Our expertise covers the safety assessment of railway systems and subsystems in accordance with
EN 50126,
EN 50128 / EN 50716 and
EN 50129,
the European Common Safety Method (CSM) Regulation and other applicable standards and regulatory frameworks.

Independent Safety Assessment provides an independent review of risk management and the achievement of a project’s safety objectives.

Independent Safety Assessment

Independent Safety Assessment examines the processes, methods, analyses and evidence used to demonstrate that a system complies with applicable safety requirements.

In railway projects, ISA can be performed during the development, modification, renewal or integration of safety-critical systems.

viattech Q&S has expertise in assessing railway control-command and signalling systems against applicable railway safety standards.

Independent safety assessment is closely related to RAMS and dependability engineering, particularly when reliability, availability, maintainability and safety requirements must be demonstrated throughout the system life cycle.

Railway safety audits and inspections

Our assessments consider both the documentation produced by the project and the effective implementation of the development and safety management processes.

The objective is not simply to check whether the required documents exist. It is also to assess whether the applicable safety processes have been appropriately defined and effectively implemented.

This approach is particularly relevant to complex railway projects where safety requirements must be integrated into system requirements, architecture, design, integration and validation.

viattech Q&S combines safety assessment expertise with complex systems engineering to assess how safety requirements are addressed throughout the development process.

Assessment Body / AsBo

viattech Q&S can perform independent assessment activities as an Assessment Body (AsBo) in relevant railway contexts.

The independence of the assessment provides an external view of project decisions and the way safety risks are controlled.

Independent assessment can therefore contribute to verifying the consistency between identified hazards, risk-control measures, safety requirements and the evidence supporting the safety demonstration.

Railway safety standards

Our expertise includes, in particular:

• EN 50126;
• EN 50128 / EN 50716;
• EN 50129;
• European Common Safety Method requirements;
• railway risk assessment processes;
• safety case review;
• hazard log review;
• RAMS documentation assessment.

These activities form part of a broader RAMS engineering and safety engineering approach for complex and safety-critical systems.

Safety case assessment

The safety case provides documented evidence that the system complies with its applicable safety requirements.

viattech Q&S reviews the relevant analyses, requirements, processes and evidence supporting the safety demonstration.

The assessment can include the review of safety requirements, hazard identification, risk analysis, verification and validation activities, as well as the traceability of the evidence supporting the safety case.

Where relevant, the assessment also considers the relationship between safety requirements and RAMS objectives and analyses throughout the system life cycle.

Independent assessment throughout the system life cycle

Independent Safety Assessment can be integrated into different phases of a railway project, from the early definition of requirements through design, implementation, integration, testing and final safety demonstration.

Early involvement can help identify gaps in safety processes, requirements, analyses or evidence before they affect later project phases.

For complex systems, this requires coordination between safety engineering, systems engineering, verification and validation activities.

viattech Q&S therefore combines ISA activities with systems engineering expertise when assessing complex architectures and safety-critical functions.

Need an Independent Safety Assessment?

Are you looking for an independent assessment body for a railway project, signalling system, rolling stock or safety-critical infrastructure?

viattech Q&S supports audits, inspections and Independent Safety Assessment from the early project phases through the preparation and review of the safety demonstration.

Our services cover independent assessment activities as well as related RAMS and safety engineering activities for complex and safety-critical systems.

Contact viattech Q&S to define the scope of your ISA or independent assessment
.