SLSI Releases Strong Safety Culture Best Practices

Written by Andrew Corselli
image description

Based on data collected from over five years of short line Safety Culture Assessments conducted, the Short Line Safety Institute (SLSI) has developed and released a new resource for short line railroads, entitled Strong Safety Culture Best Practices. This first-of-its-kind guide is available to all short line railroads.

The SLSI’s flagship program, the Safety Culture Assessment, utilizes the Ten Core Elements of a Strong Safety Culture as defined by the U.S. Department of Transportation’s Safety Council to evaluate a railroad’s safety culture in practice. In the document, best practices in each of the Ten Elements are provided, along with examples of the practice in action, and an explanation of the rationale behind the best practice. In many cases, downloadable tools or additional resources are also provided.

The Safety Culture Assessment is one of several programs provided at no cost to short line railroads by SLSI. The initial Assessment is just the beginning of the journey. Following an Assessment, railroads can tap into the SLSI staff for Technical Assistance on a specific challenge, or to schedule a follow-up Assessment to measure progress against objectives. A video describing the Assessment program can be found here.

“The data analyzed across completed Safety Culture Assessments, coupled with the 500-plus years of railroad safety experience on our team, has identified some clear actions in each of the Ten Core Elements to enhance a railroad’s safety culture,” said Tom Murta, Executive Director, SLSI. “The easy-to-use Best Practices guide will enable short lines to continuously elevate safety culture across all of these metrics.”

Tags: ,