Background for the development of DS 21001

The work on the development of a railway safety management standard (DS 21001) was in the late summer of 2019 and has been prepared in collaboration between Danish Standards, Banedanmark, contractors, railway undertakings, infrastructure managers and owners. The Danish Transport, Construction and Housing Authority participated as an observer.

Danish Standards is Denmark's official standards organisation, which develops and publishes standards. A standardisation committee has been set up under the auspices of Danish Standards, in which the standard has been developed.

The intention of developing DS 21001 is for the management standard to replace the current requirements for railway safety in accordance with the "Guidelines for the authorisation of contractors who provide railway services associated with railway safety".

DS 21001 is based on existing management standards. This makes integration with other management standards easier for suppliers who already use, for example, ISO 9001 (quality management), ISO 45001 (occupational health and safety management) or ISO 14001 (environmental management).

DS 21001 fully covers the requirements that safety-certified railway undertakings and safety-approved infrastructure managers must set for suppliers in accordance with Statutory Order 147 (requirement 5.8 and other items related to the use of suppliers) and its future replacement. Certification under the standard can thus be used as general documentation that the supplier meets established railway safety standards.