Positive Safety Culture to Bring European Rail Safety to Next Level

Rail officials honour the importance of the European Rail Climate Survey (ERA-SCS), the first pan-European sectoral survey on safety perception, as hallmark for a positive culture and important step for harmonising and improving rail safety in Europe

The central role of railways for future sustainable European transport was acknowledged upon the arrival of the Connecting Europe Express to its final destination at Paris Gare de l’Est by the many officials present, celebrating the European Year of Rail 2021. The European Union Agency for Railways (ERA), together with SNCF Chairman and CEO Jean-Pierre Farandou, Henrik Hololei, Director-General for Mobility and Transport at the European Commission, and the Secretary-General of the European Transport Workers Federation (ETF) Livia Spera, used the occasion to promote the European Rail Climate Survey (ERA-SCS), a pan-European initiative to collect safety perception from the employees in the rail sector.

While the survey is open until 31 October 2021, the Agency and its partners managed to obtain more than 43.000 responses from European rail workers since its launch in early 2021. The survey is the first of its kind to be launched at European level to an entire industry sector. Its findings will be used to improve rail safety in Europe.

“The more answers to the ERA-SCS, the better the quality of the data and the higher relevance of the following analyses - so I count on the railway professionals in Europe to give us their honest opinion”, asserted Henrik Hololei.

“This is a good step towards making sure workers’ voices are heard as they are the only ones who know the reality of their workplace. Health and safety at work is a right, not a privilege. Therefore ETF is pleased to have been part of the ERA-SCS”, said ETF General Secretary Livia Spera.

SNCF Chairman and CEO Jean-Pierre Farandou added: “Safety has always been the top priority for the SNCF group. We are proud to have contributed close to 10.000 responses to this important pan-European survey.”

ERA Executive Director Josef Doppelbauer concluded: “Safety is the essential precondition for successful rail business. The survey is still open until 31 October – so I urge all rail professionals in Europe to fill in the survey today!”