Risk and Safety Analysis of Autonomous Mainline Rail Transport: Context, Challenges and Solutions.

Summary In recent years, there have been significant technological advances in autonomous transportation. Urban rail transportation has a significant advantage in operating fully automated commercial transportation. Mainline rail transportation also aims to benefit from the advantages of automation. This work is carried out within the framework of the TAS project at IRT SystemX, with the partners SNCF, Alstom Systra and the University of Technology of Compiègne. This paper presents the context of rail transport automation for main lines. The challenges of demonstrating security mainly for application software are discussed. In addition, a risk analysis of some functions of a complete automation (GoA 3/4) is performed. The objective of this analysis is to identify the challenges of determining the safety objectives of such a stand-alone system for further development and demonstration of compliance.