From incidents to proactive actions: A bottom-up approach to identification of safety critical functions

The paper presents a bottom-up approach to identification and follow-up of a set of safety critical functions in railway traffic control. A 'safety critical function' (SCF) is a function/task that will increase the personnel risk if it fails. We applied the approach using investigated incidents as a starting point. The work was accomplished in collaboration with an analysis group representing different positions and a diversity of local operating conditions in railway traffic control. The approach may complement a top-down approach using risk analysis as a basis for risk control.