Failure Mode and Effect Analysis of Indian Railway Signalling System

Signalling, a complex system is one of the most important infrastructures of railway service. The performance of railway signalling system depends on the functioning of a number of subsystems, such as panel, cable, relay, point and point machine, trackcircuit, signal, back indication, point-drive card, signal-drive card, and level crossing gate. Railway signalling system plays an important role for safe running of trains by preventing occurrence of accidents and minimizing the risk of the passengers, operating personnel, and railway infrastructure. Failure mode and effect analysis (FMEA) is applied to analyse the risk of these subsystems during the operating phase of railway signalling system. Risk is measured in terms of Risk Priority Number (RPN), which is a product of occurrence, severity, and detection. It is observed that point and point machine, signal, and trackcircuit are the critical subsystems of railway signalling system.