Introduction
This year saw the railway emerge from the Covid-19 pandemic, a situation which beyond any other demonstrated the importance of monitoring health and wellbeing.
RSSB is continuing to do important work in this area, as a healthy workforce is a safe one, which is good for the workforce and our passengers. And more passengers are coming our way again, with rail journeys up, thanks largely to the return of the leisure travel. But commuting and business travel is lagging behind leisure journeys, resulting in passenger journeys still being 17% below pre-pandemic levels.
Our rail user demographic, then, has changed. But the railway is also on the tipping point of other changes, as we transition towards Great British Railways, the industry is suffering cost pressures in the short term and increasing risks from adverse weather, which will impact our assets in the medium to longer term.
In the face of change, other challenges seem smaller. But those challenges – traditional railway risks such as SPADs, overspeeding, level crossing use, and the platform-train interface – are still there, and still need our attention. And so will the collective corporate memory. Recent incidents such as the wrongside signalling failure at Wingfield, currently being investigated by RAIB, has echoes of the Clapham Junction crash. It is of the upmost importance, therefore, that we maintain our corporate memory and that the lessons learnt from past accidents are not forgotten.
The regular safety monitoring that RSSB undertakes allows us to keep an eye on safety on the railway and raise concerns if rates are high or trending in the wrong direction. This year our monitoring highlights:
There was an increase in SPADs and SPAD risk over the summer. RSSB’s deep dive into this found a link, albeit relatively weak, between hot weather and an increase in the number of SPADs.
There have been changes in public behaviour since the Covid-19 pandemic, with the data showing an increase in trespass and work-related violence and trauma. Our monitoring also shows a rise in sitting on the platform edge incidents. The analysis identifies a link between this hazardous activity and favourable seasonal conditions, the station profile and passenger demographic.
The decrease in track worker near misses due to the work of Network Rail’s safety task force. However, near misses are still occurring and increases in the number of protections incorrectly located as well as the ever-present hazard of trains signalled towards line blockages shows there is still more work to be done.
We can only monitor safety on the railway effectively and identify how it can be improved if we have with complete and accurate safety data. Without this evidence base we cannot help industry make the best risk-based decisions possible.
Asset integrity
Fatigue risk management
Freight derailment
Level crossings
Road risk
Public behaviour
Station operations
Train operations
Workforce health and wellbeing
Workforce safety
Work-related violence and trauma
Improving our capability and managing risks