Thursday, February 22, 2024
National Rail Safety Data Strategy delivers significant safety data improvements
A joint initiative of the Office of the National Rail Safety Regulator (ONRSR) and the Australasian Railway Association (ARA) to undertake a massive overhaul of industry rail safety data reporting has now been completed, marking a significant milestone for the Australian rail industry.
The National Rail Safety Data Strategy (NDS) has now delivered a purpose-built system that captures consistent and quality national data that better informs safety decisions, and all accredited operators are now reporting via the system. The NDS is the result of a truly collaborative approach within the rail industry that has resulted in a critically important industry and community asset that replaces the previous state-based reporting systems.
Operators, governments, policy makers and regulators will now have a far greater understanding of the safety landscape and how to drive improvements.
The strategy was launched in 2018 with a vision “to have consistent, quality and accurate national rail safety data that is readily available to stakeholders when making decisions relating to rail safety.” This was complemented by a series of objectives designed to ensure that rail safety data:
- met the identified needs of governments, industry and other primary stakeholders
- supported the data needs of secondary stakeholders
- supported good decision making about rail safety
- guided actions to improve rail safety
- provided timely, accurate and relevant information about rail safety performance
- reduced regulatory burden on industry.
On 1 July 2022, the new reporting arrangements and data sets established by the strategy came online.
Since then, delivery of the strategy and improvements to the portal to allow more seamless reporting of information, have continued. Data collection, reporting and analysis will, continue to evolve to ensure rail remains as safe as possible across our networks.
ONRSR will now be involved in a post-implementation review as part of an agreement with the ARA and industry partners to ensure lessons learned from this project can inform future similar reforms.
More information, supporting documentation and access to key contact information related to the NDS can be found HERE.