Saudi Gazette report

DAMMAM — The Saudi Railways Organization (SRO) has adopted several measures to enhance railroad safety and minimize human errors leading to accidents, which it said are at times unavoidable.

In its latest performance report, the organization said it was paying greater attention to safety issues and was making progress on several fronts, according to Al-Hayat newspaper.

The report said the SRO developed plans and strategies to ensure environmental safety as well as to raise awareness among the general public about precautionary measures essential to avert disasters.

It is the responsibility of the SRO to ensure the safety of passengers as well as the equipment and therefore the organization has strengthened safety mechanisms in all its facilities including trains by adopting advanced security systems, the report said, adding that these include an early warning system to detect technical defects and an automated system to monitor employee performance. The systems will record the performance of various functional tasks to reduce the impact of human errors that might lead to accidents.

It said the strategic measures would hopefully strengthen the role of the railways in the national transport network for passenger and freight movement.

The SRO pointed out that the new efforts in quality management and loss prevention were to ensure compliance by the organization's trainee staff in applying traffic and safety regulations at all work sites.

In addition to periodic inspections of the systems and equipment, the authorities will also carry out lightning inspection visits to monitor regular maintenance of railway lines, the report said.

The organization carried out a study of train accidents, analyzed their causes and proposed solutions to avoid them.

The SRO regularly follows up on the maintenance and cleanliness of passenger cars to ensure the comfort of travelers.

It stressed the importance of monitoring wireless networks for communication between passengers and the crew as well as among the Traffic Control Bureau, various train stations and relevant technical departments around the clock to ensure maximum compliance with relevant instructions.

The organization also encouraged the public to report any violation to the authorities as this would help determine not only the standard criteria for performance evaluation but also the indicators to measure those standards.