The definition and classification of shunting, which involves the process of sorting rolling stock into complete train sets inside station yard, are not clearly specified in Korean domestic safety regulations for railway operations. As a result, collisions during shunting occur rather frequently compared with other types of accidents in railway operations. Therefore, new systematic safety principles are proposed in this paper to improve operation safety during shunting. The improvements in safety and efficiency derived from the newly proposed approach are analyzed and verified in field application.