Safety supervision
The purpose of the safety supervision carried out by the Swedish Transport Agency´s Road and Railway Department is to maintain and preferably improve the high level of safety that currently prevails in Swedish rail traffic.
The Department applies risk assessments when choosing safety supervision. This means that safety supervision is directed towards:
- Activities when an accident may have major consequences and the probability of it occurring is not negligible.
- Activities where there is a high probability of an accident occurring and the consequences are not acceptable.
The main focus of safety supervision is to check that the operators have functioning safety control, in other words that the companies themselves discover and correct their own faults and shortcomings.
There are well-defined requirements for the personnel at the Swedish Transport Agency´s Road and Railway Department who perform safety supervision.
Injunctions and bans
The Swedish Transport Agency carries out supervision in accordance with the Railway Act, the Undergrounds and Tramways Safety Act and the Transport of Dangerous Goods Act.
In cases where the Agency discovers shortcomings in safety during its supervision, the Agency imposes requirements that the person who is responsible for the activity takes steps to eliminate the shortcoming.
The following measures are available to the Agency:
- injunction
- ban
Injunctions and bans may also be combined with penalties.
If the safety shortcoming is serious, the Agency may revoke the permit of the infrastructure manager or of the railway undertaking/transport operator.
Failure to comply with the provisions of the Railway Act, the Undergrounds and Tramways Safety Act and the Transport of Dangerous Goods Act may also be reported to a public prosecutor.