Railway Signaling Safety Factors Quantitative Analysis Using an Improved 5M Model

In order to improve the sustainability of modern cities, the safe operation of rail transportation is critical. Meanwhile, rail signaling safety is also fundamental for rail transportation, and quantitative analysis of railway signaling safety factors can guarantee this basis. To achieve this, this research proposes an improved rail signaling 5M (Management-Machine-Man-Media-Mission) accident cause hierarchical model, which can make up for the previous lack of objectivity and statistics. According to the demands of rail signaling accident analysis, this research collects and classifies the rail signaling accident data from 2000 to 2017. Then, the hierarchical association rule method is used to calculate the relationships between the 5M factors, and the factor analysis method is applied to measure the weights of the 5M subfactors. Therefore, the safety evaluation index system for railway signaling system is established. The results show that the Management element is the most important factor in rail signaling accidents, while the Mission element is dispensable. Moreover, the subfactors, such as the equipment material, safety management, external humans affected, and hidden danger should also not be ignored. Eventually, the rail signaling accidents analysis is conducted between the 5M model and the improved 5M model; the comparison shows that the improved 5M can not only improve the safety factors influence rate by more than 84.64%, but it can also improve the railway signaling safety, which can provide strong support for the safe operation of rail transportation and sustainable development of a modern city.