Recommendation on the common safety method for risk evaluation and assessment

In accordance with Article 6(2) of Directive 2004/49/EC and the Commission Decision of 12.10.2010 (C(2010) 6931 final) (the Mandate), the European Railway Agency has revised the common safety method on risk evaluation and assessment which is expected to amend the Commission Implementing Regulation (EU) N°402/2013.

The revision of this CSM was based on the development and validation of further harmonised risk acceptance criteria that may be used to assess the acceptability of risks arising from failures of technical systems when the proposer chooses the explicit risk estimation principle. These criteria are intended to support the mutual recognition between Member States of TSI compliant structural sub-systems and vehicles in compliance with Article 15 of Regulation (EU) N°402/2013.

To distinguish the acceptance of risks associated with technical systems from the acceptance of operational risks, and of the overall risk at the level of the railway system of either a Member State or the EU, the terminology ‘risk acceptance criteria’ with respect to technical systems is changed into ‘design targets’ for such technical systems’.

The revision was led by ERA with the support of Members of the working group which initially developed the Regulation (EC) N°352/2009 on the CSM for risk assessment, the NSA network members and all representative bodies (CER, EIM, UIP, UNIFE, i.e. railway undertakings, infrastructure managers, private wagon keepers and manufacturers).