Currently, high-speed railroad operation safety, one of the safest modes of transportation, is highly emphasized. Despite the high safety levels of high-speed rail in China, the increasing complexity of geographical and social environments has introduced new challenges to the evaluation of high-speed railroad operation safety. Existing evaluation methods, which have some limitations, may not fully address these challenges. Therefore, this study establishes a six-dimensional comprehensive evaluation indicator system, including personal, equipment, quality, legal, environmental, and monitoring, and proposes a three-stage comprehensive evaluation framework. This new framework combines the best–worst method, Decision-Making Test and Evaluation Laboratory, and interpretive structural modeling. In addition, the framework was validated with the Guangzhou-Shenzhen-Hong Kong High-Speed Railway as a typical case of dual complexity. The study findings suggest that equipment and monitoring factors, classified as effect and cause groups, exert the most significant influence on operational safety. Optimal management strategies enhance operational safety by prioritizing risk monitoring, disseminating risk knowledge, conducting regular equipment inspections, and ensuring train condition. This study helps to identify the key factors for enhancing operation safety, optimizing safety management efficiency, and providing broad insights for high-speed railroad operation managers and decision-makers.
WuD.MartinJ. C.Exploring Passengers’ Preferences for High-Speed Rails: A CiteSpace Bibliometric Analysis. Transport Policy, Vol. 163, 2025, pp. 27–41.
2.
WuB.LiW.ChenJ.Networked Transport and Economic Growth: Does High-Speed Rail Narrow the Gap between Cities in China?Sustainability, Vol. 14, No. 10, 2022, p. 5937.
3.
HuangC. F.HanQ.TanX. M.HuaY.ShangL.High-Speed Rail Operations, The Cross-Regional Mobility of Highly Skilled Talent, and Regional Innovation-Evidence from the Yangtze River Delta in China. Applied Economics, Vol. 57, No. 20, 2024, pp. 2581–2598.
4.
YuanH.YangB.System Dynamics Approach for Evaluating the Interconnection Performance of Cross-Border Transport Infrastructure. Journal of Management in Engineering, Vol. 38, No. 3, 2022, p. 04022008.
5.
HuQ.TanM.LuH.ZhuY.A Rough Set-Based Measurement Model Study on High-Speed Railway Safety Operation. PLoS One, Vol. 13, No. 6, 2018, p. e0197918.
6.
HuQ.FangX.BianL.Natural Disaster Warning System for Safe Operation of a High-Speed Railway. Transportation Safety and Environment, Vol. 3, No. 4, 2021, p. tdab019.
7.
HeG.MolA. P. J.ZhangL.LuY.Environmental Risks of High-Speed Railway in China: Public Participation, Perception and Trust. Environmental Development, Vol. 14, 2015, pp. 37–52.
8.
FangL.The Impact Assessment System of High-Speed Railway on the City’s Economic and Social Development. Agro Food Industry Hi-Tech, Vol. 28, No. 1, 2017, pp. 3195–3199.
9.
HuiE. C. M.LiX.ChenT.LangW.Deciphering the Spatial Structure of China’s Megacity Region: A New Bay Area-The Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area in the Making. Cities, Vol. 105, 2020, p. 102168.
10.
YangN.ChenM.Design and Application of Big Data Technology Management for the Analysis System of High Speed Railway Operation Safety Rules. Proc., 2023 IEEE International Conference on Integrated Circuits and Communication Systems (ICICACS), Raichur, Karnataka, India, February 24–25, 2023, pp. 1–6.
11.
QinJ.ZhangJ.WuS.DengS.A Study of High-Speed Train Delays and Relevant Propagation Influence Characteristics. PLoS One, Vol. 20, No. 2, 2025, p. e0314293.
12.
WangY.XiaoX.XieW.The Establishment of the Safety Factors System of Railway Operation. Proc., Fourth International Conference on Machine Vision (ICMV 2011): Machine Vision, Image Processing, and Pattern Analysis, Singapore, 2012.
13.
XieS.ZhongF.A Novel Harmonic Resonance Prevention Measure for Railway Power Conditioner-Network-Train Interaction System. Railway Engineering Science, Vol. 33, 2025, pp. 290–310.
