Implementation of the common safety method in the European Union railway transportation

Change management is considered to be an important element of safety management systems, lack of which can lead to industrial accidents and disasters. Therefore, risk management related to changes introduced to the railway system has become one of the processes covered by regulations aimed at harmonising the rules of railway transport in the whole European Union (EU). This article presents the results of a comparative analysis of available source materials in terms of determining the manner and level of implementation of EU-wide rules for risk management related to introduced changes. The analysis was based on data from five selected EU Member States. A common issue raised in practically all of the reports analysed is the lack of detailed definitions of terms such as significant change, insignificant change, the impact of change on the safety of the railway system. Attempts to solve this situation have been specified by us and evaluated from the viewpoint of safety engineering.