Railway Safety Performance in the European Union - ERA - Europa

The development of safety
Railways remain a safe form of transport but further analysis of
trends based on common safety indicator (CSI) data cannot be done
yet. Even though both the number of accidents and the total number
of fatalities fell compared to 2007, there are still a substantial
number of unauthorised persons and level crossing users killed and
the total reported number of fatalities was higher than in 2006.
The national investigation bodies (NIBs) have notified the Agency
of 146 accidents that occurred during 2009. The Agency also
received 210 investigation reports during 2009 covering accidents
dating from 2006 and onwards. In January 2010, the Agency set up
a safety information system which enables the Member States and
the industry to disseminate information on safety-critical issues.
The issuing of safety certificates according to the Railway Safety
Directive is not proceeding as expected. A review of the annual
reports from the national safety authorities (NSAs) shows that
a number of countries have not yet issued any certificates and
some use a combination of the new and old legislation. The use of
dual or old legislation will not be possible as from 1 January 2011,
when all railway undertakings (RUs) are required to have a
certificate issued according to the Railway Safety Directive.
The Agency has concerns as to whether all pending applications
for safety certificates will be processed in time before the
deadline of 1 January 2011. Up unt il now, over 300 certificates
hav e been issued. There are, though, three Member States that
have not yet issued any part A certificates and that have a large
number of pending applications.
Transparency of national safety rules, particularly during this
period of change towards the open market, is one of the key
conditions for safe operation of the railways. The Agency has
evaluated how some of the requirements contributing to
transparency of the rules have been implemented in the Member
States. We have concluded that a more systematic and common
approach is necessary to ensure the comprehensiveness of the
national systems of safety rules and their accessibility.
During 2009 the Agency made available a historical archive of
fatal accidents in Europe. The accident data were collected in a
research project and the information is stored in our database.
The archive contains data on 384 serious accidents which
occurred between 1990 and 2005. In this report we present the
archive and some of the trends that emerge from the data.
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