ENHANCING SAFETY AND RELIABILITY IN RAILWAY SIGNALLING SYSTEMS: A COMPREHENSIVE FMEA-BASED APPROACH

Abstract

Railway signalling systems, classified as safety-critical systems, must adhere to specific safety principles outlined in CENELEC standards to ensure the desired levels of safety and reliability. The Interlocking system serves as the central intelligence behind railway signalling, authorizing trains to navigate safe routes under predefined conditions, eliminating collision risks. Object controllers (OCs), a crucial component of the interlocking subsystem, are responsible for overseeing and managing field elements such as signals, points, track circuits, and other vital controllable objects. Object controller boards encompass both hardware and software components, necessitating compliance with relevant railway safety standards such as EN50129 and EN50126. This paper focuses on a developed test platform designed to streamline the design and development life cycle of Object controllers. Within this tool, the importation of system architecture facilitates risk identification and assessment using the Failure Modes and Effects Analysis (FMEA) method. Ultimately, the paper calculates the reliability of both subsystems and the entire system.