Safety culture in railway maintenance

This paper discusses the practical problems of understanding and addressing unsafe behaviour and negative safety culture in rail maintenance. A well grounded qualitative approach informed the research methodology. Analysis of interviews with staff enabled identification of forty main factors that influence safe behaviour and safe culture. These factors ranged in proximity of their connection to the unsafe event, from those that could be found at trackside and which directly influence the behaviour of the track workers on the day (e.g. weather), to more medium term and distanced factors (e.g. supervisors’ style of management), to those at considerable distance in terms of where they emanate and can be changed, such as contradictory rules. As a result of this deep, structured qualitative enquiry, the maintenance company most concerned has disseminated findings throughout the organisation and has set a strategy to improve both safety systems and behaviour.