Searching for criteria used in taking railway infrastructure maintenance decisions

Abstract

Safety management systems are perceived in Polish railway entities most often as a source of additional bureaucratic burdens that do not bring any added value. However, this is not at all a characteristic only for Polish railways. The authors of works published in the special issue of the prestigious Safety Science journal, devoted to fundamental issues of safety engineering, pointed out a similar phenomenon. They admitted that the scientific ideas developed in good faith contribute, after being imposed by legal acts, to the decline in the importance of practical knowledge and the over-representation of various types of consulting companies.