The passenger rail projects being prepared by the current federal government must have the necessary studies, planning and safety management to guarantee their success, according to TÜV Rheinland of Mexico.
Sandra Álamo, Business Development Manager of the Mobility Unit of the firm specializing in certification, testing and inspection, welcomed the commitment to the railway sector , as it will open the doors to several companies to participate in the works.
He mentioned that TÜV Rheinland considers it necessary to apply certifications such as those they have promoted in recent years in the country, such as ISA (Independent Safety Assessor) and RAMS (Reliability, Availability, Maintainability and Safety), which allow for increased project safety.
“There are several for the railway system, but the one we promote the most is the ISA, which is based on RAMS, that is, we must have a risk analysis from the tendering stage, all suppliers are required to comply with the RAMS, as well as in construction and we are checking each stage, up to the tests and verifying that everything regarding safety has been complied with,” he said.
According to the firm, ISA is the independent safety assessment process. Its main objective is to provide an additional level of confidence beyond that offered by the technologist or installer of the product or system in compliance with railway regulations.
While RAMS are essential in systems engineering and are applied in various sectors, including the railway sector, they allow a qualitative and quantitative assessment of the capacity of a system to fulfil its function and to predict possible failures or problems.
The specialist also mentioned that more local standards should be created to carry out evaluations , for example, of rolling stock, “it comes with the certification of the country of origin and if we start to have our own regulations, surely that will support us to be able to evaluate any railway system in the world with our standards.”
Regarding the studies, he considered that it is also necessary to carry out the analysis of the route, the demand, of any type, “of all those that a railway project merits, if done, success is guaranteed.”
Álamo said that although the Railway Transport Regulatory Agency (ARTF) has been empowered , it is also required that within the regulations there be a greater focus on railway functional safety.
“It is important that users feel safe; it is their right to have decent, efficient and safe transportation,” he said.
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