Safety Assessment of European Rail Rules for Operating ERTMS

This paper aims to present the results of a safety assessment of ERTMS (European Rail Traffic Management Systems) operating rules. This assessment was performed within the scope of the HEROE (Harmonisation of European Rail Rules for Operating ERTMS) project. The common assessment approach developed during the HEROE project is based on the qualitative and quantitative analyses of ERTMS operating rules by using a common operational diagram to represent each rule. The assessment of the rules and procedures takes into account normal operating conditions as well as degraded modes. Special attention was paid to the role of the human operator. The qualitative assessment checks that the rules will be adequately safe when applied. Then the assessment performs a quantitative analysis, evaluating the probability that the operators made errors in applying the rules.