Abstract:

Safety has always been a key feature of transport especially regarding passenger services and transport of hazardous goods. It is one of the most significant values in railway transport due to its very structured approach and highly organized manner. Railway transports large amount of goods which inflicts operating with heavy vehicles where a slight error can cause catastrophic consequences. The second most important factor in making railways such a safe mean of transport is the human factor – the devotion to railways of people who are involved in it, and high level of competencies required for nearly every post which is involved in operational services. In summary, available historical data on fatal railway accidents shows a solid gradual improvement in railway safety over the past three decades, which has slowed down since the late 1990s. This "softening" of the trend is observable when analysing both absolute and relative figures of fatal train collisions and derailments in Europe. [1] Due to this aspect, while organizing railway transport there is a high demand for specialized engineers who can aid the safety matters of railway transport not only on the operational level but mainly on the management level. Proper data analysis and giving precise conclusions and safety targets are at stake. Thus, there are a lot of courses dedicated to safety engineering, based on experiences from other branches of technical science and transport modes. They implement such elements of the art like: proactive safety management, risk analysis, accident investigations etc. These courses are provided at a different level of individuals education, from technical college-like level, through dedicated specializations during bachelors and masters studies, up to postgraduate studies and doctorate theses. It seems that the role of well-trained safety engineers will greatly increase in the railway sectors in the following years.