Overview

This book offers a comprehensive and practice-oriented guide to risk management, with a special emphasis on the physical and environmental risks related to the operations of railway systems. It is intended to provide a roadmap for managing the risk by controlling safety. Starting with a concise historical introduction and by presenting basic concepts of risk management, the book describes in turn the railway systems and their complexity. Then, it goes in depth into the process of risk management, describing the main elements, from risk identification, analysis and assessment to risk monitoring and communication. Different risk assessment techniques are reviewed in detail, and the main components of a risk management plan are presented. The book concludes with an introduction to health risk management, describing strategies for performing health risk assessments for staff in safety-critical positions. Based on the conviction that controlling safety is the main strategy in managing risk, and on the fact that the systems we would like to control are complex ones, this book provides transport and safety engineers with the necessary knowledge to effectively managing the risks of the railway system.