Safety analysis of Railway Transportation of Dangerous goods

Abstract: In the past decade, the demand for dangerous goods (DG) that can be used forindustrial, farming, mining, manufacturing, and pharmaceutical products has surgedwith the rapid development of industrialization. Almost 55,000 billion tonnekilometersof Dangerous Goods (DG) are transported annually by the railroad,accounting for approximately 51% of the total DG traffic volume in Europe. However,the increase in DG rail traffic has led to double the number of accidents involving DGin the last decade. Therefore, due to the increase in the volume of DG shipment andits impact on the environment, the safety of transporting DG has become more of aconcern to the public. The thesis analyzes the current situation of DG railroad transportation in Europe,including the shipment volume and accident/release rate. Fault tree analysismethodology was used to identify and assess the events contributing to DG involvedrelease accidents. Then lastly, recommendations based on the probability analysiswere proposed for improving DG rail transportation safety. The main result fromthis study is that more than half of the DG is transported by railway, and the DGtransported in Europe are mainly flammable liquids and compressed/liquefied gases,which are mainly transported by tank wagons. Due to the increase in the traffic volumeof DG transported since 2007, the trend of DG involved accidents in EU countriesbetween 2011 and 2020 presents an overall increasing trend. The same trend can alsobe observed in the tank wagon derailment/ collision-caused release rate at the sameperiod.