Safety analysis to derive safety requirement in the railway system

The safety of the railway system is important because the system is a mass transit system and the results of the accident are inconceivable. The railway system is operated by train operation system such as train control system. So the train control system requires safety critical characteristics. In the European railway, ETCS (European Train Control System) project has been finished to accomplish the interoperability of each national railway signaling system. According to the interoperability degree, ETCS levels are suggested. As the highest level, ETCS level 3 suggests a radio communication. Also recently urban railway system is operated by driverless and automatic train control system. In this circumstance, more safety is required than before in the railway system. In order to accomplish the safety of a system, the requirements considering safety have to be suggested. The requirement is a set of several functions such as general function, environment, safety etc. For the safety critical system, safety function is more important than any other functions. The safety functions are deduced by safety analysis. In order to perform the safety analysis, the system hazards have to be identified and then risk analysis for each hazard should be performed. The risk is related to the frequency and the severity of each hazard. And then countermeasures for each risk have to be prepared. The summary of the countermeasures is about a kind of safety functions in a system. In this paper, the safety functions for a train control system are presented according to the above procedure.