Speech by the Minister for Transport at the International Railway Safety Conference

Date: 23 October 2006

Introduction

It gives me great pleasure to welcome everyone to this, the 16th Annual International Conference on Railway Safety. I understand that this is the first time the conference has been hosted by Ireland and that over 120 delegates representing 20 countries from all over the world will participate in this prestigious five-day event. Ireland was first involved in this conference in 1999 when it was held in Canada. I am delighted that this year, Ireland has the honour of bringing you together for this important week of discussions and deliberations. I warmly welcome you here to our capital. I hope you find us welcoming and hospitable, and the conference engaging and rewarding.

The fact that this is a joint venture, organized in conjunction with industry colleagues in Northern Ireland is to be welcomed. I congratulate the organising committee, led by Mr John Welsby, the Commissioner for Railway Safety since January this year, along with representatives from Iarnrod Éireann, the Railway Procurement Agency, Veolia and the Department of Regional Development for Northern Ireland.

A quick glance at the conference programme and the list of attendees tells me that the cross stakeholder ethos of previous conferences has been maintained. Pooling high level expertise and information between safety professionals from across the industry, including operators, railway accident investigators, transport regulators, transport authorities, employee interests and so on, can only result in improved safety values underpinning safety policy and practice on railway networks.

The theme of the conference, Maintaining safety keeping pace with change, depicts perfectly the current environment of the railway industry in Ireland particularly, and in Europe in general.

Revitalisation of Railways

A major transformation of our railway network has taken place in Ireland over the last seven to eight years. A national effort has been made in this time to improve the safety of our railway system. This has included
· a very substantial Railway Safety Investment Programme;

· a new law - the Railway Safety Act, 2005 - putting in place a new regulatory framework to underpin railway safety policy and practice, and;

· the establishment of the Railway Safety Commission.

Since 1999, under the Railway Safety Programme, over €950m has been invested to date in Ireland in railway safety. A key focus of this investment has been the upgrading and redevelopment of the rail network following a long period of under investment. Track-work on the entire network has been upgraded and the entire intercity network now has continuously welded track. Network resignalling has been completed on all of the mainline, and is being extended to regional lines such as Westport and Ballina and Rosslare. With the upgraded infrastructure in place, Irish Rail is undertaking a rolling stock acquisition programme, which will take place over a number of years and will result in the removal from regular service of the very old, life-expired rolling stock in its fleet. We will have next year, one of the most modern rail fleets in Europe.

The Railway Safety Programme is not just about upgrading infrastructure however. It has also prioritised the development of Irish Rails safety management systems, which are being addressed with over €100m invested in safety systems, procedures and practices and in promoting safety culture at all levels in the company. This aspect of the investment programme may be of particular interest in relation to the conference session tomorrow Tuesday, on Human Factors in Railway Safety. Our risk-based approach to safety and our risk model highlighted the importance of human factors in safety. The safety responsibility on management and employees are being brought more into focus.

This investment programme, while primarily driven by safety needs, has revitalized the Irish railway network, which has seen very strong growth of up to 10% per annum in passenger numbers in recent years.

Investment in railway safety will continue at a high level under the Irish Governments transport infrastructure development programme Transport 21 which is a €34 billion investment in Irelands transport infrastructure over the coming years. Transport 21 also provides for a major expansion in rail-based public transport services, particularly in the Dublin area, with the development of new railway lines but also elsewhere in the country with the re-opening of lines such as the Western Rail Corridor. Just last Thursday, I also announced the next major step in making the first Metro for Dublin a reality the selection of the route for Metro North. Using underground, surface and elevated tracks, the 17-kilometer line will run from St. Stephens Green here in the city centre to north of Swords in County Dublin. Having a Metro for the people of Dublin and visitors to the city is a key component in the overall public transport network that we propose to develop as part of Transport 21.

With investment and growth in the rail network, it is imperative that safety remain on top of the agenda in the provision of rail services.

Railway Safety Act 2005

The investment in infrastructure and safety management systems in this country has been complemented by the Railway Safety Act 2005 which provides a modern and up-to-date regulatory framework that will ensure the expanded railway network is built and maintained to the highest safety standards. When we consider the increase in train frequency across the Irish network and the resultant increase in passenger numbers, the safe movement of passengers is paramount, as is the publics confidence in the railway undertakings to do this effectively.

Railway Safety Commission

A key player in ensuring this confidence is the Railway Safety Commission which was established in January this year. Its principal functions are to:

Assess safety cases submitted by railway operators, and where it is satisfied that the undertaking can operate the railway safely; issue safety certificates
Assess the safety of new infrastructure works and rolling stock before they are constructed, commissioned and brought into service;
Audit the safety management system and safety case of a railway undertaking;
Make regulations in relation to specific aspects of railway safety;
Carry out inspections of railway infrastructure, operations and management systems and take enforcement proceedings where necessary, including the use of mandatory prohibition and improvement notices and High Court injunctions.
The Commission provides a more modern, and flexible way of independently overseeing the safety of our railways. It covers not just the Iarnród Éireann network but also the new LUAS system, the planned Metro network, heritage railways and other railways which have an interface with a public road or another railway.

While we unfortunately cannot deny the reality that railway accidents do occur and will continue to do so, it is worth noting that there has been no major accident with multiple fatalities on the Irish rail network for over twenty years. This of course is due, in no small part, to the diligence of the staff and management of the railway undertakings and I would like to take this opportunity to congratulate them on this excellent safety record. However, the potential for serious accidents is with us all the time and we must always strive for best practice when it comes to railway safety.

Benefit of Conference

I have taken some time to give an overview of recent developments in Ireland and the good progress that we have made in terms of investment, legislation and institutional arrangements. In order to ensure that we derive full benefit from these initatives, however, it is imperative that practice at operational level is soundly based. It is in this context that conferences such as this one here in Dublin are important. They provide an opportunity for you, the practitioners of railway safety, to share knowledge and expertise and promote best practice. The focus in your programme for example, on human factors in railway safety is particularly welcome and highlights the need for railway undertakings to focus on training and improving the competence of staff, particularly safety critical staff.

In conclusion, once again, I congratulate the organisers of the conference and would like to wish you well with your deliberations and hope that you have fruitful and worthwhile discussions.

ENDS