The consultant´s view [of railway safety]

It is the author´s view that safety cases do have a role to play in helping railways adapt to new opportunities, and that lessons have been learnt in Britain which, if addressed, will make the safety case development and approval much more efficient. Key lessons are: that the safety case is an inherent part of the planning and design process, and is difficult to prepare in retrospect; that all stages of the project´s life should be considered, and assumptions and caveats agreed early; that the safety case process should be developed toward the goal of convincing acceptance bodies; that the railway´s rules of operation are part of the system, and safety cases need to address each application and use; that specifications should be prepared to prevent unnecessary rework of known products; that unreasonably high safety targets should be avoided by careful wording of signalling principles; and that, if used as part of project commercial risk assessment, the safety case process will itself add value to projects by facilitating improvements through change