Publications

26 February, 2009
Contributing Factors Framework (CFF)

The CFF is a consistent, structured framework which enables rail safety investigators, rail transport operators and regulators to record and analyse the contributing factors identified during the systemic investigation of rail safety occurrences.

The CFF allows rail transport operators to collect systemic safety data so that organisational basis of safety issues can be identified, analysed for patterns and trends, and acted upon.

The benefits of the CFF include:
o The collection (over time) of aggregate data. This will permit the identification and analysis of safety trends.
o The development of a more informed understanding of the systemic issues associated with rail safety occurrences leading to the enhanced identification of more sustainable solutions.
o At a procedural level improvement in systemic investigation skills.

The CFF is applied following the completion of a systemic investigation and is used to code the findings. It enables information to be recorded in a consistent way to support industry-wide analysis.

The CFF is endorsed by the RSRP of Australia and New Zealand. It is complementary to current occurrence reporting processes such as ON-S1 and OC-G1. The use of the coding framework by rail industry stakeholders is voluntary, but encouraged.