A Visual-Analytics System for Railway Safety Management

The working environment of railways is challenging and complex and often involves high-risk operations. These operations affect both the company staff and inhabitants of the towns and cities alongside the railway lines. To reduce the employees´ and public´s exposure to risk, railway companies adopt strategies involving trained safety personnel, advanced forms of technology, and special work processes. Nevertheless, unfortunate incidents still occur. To assist railway safety management, researchers developed a visual-analytics system. Using a data analytics workflow, it compiles an incident risk index that processes information about railway incidents. It displays the index on a geographical map, together with socioeconomic information about the associated towns and cities. Feedback on this system suggests that safety engineers and experts can use it to make and communicate decisions.