ISA - INDEPENDENT SAFETY ASSESSMENT
 

Assess the safety level of your railway system

SCENARIO

• Any development or modification of a railway system requires the identification and control of safety risks that may be generated by users and operators.
• Therefore the organization in charge of the development or the modification of a railway project (light rail transit, metro, high speed line) has the responsibility to manage safety and must guarantee that project organization and safety activities are compliant with the international standard EN 50126. This requires setting up a safety organization which manages risks during a project’s duration and must demonstrate the safety level achieved.

SOLUTION

• To provide safety insurance to a national safety authority, operators or railway manufacturers can ask for an Independent Safety Assessment (ISA). The Independent Safety Assessment mission provides an authoritative independent opinion on whether or not a project/system will meet its safety requirements. In some countries, this mission is required by the authority.

• Bureau Veritas assesses global transportation systems as well as subsystems according to international railway standards (EN 50126, EN 50128, EN 50129). Bureau Veritas has strong expertise in system and subsystem assessments to guarantee an exhaustive and coherent assessment for:
• Rolling Stock
• Signalling Command & Control
• Energy
• Infrastructure
• Maintenance
• Operations

To guarantee an exhaustive and coherent assessment, the ISA will be ongoing throughout every project phase from conception to operation and maintenance. The ISA methodology is based on safety documentation reviews, safety audits and traceability checks.


Bureau Veritas carries out checks on the safety of railway systems, subsystems, products and processes relating to:
■ Ground Signaling
■ On-board Signaling
■ Rolling Stock
■ Energy
■ Infrastructure
■ Maintenance
■ Operation

The Verification service is structured through the following steps:
■ Definition of the purpose
■ Drafting and sharing of the Assessment Plan
■ Documentary Analysis
■ Issuance of Technical Notes
■ Presence at the Laboratory Tests (Test witnessing)
■ Presence at the Field Tests (Test witnessing)
■ Safety Audit
■ Quality Audit
■ Final Report and Issuance of the Certificate
Bureau Veritas also offers Operational and Performance Assessment services.

FAQ

Why do projects need ISA?
Independent Safety Assessment (ISA) is a tool for projects to ensure that a new or modified system is specified and implemented correctly and ensures its safety function.
ISA acts as an independent entity for the project and safety engineering team. By leading the assessment activities, ISA attests to correctly managing safety risks and assures safety authorities of its system operations.

During what part of the project is ISA involved?
The ISA must begin at the start of the project. The earlier the ISA is involved, the better the safety assessment activities will be planned. At the beginning of the mission, the ISA produces a safety assessment plan which indicates the key milestones of the assessment to ensure completion on time.