HUSARE - Human Safe Rail in Europe (Managing the Human Factor in Multicultural and Multilingual Rail Environments)
Overview
Background & policy context:
In the wider context of EC transport policy, progress towards a modernised European railway system is essential to allow railways to play a more important role in passenger and freight transport. Increased interoperability in cross-border rail operations is vital and therefore new human factors problems and associated risks will arise. These need to be addressed, taking into account different conditions in terms of technical systems, rules, organisations and procedures, as well as cultural or language-related national characteristics.
Objectives:
HUSARE aimed to establish a common method for evaluating and improving human management to increase safety and reliability for European cross-border railway lines. A risk-based approach was adopted to ensure that the effort associated with the standardisation of rules and procedures is directed at those aspects of railway operations, which are most critical in terms of the risks that can arise if human errors occur.
The main objectives of HUSARE were to:
- select scenarios relating to cross-border operations, using hazard and risk analyses;
- perform a survey and then develop a framework and toolset for the analysis of human aspects of railway operations, taking into consideration the balance between safety systems and increased traffic;
- analyse existing rules and procedures of different countries for cross-border operations and identify contradictory and inadequate rules and procedures as well as their associated risks;
- propose modifications and harmonisation of rules and procedures to minimise risks and to maximise reliability of train operations;
- define tools and techniques for general risk analyses of cross-border operations with particular reference to future technical changes in railway operations.
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