Volpe study finds safety culture improvements at short lines

Railroads that completed the Short Line Safety Institute's (SLSI) safety culture assessments showed "measurable" safety culture improvements, according to a study by the Volpe National Transportation Systems Center.

Volpe recently studied 20 short lines that completed both an initial SLSI's Safety Culture Assessment (SCA) and a follow-up SCA called a "Time 2 Assessment.

The railroads showed measurable improvements across all 10 core elements of a strong safety culture, as defined by the U.S. Department of Transportation's Safety Council. The study also supports the hypothesis that the implementation of SLSI provided opportunities for strengthening safety cultures, SLSI officials said in a press release.

"Our process for measuring safety culture is the most comprehensive and robust in the railroad industry. This independent research demonstrates that when short line railroads identify and work to close safety culture gaps, the effort resulted in a stronger, more positive safety culture on those railroads," said SLSI Executive Director Tom Murta.



Volpe analyzed the results of paired SCA reports across the 20 railroads and determined if a core element is strengthened, it stayed about the same or weakened from the initial assessment.

The results also indicated there's room for improvement at all assessed railroads and that some core elements may be more difficult than others for railroads to post improvements.