Improving the processing of deviation reports

Personnel often consider it pointless to report safety deviations if corrective measures are not taken and feedback is not given. The division of responsibilities between companies often creates a barrier to the implementation of corrective measures in multi-operator environments.

The Finnish Transport and Communications Agency develops its safety deviation infor-mation system so that it can be used to follow the processing of deviations. Furthermore, the Finnish Transport and Communications Agency ensures that all operators in the railway industry have functional deviation management processes.

Deviation reports will only be made if they are processed quickly and fairly.

The Finnish Transport and Communications Agency (Traficom) completed the reform of its information system related to the processing of safety incidents in rail traffic at the end of 2025. The aim of the reform was to make the processing of incidents more efficient. Safety incident notifications enter the new system either through the interface from the operators’ own systems or electronically through Traficom’s My e-Services. The system reform also enables sending updated safety incident notifications. Traficom published a regulation on how to submit notifications on rail traffic incidents in April 2025. It clarified, among other things, the operating models for notifying about incidents that may potentially lead to an accident or a hazardous situation and specified the incident classifications to be used when notifying about an incident. The operators’ management processes for incident reporting are reviewed in audits carried out by Traficom. In addition, the management processes of incident reporting, occurred incidents, the analysis of incidents and the utilisation of the data collected are discussed with the actors in, for example, various cooperation groups and meetings as well as in security dialogues. Any changes observed in the safety situation on the basis of the analysis of incidents and any measures required by them are also discussed with the operators in the aforementioned forums. Other measures listed in the first national rail transport safety plan published at the end of 2024 include maintaining a better situational picture of rail transport safety and making more efficient use of the incident data collected and the incident investigation data. Traficom has also developed the utilisation of incident data in its internal operations. One example of this is making better use of incident data in defining Traficom’s supervision strategy and plan.