MLTM announced whole amendment of the Railway Safety Act

The Ministry of Land, Transport and Maritime Affairs announced legislation to wholly amend the Railway Safety Act as part of a measure to improve KTX safety, which was implemented on April 14.

The amended Act will require preventive and regular safety management from production and maintenance of rolling stocks and equipment to rail operation, stipulate the authority and accountability of rolling stock manufacturers and clearly state the nation’s rail control authority. Also, regulations on railway safety, once divided from the regulations on urban railroad safety are integrated in the Rail Safety Act.

The main contents of the amendment are as follows:

(1) System to certify the type of rolling stocks

Currently, the first rolling stocks ever made are required to go through a performance test, but there has been no test or any verification tool for design and defects.

With the amendment of the Act, any domestic rolling stock manufacturer should receive certification of the rolling stock’s design drawing before manufacturing from a specialized certification organization to prove that its product meets the rail technology standards stipulated by the government.

In this process, the manufacturer should conduct a test run to confirm that its rolling stock satisfies all approval standards and the government can ask a correction when it finds out any defect.

(2) System to certify rolling stock manufacturers is adopted

The government designates manufacturing inspection organizations such as ROTECO, Korail and KRENC to supervise and inspect all manufacturing process and to secure safety and quality. However, there is no institutional benefit to encourage manufacturers to voluntarily improve and control quality and the current control system shows its limit due to more diversified types of rolling stocksand more advanced technology.

The amended Act will require manufacturers to gain approval for theirquality control system such as production equipment, workforce and ISO9001 and to receive a regular supervision from the government. (In case of violation of the law, penalty or approval cancellation will be imposed)

(3) Obligatory approval for type and manufacturer of rail products related to safety

Manufacturers have certified their products quality and purchased necessary equipment according to their individual standards. But they should purchase main parts including railroad switch approved under the revised law to improve the safety of rail products.    

(4) System to certify rail operators, maintainers and repairers

Under the amended Act, rail operators including Korail, maintainers and repairers should gain approval in advance for their safety management system such as workforce, equipment, facility, operation and management support and maintenance, etc. and go through the government’s regular supervision for more systematic quality control.

(5) The government’s national rail control authority and unified rail safety related regulations.

The revised Act will give more rail control authority to the government (Minister of Land, Transport and Maritime Affairs) by stating the obligations of rail operators to comply with as the number of rail operators has increased due to expanded privately invested railroad. And safety regulations on urban railroad will be unified inthe amended Rail Safety Act.

The Ministry of Land, Transport and Maritime Affairs says that recently increasing concerns over breakdowns and accidents of railroad will be reduced with the amendment of the Rail Safety Act.

More details are available in http://www/mltm.go.kr and any opinion may be accepted during August 1 to 22 by the Rail Technology Safety Division. (tel. 02-2110-8818)