Cross-industry group of the month:
National Freight Safety Group
Freight’s home of safety
The National Freight Safety Group (NFSG) is rail freight’s home of safety, a space for collaboration and progress on safety in a competitive sector. It brings together commercial operating businesses with RSSB and infrastructure manager Network Rail to improve freight safety, health, and wellbeing.
NFSG has developed the Freight Safe Programme to inform the sector’s strategic approach to safety, health, and wellbeing for the next three years. Replacing the Freight Integrated Plan for Safety, the Programme aligns with the national Rail Industry Health and Safety Strategy. It sets out how operators and Network Rail will reduce overall risk together for safe growth.
The Condition of Freight Vehicles on the Network (CFVN) programme addresses freight derailment risk and is one of the priorities of the Freight Safe Programme. The CFVN programme aims to contain the risk and understand the contributing factors to freight vehicles still entering the network or travelling in service with a defect that impacts safety.
Other new projects in the Freight Safe Programme include one to develop a horizon scanning service for the freight sector, and the development of a freight-specific Precursor Indicator Model (PIM). Horizon scanning has become an important tool for NFSG to identify new and emerging risks. A freight-specific PIM will enable rail freight to build evidence from industry and help with modelling future risk.
NFSG also recognises that collaboration and learning from other industry risk groups is essential to understand and mitigate many of the challenges that overlap specialisms, including extreme weather and climate change.
The freight operating companies’ commitment to the Freight Safe Programme is evident through the signing of the Rail Freight Collaboration Charter, and aligning NFSG with the Programme sets strong foundations for the future of managing freight risk.
Group members:Freight Operating Companies, Network Rail, and RSSB. The Office for Road and Rail observes.
How often it meets:Quarterly.
Subgroups:The Freight Safe Steering Group provides assurance to Rail Partners Freight Council on the collaborative delivery of the Freight Safe Programme. The Rail Freight Operations Group monitors and reviews operational activities including freight SPAD performance, ERTMS implementation, Railway Group Standards compliance, RAIB and ORR reports.
Make a difference
Your company’s freight data can drive safety improvements. By putting timely, accurate, and relevant data into SMIS, you will support the development of the freight-specific PIM so that freight can gain data-driven insight.
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Considered succession planning is important to maintain collaboration. By supporting your NFSG representatives and identifying new and upcoming colleagues for future participation, you will help NFSG to continually improve health, safety, and wellbeing in the rail freight sector.
Focus on: CFVN
The Condition of Freight Vehicles on the Network (CFVN) programme is an ongoing workstream to reduce the risk of freight derailment. Over two years, it has been providing the freight sector with a better understanding of direct and associated causes of freight vehicles entering the network with a defect or developing a defect in service.
The risk remains. The Freight Safe Programme is looking to gather data and test experience for enhanced data knowledge to reduce the frequency of derailment. The CFVN programme is an opportunity for the sector to work together for a better, safer, and more efficient rail freight future as lessons are shared and learnt collectively.
Want to know more?Contact NFSG Chair Dougie Hill and visit the group web page.
Find out about our work in the area of Freight Safety.
