Electrified lines entering tunnels in Poland, safety aspects of the running with fire

Railway Research Institute, ul. Chłopickiego 50, 04-275, Warsaw, Poland

^* Corresponding author: mpawlik@ikolej.pl

Abstract

Potential fire on board of the passenger train creates risk for passengers health and passengers life. Using non-flammable materials for producing Electric Multiple Units (EMUs) is not considered to be sufficient as passengers are carrying different types of materials as their luggage and belongings. In case of fire on board of the train, the EMU should stop in a place which is appropriate for passengers evacuation and fire fighting. Not all places along railway lines are considered to be appropriate for such purpose. Especially stopping in tunnels is considered inappropriate. Meanwhile the amount of tunnels on the Polish railway network is growing significantly. This requires application of the Technical Specification for Interoperability regarding Safety in Railway Tunnels (TSI SRT) and set of fire standards EN 45545. Using those requirements is associated with putting tunnels and rolling stock into service under railway interoperability directive 2008/57/WE. Additional analyse is however necessary from operational safety point of view due to growing amount of tunnels and growing diversity of rolling stock. Paper proposes conducting risk analyse in accordance with common safety method for risk evaluation and assessment based on a dedicated European Standard EN 50533 which defines requirements regarding running capability in case of fire on board of the rolling stock. Paper analyses applicability of that approach for group of tunnels and rolling stock fleet comprising different types of rolling stock including Electric Multiple Units.