Rail

About us

The railway department of the Norwegian Safety Investigation Authority (NSIA) investigates serious railway incidents and railway accidents involving railways, trams, light rail and metro. We cover the whole of Norway and have a 24-hour on-call system where we receive more than 300 telephone alerts per year.

The purpose of an independent investigation authority is to clarify the course of events of an accident, point out the contributing factors and come up with recommendations that improves railway safety. The aim is to convey knowledge and learning, which helps to prevent new accidents or serious railway incidents. All our investigation reports are public and are published on our website.

Why do we have an independent investigative authority?

As a result of the very serious railway accident at Åsta on 4 January 2000, it was proposed to establish a permanent safety investigation authority for railway accidents. The mandate of the existing Accident Investigation Board for Civil Aviation at Kjeller was therefore extended, and in 2002 the railway department was formally established. In the years that followed, the mandate was further expanded to include the areas of road traffic, marine and the defense sector, so that NSIA is now a multimodal investigation authority. The NSIA is a professionally independent agency, but is administratively subordinate to the Ministry of Transport.

In order to understand and learn from an accident, it is important that an investigation takes place with a great degree of openness and trust between the investigating authority and those involved. For that reason, the NSIA has an extended duty of confidentiality regarding what we learn through the investigation.

NSIA shall not take a position on civil or criminal guilt and liability. The investigation must take place independently of any other investigation that wholly or partly has such a purpose. The NSIA's investigation reports shall not be used for anything other than preventive safety work.

Law and regulations

In Norway, investigations of railway accidents are regulated through Act on Notification, Reporting and Investigation of Railway Accidents and Railway Incidents, etc. (Railway Investigation Act) and Regulations on Public Investigations of Railway Accidents and Serious Railway Incidents etc. (Railway Investigation Regulations).

About the survey process

At the start of an investigation, relevant parties are notified via letter and NSIA's website. The NSIA itself decides the scope of the investigation and how it is to be carried out. Before the report is finalised, a draft version is sent to relevant parties, so that they can familiarize themselves with the report's content, and are given an opportunity to provide input and comments. In some cases, this may require further investigations to remove ambiguities, or to verify new elements that have been made known to the NSIA. The NSIA decides which input is to be included in the final report.

The investigation report has been structured according to section 12 in the Railway Investigation Regulations.

The final investigation report is sent to the Ministry of Transport, which takes the necessary measures to ensure that due consideration is given to the safety recommendations, according to section 16 in the Railway Investigation Regulations.

The Rail Department is led by Department Director Ida H. Grøndahl.

Reports and reviews

Notification telephone
Notification telephone rail (24 h):
+47 63 89 63 30
Department Director