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Critical Analysis of Train Occurrences in Canada through Process Safety Techniques and Safety Risk Model Approach
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- Author / Creator
- Esmaeeli, Nafiseh
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Canada’s national rail network is the third-largest in the world, playing a vital role in moving goods and people across the country. Rail transportation transfers $320 billion worth of goods and over 100 million passengers annually. Although railway activities are beneficial to Canada’s economy,
insufficient attention to safe transportation can have irreparable effects on the economy, human lives, and the environment. Recent rail accidents, like Lake Wabamun in 2005 and Lac-Mégantic in 2013, have shown that there is still room to increase the safety of rail transportation by improving the railway’s safety management system (SMS). As a result, the first study of this thesis is part of these initiatives focusing on enhancing railway’s SMS, particularly mitigating the likelihood of Dangerous Goods (DG) main-track train derailments, as these are associated with the potential for larger consequence magnitudes. The study applied detailed Root Cause Analysis (RCA), Event Tree Analysis (ETA), and Bow Tie Analysis (BTA) to identify the main causes and
consequences of these types of accidents (2007-2017). Then, the relationship between these factors and gaps in SMS elements were identified and the frequency of each factor was investigated. The results showed that the main gaps are related to the process and equipment integrity, incident investigation, and company standards, codes, and regulations, respectively. Furthermore, some useful recommendations are presented to enhance the management of each SMS element and reduce the gaps.
The outcomes of the first paper demonstrated that among those SMS elements that showed the major gaps, there was a mutual cause-risk assessment. Weakness in implementing risk assessment makes it difficult to correctly define the objectives of SMS. To this end, the second study of this thesis focused on the risk assessment of the Canadian railway system by employing a useful model named Safety Risk Model (SRM). The study applied a customized Canadian SRM (C-SRM) to two groups of hazardous events, main-track derailments, and collisions with fatality and injury consequences calibrated for data between 2007- 2017. The model used Fault Tree Analysis (FTA) and Event Tree Analysis (ETA) to identify the collective risks of the hazardous event. Then, by applying those methods, the individual risks of the hazardous events were evaluated for three groups of people: passengers, employees, and members of the public (MOP). In the last step of the study, the developed C-SRM allowed to apply a risk reduction analysis to assess the effect of introducing a new control measure, Enhanced Train Control (ETC). ETC technologies are a combination of enhanced awareness and fail-safe systems with similar functionality to the US Positive Train Control (PTC) systems. ETC is aimed to prevent certain rail occurrences caused by human error. The results of the study showed that the collective risk of main-track derailments is
higher than the main-track collision. Moreover, the risk to MOP and employees form the most significant proportion of the individual risk for main-track derailment and main-track collision,
respectively. Finally, risk reduction analysis of the ETC revealed that this new control measure is useful in preventing certain rare but potentially high-consequences accidents. However, making a
decision regarding the implementation of this system in the Canadian rail industry needs further investigation such as cost-benefit analysis. -
- Graduation date
- Spring 2023
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- Type of Item
- Thesis
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- Degree
- Master of Science
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- License
- This thesis is made available by the University of Alberta Libraries with permission of the copyright owner solely for non-commercial purposes. This thesis, or any portion thereof, may not otherwise be copied or reproduced without the written consent of the copyright owner, except to the extent permitted by Canadian copyright law.