14.
SpalazziL.TaccariG.BernardiniA.An Internet of Things Ontology for Earthquake Emergency Evaluation and Response. Proc., 2014 International Conference on Collaboration Technologies and Systems (CTS), Minneapolis, MN, 2014, pp. 528–534.
15.
DongS.LiS.YuL.ZhangX.ZhaoJ.Overall Resilient Evaluation of Surrounding Rock of In-Service High-Speed Railway Tunnel Based on Information Fusion-Improved Fuzzy Matter-Element. Sustainability, Vol. 15, No. 7, 2023, p. 6048.
16.
KrmacE.DjordjevicB.An Evaluation of Train Control Information Systems for Sustainable Railway Using the Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) Model. European Transport Research Review, Vol. 9, No. 3, 2017, p. 35.
17.
ZhangJ.TuY.LiuJ.LiuL.LiZ.Regional Public Transportation Safety Risk Grading Assessment Under Time Dimension: A Case Study of Chinese Mainland. Transport Policy, Vol. 126, 2022, pp. 343–354.
18.
KyriakidisM.MajumdarA.OchiengW. Y.Data Based Framework to Identify the Most Significant Performance Shaping Factors in Railway Operations. Safety Science, Vol. 78, 2015, pp. 60–76.
19.
BugaliaN.MaemuraY.OzawaK.Organizational and Institutional Factors Affecting High-Speed Rail Safety in Japan. Safety Science, Vol. 128, 2020, p. 104762.
20.
BisriM. B. F.Examining Inter-Organizational Network During Emergency Response of West Java Earthquake 2009, Indonesia. Procedia Environmental Sciences, Vol. 17, 2013, pp. 889–898.
21.
ZhaoG.MaX.QiuX.ZhangH.ZhangZ.Data-Driven Gale-Induced Risk Assessment Strategy for the High-Speed Railway System. Journal of Transportation Safety & Security, Vol. 16, No. 5, 2024, pp. 1–21.
22.
GuS.LiK.Reliability Analysis of High-Speed Railway Network. Proceedings of the Institution of Mechanical Engineers, Part O: Journal of Risk and Reliability, Vol. 233, No. 6, 2019, pp. 1060–1073.
23.
HuQ.GaoN.ZhangB.High Speed Railway Environment Safety Evaluation Based on Measurement Attribute Recognition Model. Computational Intelligence and Neuroscience, Vol. 2014, 2014, p. 470758.
24.
MorantA.GustafsonA.SoderholmP.Larsson-KraikP.-O.KumarU.Safety and Availability Evaluation of Railway Operation Based on the State of Signalling Systems. Proceedings of the Institution of Mechanical Engineers, Part F: Journal of Rail and Rapid Transit, Vol. 231, No. 2, 2017, pp. 226–238.
25.
LiuK.JiaoS.NieG.MaH.GaoB.SunC.XinD.SahaT. K.WuG.On Image Transformation for Partial Discharge Source Identification in Vehicle Cable Terminals of High-Speed Trains. High Voltage, Vol. 9, No. 5, 2024, pp. 1090–1100.
26.
NakamuraH.How to Deal with Revolutions in Train Control Systems. Engineering, Vol. 2, No. 3, 2016, pp. 380–386.
27.
WangP.MaL.GoverdeR. M. P.WangQ.Rescheduling Trains Using Petri Nets and Heuristic Search. IEEE Transactions on Intelligent Transportation Systems, Vol. 17, No. 3, 2016, pp. 726–735.
28.
MiddletonW. D.High Speed Rail and the Freight Railroads. Railway Age, Vol. 194, No. 8, 1993, p. 113.
29.
NgamkhanongC.KaewunruenS.CostaB. J. A.State-of-the-Art Review of Railway Track Resilience Monitoring. Infrastructures, Vol. 3, No. 1, 2018, p. 3.
30.
LuoT.XueX.ZhangM.Exploring Sustainable Operations Management in Major Infrastructure Projects: The Case of the Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macao Bridge. Project Management Journal, Vol. 55, No. 1, 2024, pp. 102–122.
