2. Interactions with the environment

The first four principles of rail safety enable us to deploy countermeasures to protect the infrastructure environment from rail risks. However, the environment is also a source of vulnerability for the railway system: not only intrusions into the infrastructure, but also the impact of wildlife or vegetation, or atmospheric conditions, can complicate compliance with the first four principles. Digital technological developments are also leading to new types of risk for compliance with principles 5 to 7.