Research on evaluation of basic railway safety management capability based on combination weighting – TOPSIS

Purpose To systematically characterize and objectively evaluate basic railway safety management capability, creating a closed-loop management approach which allows continuous improvement and optimization. Design/methodology/approach A basic railway safety management capability evaluation index system based on a comprehensive analysis of national safety management standards, railway safety rules and regulations and existing safety data from railway transport enterprises is presented. The system comprises a guideline layer including safety committee formation, work safety responsibility, safety management organization and safety rules and regulations as its components, along with an index layer consisting of 12 quantifiable indexes. Game theory combination weighting is utilized to integrate subjective and objective weight values derived using AHP and CRITIC methods and further combined using the TOPSIS method in order to construct a comprehensive basic railway safety management capability evaluation model. Findings The case study presented demonstrates that this evaluation index system and comprehensive evaluation model are capable of effectively characterizing and evaluating basic railway safety management capability and providing directional guidance for its sustained improvement. Originality/value Construction of an evaluation index system that is quantifiable, generalizable and accessible, accurately reflects the main aspects of railway transportation enterprises’ basic safety management capability and provides interoperability across various railway transportation enterprises. The application of the game theoretic combination weighting method to derive composite weights which combine experts’ subjective evaluations with the objectivity of data.