31.
RezaeiJ.Best-Worst Multi-Criteria Decision-Making Method. Omgea, Vol. 53, 2015, pp. 49–57.
32.
RezaeiJ.Best-Worst Multi-Criteria Decision-Making Method: Some Properties and a Linear Model. Omgea, Vol. 64, 2016, pp. 126–130.
33.
AboutorabH.SaberiM.AsadabadiM. R.HussainO.ChangE.ZBWM: The Z-Number Extension of Best Worst Method and Its Application for Supplier Development. Expert Systems with Applications, Vol. 107, 2018, pp. 115–125.
34.
WangF.WangJ.RenJ.LiZ.NieX.TanR. R.JiaX.Continuous Improvement Strategies for Environmental Risk Mitigation in Chemical Plants. Resources, Conservation and Recycling, Vol. 160, 2020, p. 104885.
35.
AhmadiH. B.Kusi-SarpongS.RezaeiJ.Assessing the Social Sustainability of Supply Chains Using Best Worst Method. Resources, Conservation and Recycling, Vol. 126, 2017, pp. 99–106.
36.
SalimiN.RezaeiJ.Evaluating Firms’ R&D Performance Using Best Worst Method. Evaluation and Program Planning, Vol. 66, 2018, pp. 147–155.
37.
LiY.MathiyazhaganK.Application of DEMATEL Approach to Identify the Influential Indicators Towards Sustainable Supply Chain Adoption in the Auto Components Manufacturing Sector. Journal of Cleaner Production, Vol. 172, 2018, pp. 2931–2941.
38.
Abdel-BassetM.MohamedR.A Novel Plithogenic TOPSIS-CRITIC Model for Sustainable Supply Chain Risk Management. Journal of Cleaner Production, Vol. 247, 2020, p. 119586.
39.
KumarA.ManglaS. K.LuthraS.IshizakaA.Evaluating the Human Resource Related Soft Dimensions in Green Supply Chain Management Implementation. Production Planning & Control, Vol. 30, No. 9, 2019, pp. 699–715.
40.
FuL.YangQ.LiuX.WangZ.Three-Stage Model Based Evaluation of Local Residents’ Acceptance Towards Waste-to-Energy Incineration Project Under Construction: A Chinese Perspective. Waste Management, Vol. 121, 2021, pp. 105–116.
41.
ManglaS. K.BhattacharyaA.YadavA. K.SharmaY. K.IshizakaA.LuthraS.ChakrabortyR.A Framework to Assess the Challenges to Food Safety Initiatives in an Emerging Economy. Journal of Cleaner Production, Vol. 284, 2021, p. 124709.
42.
LiuX.LiuY.LiH.WenD.Identification and Analysis of Barriers to the Effectiveness of ISO 45001 Certification in Chinese Certified Organisations: A DEMATEL-ISM Approach. Journal of Cleaner Production, Vol. 383, 2023, p. 135447.
43.
YuS.GengX.HeJ.SunY.Evolution Analysis of Product Service Ecosystem Based on Interval Pythagorean Fuzzy DEMATEL-ISM-SD Combination Model. Journal of Cleaner Production, Vol. 421, 2023, p. 138501.
44.
YinH.QuY.GuoL.Critical Factors for Implementing Collection Target Responsibility in E-Waste Collection in China: A DEMATEL-ISM Analysis. Waste Management, Vol. 172, 2023, pp. 278–289.
45.
HuoT.CongX.ChengC.CaiW.ZuoJ.What is the Driving Mechanism for the Carbon Emissions in the Building Sector? An Integrated DEMATEL-ISM Model. Energy, Vol. 274, 2023, p. 127399.
46.
NiG.ZhouQ.MiaoX.NiuM.ZhengY.ZhuY.NiG.What and How Influence the Safety Knowledge Sharing of New Generation of Construction Workers in China: A Study Based on DEMATEL and ISM. Engineering, Construction and Architectural Management, Vol. 32, No. 4, 2023, pp. 2160–2189.
47.
