The power of visual risk tools
LNER's approach to driving impactful safety conversations.
LNER’s Melanie Sewell and Anthony Pateyjohns told us how their focused bowties are central to the conversations they have about risk.
Jasmin CollierEditorial Content Manager, RSSB
Back in the October 2024 edition of Horizon, my colleague Ben Gilmartin—our Principal Risk and Intelligence Safety Analyst—penned an article on the use and value of bowties in the rail industry.
Bowties are visual risk mapping tools that provide an overview of a core hazard, the possible triggers for it, and some potential mitigations to prevent it.
They’re being used more and more widely in rail, and one operator keen to sing their praises is LNER. But, as I learned from two LNER colleagues, the benefits go far beyond the bowtie output itself.
I spoke with LNER’s Melanie Sewell, Safety & Environment Programme Delivery Manager, and Anthony Pateyjohns, Head of Safety and Environment, to learn more about the value of collaboration and conversation in risk mapping.
In certain cases, LNER favours bowties to other methods of risk assessment. For one, their visual nature means they’re more accessible, helping to explain risks and consequences to all levels of the organisation. They also provide added functionality—driving flexibility in how they’re used—and they’re useful for action planning, too.
But if you, like LNER, use bowties at your organisation, you’ll already have an appreciation of their value. What Melanie and Anthony were keen to express was the value of the collaboration in their creation.
‘Where RSSB has been developing a bowtie and we’ve not had the same, we’ve looked at whether we can shape that for ourselves,’ said Melanie. ‘And there are other areas where LNER has already built a bowtie that we’ve shared with RSSB, and they’ve looked at shaping it into a more industry-wide bowtie. So, it’s worked from all directions depending on what the focus has been.’
Anthony weighed in as well. ‘We’ve also done some best practice around how we use bowties. The current RSSB guidance was developed in collaboration with industry. […] That’s where this all started really. We worked really closely with RSSB to develop that guidance so that industry would understand how to use bowties effectively.’
It’s clear to see that bowties are best created and used in conjunction with others around the industry. That way, we all benefit from each other’s knowledge when it comes to risk assessment and mitigation.
Melanie, Anthony, and I then got talking about two of LNER’s specific bowties: one on the platform-train interface and one on fatigue risk management.
On ‘why these’, Anthony said, ‘They go right to the heart of how to use bowties effectively. And I think that is to take a very strategic approach and identify the most significant risks that affect your business and then try to tackle those.’
Indeed, keeping people safe on their rail journey is always going to top the list of priorities for passenger train operators. So too will staff health and wellbeing, as that’s vital for safe operations.
I was keen to learn more about the benefits of having bowties like these in place at LNER. But instead of sharing incident reduction statistics—which, granted, would be difficult to relate back solely to these bowties—Melanie and Anthony talked about the conversations this method of risk assessment is able to drive.
‘They drive the conversation in a visual way in that it structures conversation and allows you to focus on those areas that are most significant in terms of risk,’ said Melanie. ‘Bowties are allowing us to plan for risk and continue to revisit our priorities there.’
Anthony agreed, adding, ‘I think where you can measure success is where people involved in other projects have seen a bowtie for something and want one for their project, too. They’re saying, “We really understand it, and it helps us visualise how complex this risk is, and it helps us see our progress.”’
‘So, you’ve driven a better-quality conversation as a result, and this can end up delivering risk mitigations that are better and that will end up making us safer across the board.’
All that being said, Anthony added that the next step for industry should be implementing the control measures within bowties into organisations’ risk management systems. Otherwise, he said, ‘We’re not really going to see a step-change in the management of risk.’
Following on from that, I wanted to see if Melanie or Anthony had any advice for people or businesses who are keen to start creating bowties but aren’t sure where to begin.
Melanie chimed straight in. ‘My main advice is to start small and not try to go too big. As Anthony said, we’ve always taken the route that we look at our significant risk areas and not end up with lots of bowties.’
‘Also, I recommend accessing the RSSB Bowtie Hub and starting to see what you can do. You don’t have to be wedded to the traditional bowtie, either. Just start experimenting to see what will drive the right conversations in terms of risk management within your company.’
Anthony agreed, saying, ‘We at LNER have found bowties to be a great gap analysis tool, a great audit tool, a great checklist for ticking off what you need to do to get something through validation, etc.’
He also had some advice of his own to share: be consistent. ‘You need to define how you’re going to use bowties for risk assessment and then be very specific about sticking to that. […] If you start creating different ways of doing risk assessments, it all becomes not comparable to each other, and you do need to be able to compare risk assessments across bowties and understand how they can interact with each other.’
For this, he concluded, ‘I would point anyone towards the RSSB Good Practice Guide on bowtie analysis.’
So, while the possibilities are seemingly endless with bowties, it’s going to be important to focus on the most important areas and to maintain a single approach. That way, you can create a truly meaningful picture for your organisation—and help do the same for the wider industry.
For more on bowties—including how to use them, case studies, and more—point your safety teams towards our dedicated hub.
Share the knowledge ❯