"A strategic decision by government to re-introduce railway police has seen over 2143 police officers deployed in the railway environment, which has contributed to crime in our trains being reduced," he said at the launch of Railway Safety Standards in Park Station.

"At the same time the level of prosecution and arrests had been increased, successful recoveries to the tune of almost R20 million were achieved during the last financial year," he said.

The transport department was unable to give actual crime figures.

Radebe said the transport department partly funded the railway policing services and had made provision for the purchase of 20 specialised policing coaches which were under construction.

"Safety is the cornerstone of operational efficiency and we must ensure that our interventions are not only sustainable, but deliver tangible results and directly lead to reduction of transport costs," said Radebe.

The Railway Safety Regulator (RSR) was working closely with the Bombela Concession Company on safety standards for the Gautrain Rapid Rail project, which would be implemented from the design through to the construction, testing and commissioning of the project.

"The RSR conducted Gautrain reviews and assessments such as safety in railway tunnels, standards for inter-operability, signalling, safety system plan and the rolling stock technical description," he said.

These efforts were aimed at ensuring the rapid rail project operated safely once commissioned.

He also said the regulator needed to conduct urgent interventions to prevent derailments, collisions, level crossing accidents and security related incidents such as vandalism and theft of operational assets.

"It has been established that one of the major contributory factors in accidents has been human error," Radebe said, adding this was being addressed through Human Factors Management standards that focus on critical positions such as train drivers and train control officers.

RSR CEO Mosenngwa Mofi also spoke at the launch, saying in railway operations, the highest risk is where the activities of two or more operators meet or when a train moves from one network to another.

"There needs to be consistent standards for train signalling to ensure that there is no misinterpretation of the intent of signal."

He added that four railway safety standards had been published on safety technical aspects, electrical infrastructure and rolling stock.

"There is ongoing work to develop other standards on train control such as standards on systems or signalling and train operations management.

"This will execute safe movement on rail which will focus on both the preventative and reactive side of rail occurrences," said Mofi.

Sapa

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