TareiP. K.ChandP.GuptaH.Barriers to the Adoption of Electric Vehicles: Evidence from India. Journal of Cleaner Production, Vol. 291, 2021, p. 125847.
48.
ShojaeiP.Seyed HaeriS. A.MohammadiS.Airports Evaluation and Ranking Model Using Taguchi Loss Function, Best-Worst Method and VIKOR Technique. Journal of Air Transport Management, Vol. 68, 2017, pp. 4–13.
49.
YangB.WuG.Multi-Criteria Analysis of Cross-Regional Railways Interconnection Under the Post COVID-19 Pandemic Crisis: A Hybrid BWM-FAISM-DFS Evaluation Framework. Transportation Research Part E-Logistics and Transportation Review, Vol. 179, 2023, p. 103316.
50.
HuangZ.XuR.ZhouF.A Multilevel Fuzzy Comprehensive Evaluation Model for Operation Safety of the Large High-Speed Railway Passenger Station. Proc., 2017 4th International Conference on Transportation Information and Safety (ICTIS), Banff, Alberta, Canada, 2017, pp. 844–851.
51.
LiuR.LiuW.DuanM.XieW.DaiY.LiaoX.MemFormer: A Memory Based Unified Model for Anomaly Detection on Metro Railway Tracks. Expert Systems with Applications, Vol. 237, 2024, p. 121509.
52.
GuanQ.LiuB.WenZ.JinX.Analysis of the Resonance Frequencies of Multiple Wheels-Track Coupled System Based on the Wave Approach. Journal of Sound and Vibration, Vol. 568, 2024, p. 117956.
53.
HeZ.YunJ.SuC.BaoN.LuoC.BaiY.WangY.Research on a Short-Sleeper Type Ballastless-Track that Can Adapt to Large Foundation Deformation. Structures, Vol. 56, 2023, p. 105048.
54.
ZhangK.RenJ.DuW.LuoL.LiuJ.DengS.Thermal Insulation Performance and Dynamic Response of Anti-Freeze Subgrade of High-Speed Railway in Seasonally Frozen Regions. Transportation Geotechnics, Vol. 42, 2023, p. 101081.
55.
YuH.YeC.DingY.QiuL.FangY.SongY.Demand Response Potential Evaluation of Aggregated High-Speed Trains Toward Power System Operation. IEEE Transactions on Smart Grid, Vol. 14, No. 5, 2023, pp. 3614–3626.
56.
LiuZ.LiH.HuangH.DengZ.Vertical Resonance Simulation of Superconducting Electrodynamic Suspension Train/Bridge Coupled System. IEEE Transactions on Applied Superconductivity, Vol. 33, No. 6, 2023, pp. 1–9.
57.
FelezJ.Vaquero-SerranoM. A.Virtual Coupling in Railways: A Comprehensive Review. Machines, Vol. 11, No. 5, 2023, p. 521.
58.
LiZ.CaiB.LiuJ.LuD.Modelling and Performance Analysis of Balise Under Dynamic Energy Harvesting in High-Speed Railway. IET Intelligent Transport Systems, Vol. 16, No. 11, 2022, pp. 1504–1520.
59.
LiuY.ZhouY.SuS.XunJ.TangT.Control Strategy for Stable Formation of High-Speed Virtually Coupled Trains with Disturbances and Delays. Computer-Aided Civil and Infrastructure Engineering, Vol. 38, No. 5, 2023, pp. 621–639.
60.
ZhangH.LingL.ZhaiW.WangK.An Active Suspension System for Enhancing Running Safety of High-Speed Trains Under Strong Crosswind. Proceedings of the Institution of Mechanical Engineers, Part F: Journal of Rail and Rapid Transit, Vol. 237, No. 4, 2023, pp. 2213–2226.
61.
HanC.ZhouL.GuoB.YueY.ZhaoW.WangZ.ZhouH.An Integrated Strategy for Rescheduling High-Speed Train Operation under Single-Direction Disruption. Sustainability, Vol. 15, No. 17, 2023, p. 13040.
62.
