The paper deals with risk analysislassessnient problems in Estonian oil shale industry. Investigations are focused on application of these methods for railway transport from mine to consumer. Various factors relevant to oil shale transport have been determined. For risk estimation all empirical approach, the event/fault tree is used. It allows to determine probability of deviations of the process duration from the mean value for different pathways. The obtained information affords specialists to improve the quality of the railway transport. The analysis shows that the used method is applicable in conditions of Estonian railway systems. The results of the investigation are of particular interest for practical purposes.