?

Accid Anal Prev. 2023 Nov:192:107267. doi: 10.1016/j.aap.2023.107267. Epub 2023 Sep 13.

Authors

Yuan Cao¹, Yuntong An², Shuai Su³, Yongkui Sun⁴

Affiliations

¹ State Key Laboratory of Rail Traffic Control and Safety, Beijing Jiaotong University, Beijing 100044, China; National Engineering Research Center of Rail Transportation Operation and Control System, Beijing Jiaotong University, Beijing 100044, China; School of Electronic and Information Engineering, Beijing Jiaotong University, Beijing 100044, China.
² National Engineering Research Center of Rail Transportation Operation and Control System, Beijing Jiaotong University, Beijing 100044, China; School of Electronic and Information Engineering, Beijing Jiaotong University, Beijing 100044, China. Electronic address: 21111059@bjtu.edu.cn.
³ State Key Laboratory of Rail Traffic Control and Safety, Beijing Jiaotong University, Beijing 100044, China; Frontiers Science Center for Smart High-speed Railway System, Beijing Jiaotong University, Beijing 100044, China.
⁴ National Engineering Research Center of Rail Transportation Operation and Control System, Beijing Jiaotong University, Beijing 100044, China; School of Electronic and Information Engineering, Beijing Jiaotong University, Beijing 100044, China.

PMID: 37708831
DOI: 10.1016/j.aap.2023.107267

Abstract

Safety is paramount in rail transportation. The International Safety Standard IEC 61508, issued by the International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC) in 2000, describes the modern concept of safety and the specifications for safety evaluation in a systematic manner. On this basis, the EN 50129 railway transportation safety standard and safety integrity level(SIL) are established. Through the above analysis, the relationship between safety-related system reliability, acceptable risk, and safety index is summarized. It is clear that the safety index is based on acceptable risks. Nonetheless, as the economy and society advance, the safety index mandated by the SIL falls behind. Consequently, the principles and methodologies for calculating the safety index are presented. The paper proposes a reference for the Chinese railway safety index based on actual data from the Chinese railways over the past few years.

Keywords: Railway safety; Safety index; Safety integrity level; Tolerable risk.

MeSH terms

Accidents, Traffic*
Humans
Reproducibility of Results
Transportation*