Asset integrity
Our rail network is a hybrid of modern technology and Victorian infrastructure, combining old and modern engineering, which brings a range of issues.
Asset integrity is of utmost importance to Great Britain’s railway system. It ensures the safe and reliable operation of infrastructure assets such as tracks, bridges, tunnels, signalling systems, and rolling stock. Maintaining asset integrity is crucial to prevent accidents, disruptions, and costly repairs. Episode 62 of RSSB’s RED safety video series looks at how the industry ensures asset integrity and averts train accident risk.
The Carmont train accident in August 2020 demonstrated that extreme weather and climate change pose significant challenges to the assets that make up the railway, especially where we have aging and, in some cases, Victorian infrastructure. As extreme weather events become more common, we may see more incidents like that at Nuneham Viaduct, the rebuilding of which closed a major freight artery for three months. Where possible, we need to be able to manage and mitigate the risks that climate change will bring.
Rail is strongly safety focused, so speed restrictions are often applied when earthworks fail following extreme weather events. However, speed restrictions can cause safety risks elsewhere. RSSB has developed a Whole System Risk Model (WSRM) to help the industry ensure its response to extreme weather is proportionate and that the overall safety risk is managed. This capability has been developed to provide Network Rail with a decision support tool that can be used when considering appropriate operational responses in the event of extreme weather (see chart).
Wrongside signalling failures are another area of asset integrity that can lead to severe train collisions and high consequences. The
As extreme weather events become more common, we may see more incidents like that at Nuneham Viaduct, the rebuilding of which closed a major freight artery for three months.
wrongside signalling failure at Wingfield that resulted in a train passing a signal at danger by 760 metres is being investigated by RAIB. Initial details of the incident show that the signal which was passed at red had been disconnected and reconnected the previous night as part of planned track maintenance work.
Asset integrity is a new topic now being covered by CIRAS reporting. This year, anonymous reports were received by CIRAS relating to:
CIRAS will continue to monitor for asset integrity-related reports to identify what learning can be shared across the industry.