JiangL.ZhaoY.ZhangY.ZhouW.ZhongB.LaiZ.FengY.Seismic Applicability Analysis of High-Speed Railway Multi-Span Simply-Supported Bridges Based on Simplified Model. Archives of Civil and Mechanical Engineering, Vol. 23, No. 4, 2023, pp. 1–20.
63.
GuoW.XuZ.YeY.Seismic Analysis of High-Speed Railway Bridge-CRTS III Slab Ballastless Track System Under Transverse Earthquake. International Journal of Structural Stability and Dynamics, Vol. 23, No. 6, 2023, p. 2350093.
64.
SongJ.JiangZ.YiP.ChenJ.LiZ.LuoH.DongC.XiaoK.Corrosion Behavior and Product Evolution of Steel for High-Speed Railway Bogie G390NH in Simulated Marine and Industrial Atmospheric Environment. Acta Metallurgica Sinica, Vol. 59, No. 11, 2023, pp. 1487–1498.
65.
ManJ.DongH.YangX.MengZ.JiaL.QinY.XinG.GCG: Graph Convolutional Network and Gated Recurrent Unit Method for High-Speed Train Axle Temperature Forecasting. Mechanical Systems and Signal Processing, Vol. 163, 2022, p. 108102.
66.
YangW.MuL.JiangH.LiX.HouK.Fault Spread and Recovery Strategy of Urban Rail Transit System Based on Complex Network. Journal of Physics: Conference Series, Vol. 2037, No. 1, 2021, p. 012049.
67.
WuY.ZhaoL.-Y.JiangY.-X.LiW.WangY.-S.ZhaoH.WuW.ZhangX.-J.Research and Application of Intelligent Monitoring System Platform for Safety Risk and Risk Investigation in Urban Rail Transit Engineering Construction. Advances in Civil Engineering, Vol. 2021, 2021, p. 9915745.
68.
DawsonP.McLoughlinI.Computer Technology and the Redefinition of Supervision: A Study of the Effects of Computerization on Railway Freight Supervisors. Journal of Management Studies, Vol. 23, No. 1, 1986, pp. 116–132.
69.
GuQ.TangT.CaoF.SongY.-D.Energy-Efficient Train Operation in Urban Rail Transit Using Real-Time Traffic Information. IEEE Transactions on Intelligent Transportation Systems, Vol. 15, No. 3, 2014, pp. 1216–1233.
70.
XueY.XiangP.The Social Risk of High-Speed Rail Projects in China: A Bayesian Network Analysis. Sustainability, Vol. 12, No. 5, 2020, p. 2087.
71.
ZhuY.QiuH.CuiP.LiuZ.YeB.YangD.KampU.Early Detection of Potential Landslides Along High-Speed Railway Lines: A Pressing Issue. Earth Surface Processes and Landforms, Vol. 48, No. 15, 2023, pp. 3302–3314.
72.
ZhangK.XieH.GuoW.ZhouC.HuG.LuoJ.QiuJ.ZhuJ.Experimental Study on Dynamic Response of Rock Tunnel Subjected to Train Moving Load. Geomechanics and Geophysics for Geo-Energy and Geo-Resources, Vol. 9, No. 1, 2023, p. 125.
73.
WangL.ZhouC.GongH.ChenB.XuX.Land Subsidence Prediction and Analysis along Typical High-Speed Railways in the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei Plain Area. Remote Sensing, Vol. 15, No. 18, 2023, p. 4606.
74.
YangW.-C.YangJ.-B.DengE.NiY.-Q.LiuY.-K.Aerodynamic Behavior of Flaky Spalled Blocks in High-Speed Rail Tunnel Lining Under Slipstream. Tunnelling and Underground Space Technology, Vol. 141, 2023, p. 105377.
75.
HeinrichH. W.Industrial Accident Prevention: A Scientific Approach, 2nd ed.McGraw-Hill Book Company, New York, 1941.
Supplementary Material
Please find the following supplemental material available below.
For Open Access articles published under a Creative Commons License, all supplemental material carries the same license as the article it is associated with.
For non-Open Access articles published, all supplemental material carries a non-exclusive license, and permission requests for re-use of supplemental material or any part of supplemental material shall be sent directly to the copyright owner as specified in the copyright notice associated with the article.
