ABSTRACT
The railway industry is based on European Union figures on being the safest form of transport in terms of passenger deaths per person kilometre or in deaths per person travel hour. The railways are one of the favourite mechanisms chosen by people in the Netherlands wishing to kill themselves and it kills some 30 other transport participants per year at level crossings, as well as a number of trespassers. The interviews were based on this framework and were conducted with a range of informants, who worked for the infrastructure company, a train operating company several track maintenance companies, the traffic control and the regulatory bodies. The interviews therefore gave a broad coverage of many aspects of the safety management system and culture of the organisations concerned, as well as the communication and coordination across the organisational boundaries that make up the decentralised railway system. Resilience is only one strategy for achieving very high levels of safety.
