Scientific paper ID 2318 : 2022/3

Railway development is a priority objective in the transport policy of most European countries. Methods and means are sought both on European and national levels in order to counter transport traumatism and increase safety with railway transportation. A methodology for incident risk assessment on a section of railway network of the Republic of Bulgaria has been adopted. The methodology is carried out in three stages: ”Establishing the context”, ”Risk assessment” and ”Risk treatment” applying ALARP principle for risk categorization.

The methodology chosen is applied to a specific section, first determining its current state. The collected statistical information about the registered safety-related events that occurred in the system of operation in 2015-2020 is used to divide the events into three main groups: accidents, incidents and incident-like situations. The events that occurred are classified by a risk matrix according to the obtained severity levels of occurrence frequency and the severity of consequences into three main groups: permissible risk, permissible risk under a certain condition and unacceptable risk. The hazard impact has been verified using appropriate combinations of low-risk, medium-risk and high-risk hazards. Hazards are distributed according to the results obtained in the ALARP Chart. In conclusion, a number of measures are recommended to reduce the probability of occurrence of incidents falling into a high-risk area.