Railways

Rail safety: the duties around the signalling system

A signalling system controls trains in real time. The duties that decide whether a project may build, change or commission it are evidence duties: accreditation, a safety management system, interface agreements and occurrence reports. Demiton holds the evidence chain. It does not touch the control system.

Three layers, one of which has rows

The standards that govern a signalling project stack in three layers. The control layer is the system itself, from the balise and the onboard computer to the interlocking, certified against EN 50129 and the ETCS system requirements. The assurance layer is the safety case, the risk assessment and the independent assessment that say the change is acceptable. The evidence layer is the paperwork underneath both: the declarations, certificates, agreements, programmes and reports that a project must hold and keep current.

Demiton reads the third layer. It records that an artefact exists, who issued it, which asset or party it covers and when it expires, and it raises the row when the artefact is missing or late. It does not decide that a signalling system is safe, and it does not sit in the movement path.

What the library holds

Australia first. The Rail Safety National Law is one instrument the library holds whole, 26 rows with the section and the penalty. The Australian rail hub puts those rows into the four questions a project asks, from accreditation to the interface a signalling change touches.

• Accreditation and the SMSWhat accreditation requires, what the safety management system must contain, and the risk register, change process and annual report behind it.
• Notifiable occurrencesWhat a rail operator must report to ONRSR, the Category A, B and C timeframes under s 121 and reg 57, and the investigation duty.
• Rail safety workersWho counts as a rail safety worker, the health and fitness, drug and alcohol and fatigue programs, competence, identification and the worker's own duty.
• Interfaces and signallingThe interface agreements a signalling change touches, the 28-day notice before a changed design standard, and the interoperability plan.

What it does not hold yet

AS 7711:2026 Signalling Principles, the ARISO standard a project is usually held to by contract, is named on the Australian hub and not held as an instrument. The GB National Technical Specification Notice for command, control and signalling and the EU CCS TSI are the next two instruments, and neither is in the library yet. England and Ireland are the next chapters.

No library of law is complete, and Demiton never says this one is. An obligation the library does not hold, and you did not add, is not protected. You can add your own to any job.