Safety Assurance for Public Transport

The need for a safe mode of public transport should concern us all, no matter which method of transportation you use or whether you are on your commute to work or a social journey; but it is a necessity that is not always afforded to us. There is an absolute requirement for safety and assurance to be built into a transport system to provide for passenger safety, from the planning and construction phases to the commissioning and operational stages.

Safety in public transport begins with effective and time proven procedures, standards and rules which are essential to demonstrate to interested parties, as well as the community, that the transport system is safe. To ensure that standards are being implemented and maintained, it is vitally important for the transport operator to have a system of regular safety audits to assess adherence to safety standards and report back on the audit findings.

While internal audit and inspections are a pre-requisite for a robust safety assurance system, an independent review should be included, nay, obligatory, to provide a durable safety system review and provide input into the corporate “safety governance” process whereby directors of the company are appraised of potential lapses in safety.

An experienced external auditor should have the experience of different transport operators from across the globe and be able to apply lessons learned in different countries transport systems and as well as being able to advise on adapting those lessons for implantation in the transport systems under review, to obtain optimal levels of passenger safety.

The independent review should include review of strategy and tactics to improve safety, including measures to be taken by management to bolster staff safety behaviour but also to address issues of passengers compromising safety whilst using the transport system; a task which requires a different set of strategies and tools; which I will discuss in more detail in the future.