Risk Management System for Railway Transport: Identification, Analysis and Mitigation

Running head: RISK MANAGEMENT SYSTEM 1
Risk management system
Student’s name
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Introduction
The railways are regarded efficient, safe, economic and efficient mode of transport (Janic, p.
491). However, there has been huge competition from other modes of transport including air, sea
and road transport system. There is a need for a safety policy to ensure that the industry flourish
in Australia. The current project is aimed at facilitating smooth movement of good and
passengers while enabling the company to make profit. One major challenge in railway transport
is the railway safety (Kyriakidis, Hirsch and Majumdar, p. 1538). There has been huge number
of fatal accidents reported around the world associated with railway risks. This risk management
system should focus on understanding various risks in the railway operations (Kecklund et al., p.
26). The risk has become a significant interest for many organizations dealing with huge projects
(Silla and Kallberg, p. 739). Risk refers to a loss that can be incurred in case of occurrence of
hazard and some of the loses that can be experienced in the railway sector include damage of the
railway line, loss of life, infrastructure damage and financial loses. In this paper, I will highlight
some of the risk issues in the new vehicle and how such risks can be controlled.
Risk management process
The two major risks that are prone to the new project include quantitative and qualitative treats
(Cooper, p. 12). Qualitatively, these are risks that cause injury due to exposure to hazards.
Quantitatively, the risks are determined in terms of degree of loss caused to people and
environment due to failure of a system or the occurrence of hazard (Jonkman, p. 21). The
external risk for railway project are risks associated with the activities of the organization while
the external risks are outside organization’s control. Generally, the risks management system
involves establishing the context and the system of railway line and operations. Initial stage
involves identifying various source hazards followed by risk analysis that allows determining the

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likelihood of occurrence and its consequences. Risks are then evaluated and screened to enable
project team to efficiently treat and control them.
Technique for hazard identification
Hazard identification is reported to be the critical stage of risk management (Van Aalst et al., p.
165). The successful identification of hazard allows elimination of potential hazard thus
increasing benefits of the project to the owner and users. The main aim of hazard identification
in railway project is to prevent loss of human life and severe damage to the infrastructure
considering that these projects usually cost billions of dollars (Chan et al., p. 208). A number of
hazard identification techniques have been developed for engineers, the main one being
Preliminary Hazard Analysis (PHA) (Fell et al., p. 87). PHA involves analysis to identify all
hazards including potential accidents that may be experienced during and after execution of the
project. This technique identifies various risks and rank them according to severity. This method
is chosen as it provides an initial overview of major risk associated with the whole system
operations (Paté‐Cornell, p. 1829). The PHA allows the project team to analyze the whole
system components and as well as interactions in order to define various material, people or
actors that are most exposed to risk. All accidental events are identified followed by determining
their severity in terms of human injury, infrastructural damage or any other loss. The
consequence of each risks are quantified based on previous experience. Finally, the hazards are
classified and ranked based on frequency and severity of occurrence (Anthony, p. 498).
Risk identification
Risk identification involves listing potential treat that can probably affect the project. A large
number of risks are identified at initiation phase especially those that may delay or lower the

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quality of the output (De Bakker, Boonstra and Wortmann, p. 494). However, it is important to
note that it is challenging to identify all major risks at initiation phase. Since this a large complex
project, it may require outsourcing external expert to work together with the project manager,
stakeholders, project team members and steering committee to brainstorm and identify possible
treats. Some of the risk that are identified during initiation phase include tight project schedule,
unavailability of necessary technical skills, defective design, increase in material price, no past
experience in similar projects, loss arising from fluctuation of prices, pollution and safety rules,
accidents on employees, damage of equipment and theft of material on site.
The project planning phase offers opportunity for identification of more risks that were not
identified during the initial phase. The project managers and the project teams are the ones that
are mainly involved in identification of risk at this phase. The risk register is used to document
risks identified including inadequate investigation of the site, tight project schedule, insufficient
time to prepare bid for suppliers and lack of trained manpower. The implementation stage is the
best phase for making adjustment for various risk that are prone to happen as the work
progresses. The risks that are likely to occur during project implementation are enormous
including excessive government approval procedures, contractor delaying payments for workers,
low productive efficiency of employees, labor disputes, equipment failure, the designs being
changed by engineers, lack of enforcement of legal requirement, increase in labor and material
cost, change of top management and problems in internal management, increase in tax rates,
shortage in funding and the changes in law and regulations. Similarly, the risks in project
completion phase include equipment and facility fire, vehicle crashes workers, occurrence of
natural disasters like earthquakes, loss incurred due to bribery, loss due to inflation and
competition from similar projects.