Research in action
Better safety risk insights | TCA Risk Advisor tool continues to cut costs and improve performance How should we allocate funds for new lines and stations? | Regulation toolkit on the NW & Central route
The £500m Restoring Your Railway programme is an important contribution to the government’s levelling-up agenda, and the rail industry’s post-pandemic push to widen our passenger market. RSSB has provided excellent support with expert knowledge and has delivered research with academic partners to reduce the costs of construction, maintenance and operation of new rail services and to improve the demand forecasting and benefits estimation for new lines. RSSB’s contribution has made a material difference and helps assure the success of the programme.
The updated Safety Risk Model is now available and is proving its value in high-profile projects.
The Safety Risk Model (SRM) has been helping people in GB rail take sound, risk-based decisions for over two decades. It describes and quantifies the different risks associated with railway operations and maintenance. It helps decision makers set safety priorities and analyse safety-related costs and benefits, so they can confidently meet legal requirements and wider business objectives.
At the end of March 2023, a new version of the SRM was issued, one that has a more user-friendly structure and offers improved functionality. The development of SRM version 9 is based on research into user needs and new modelling approaches carried out in 2021/22.
A simpler model structure enables risk information to be added or extracted as needed, providing a more flexible way of assessing different scenarios or hazards.
The updated SRM has a new online interface that enables registered users to view the data in different ways. A ‘national’ view provides the most detailed overview of risk, down to the accident precursor level. A ‘regional’ view provides a breakdown of events by operator and Network Rail region or route.
The improvements in SRM version 9 include:
Localised risk analysis, based on the characteristics of local railway assets and operations.
A simpler and more modular structure that is easier to maintain and update, provides more flexibility for what-if analysis, and is more transparent.
Better linking to key industry datasets. For example, it is aligned with RSSB’s Safety Management Intelligence System (SMIS) and uses inputs from sources such as the Train Running System (TRUST) and Network Rail asset databases.
The support we’ve received from RSSB [using information from the SRM and the PIM] has helped us to analyse infrastructure safety risks for individual route sections. This enables us to integrate safety initiatives with options for improving capacity, capability, train performance and sustainability, with the goal of demonstrating that our investment decisions are optimised on a whole-life, whole-system basis.
RSSB has supported users across the industry to apply SRM in high-profile projects through the year, including:
Identifying and mapping SRM version 9 risk estimates to the key areas of the industry strategy Leading Health and Safety on Britain’s Railway. This supports prioritisation of safety improvement initiatives and ensures oversight of the whole risk profile.
Work on Optimised Train-Track Operations (OTTO) to develop the safety justification and define safety integrity level requirements.
Evaluating the benefits of secondary communication and emergency protection to inform a change to national standards that will reduce re-signalling costs and potentially enable the removal of detonators.
Find out more about the SRM, and how to access the tool, on RSSB’s website.
To read about the original research that guided the development of the new SRM, go to the RSSB Research Catalogue and search for T1136.
To discuss the SRM, including support to apply it within your organisation, contact Chris Harrison, Futures Lab Systems Engineer: Chris.Harrison@rssb.co.uk
For assistance with, or a demo of, the SRM interface, contact Claire MacMillan, Senior Risk and Safety Intelligence Analyst: Claire.Macmillan@rssb.co.uk
The 2006 tool is widely used in train design and day-to-day operations. It will soon be updated to cover new traction methods.
Before a train is given authority to move, the line ahead needs to be clear of other traffic. Track circuits automatically detect the presence of trains; a vehicle on the rails causes a short circuit, showing the signalling system that the location is occupied.
While the presence of the train alone is often enough to close the circuit, some types of rolling stock (principally diesel multiple units) are fitted with Track Circuit Assisters (TCAs) to make it more likely that it will be detected. However, a TCA failure can cause disruption and delays.
In 2006, RSSB developed a TCA Risk Advisor tool for diesel multiple unit passenger trains (project reference T579). The tool helps operators assess whether, following TCA failure, it is safe for a train to continue in service. Keeping a train in operational service to the completion of its journey or to the end of the day has clear benefits for passengers, who might otherwise be asked to alight at the next station.
The TCA Risk Advisor is used by many passenger operators across the network. The tool can also be used by train designers to reduce dependence on TCA or to design trains where TCA will not be needed. In 2015, a follow-on project (T1005) extended the work to on track machines (OTM). Again, the tool is widely used by OTM manufacturers when designing new machines or modifying older ones.
The estimated benefits to the industry from the tool amount to more than £10m over 20 years, from avoided train cancellations and delays, and reduced TCA fitting, repair, and maintenance costs.
Discussions with cross-industry groups concluded that the TCA Risk Advisor should now be updated to cover new traction types, including battery and hybrids. RSSB is working to broaden and modernise the tool which continues to provide a tangible contribution to a safe and efficient railway.
To read more about original development of the TCA Risk Advisor, go to the RSSB Research Catalogue and search for T579 and T1005. For advice with the TCA Risk Advisor tool and to discuss its future developments, contact Paul Gray, Professional Lead, Engineering: Paul.Gray@rssb.co.uk
The new toolkit helps to analyse and optimise train regulation policies at junctions.
During Control Period 6, new train industry performance metrics were introduced to align the passenger experience more closely with how punctuality is measured and reported by industry. The way we manage the train service needed to be reconsidered, as existing approaches were developed to maximise the Public Performance Metric (PPM) at destination, rather than right time arrivals at intermediate stations.
An important factor in right time performance is train regulation – the sequence of trains passing through a junction. When more than one service approaches the junction at the same time, the train regulation policy informs the signaller which train should be given priority to pass first, while the other is held at a red signal.
Our research aimed to enable signallers to take consistent and optimal regulation decisions at individual junctions, cumulatively improving performance across the network. We defined a ‘path-based’ approach, which looks at the planned interval between services. The service that is timetabled to run first will do so if it can pass the junction prior to the timetabled path of the second service. The overall principle is tailored to local circumstances, such as the frequency of services, mix of traffic, and difference in journey times. The findings have been made available to industry through a good practice toolkit.
RSSB has been supporting Network Rail North West & Central (NW&C) route to use the good practice toolkit to review junction regulation policies. Using the calculation tool, NW&C confirmed that the regulation policy in place at Aynho Junction in Northamptonshire (where the Cherwell Valley Line meets the Chiltern Mainline) is optimised. The analysis has helped generate informed conversations between Network Rail and the operators about performance issues on the route.
We have started using T1178 findings to review our current train regulation policies and ensure they are optimised to provide more impactful interventions. The impact calculation tool has been particularly useful in showing the difference in regulating one service in front of another. It has enabled us to have some really good and informed conversations with our operators on the junctions that we’ve looked at. Promising results so far and we continue to use the tool in other locations.
NW&C is now looking at applying the toolkit to more complex junctions, to determine whether better regulation decisions could improve the throughput of services.
The good practice toolkit and briefing documents are available now - go to the RSSB Research Catalogue and search for T1178.
To discuss the research project or for support with implementing the toolkit, contact Michael Carmichael, Professional Lead, Operations and Performance: Marcus.Carmichael@rssb.co.uk
A fresh approach to assessing new rail services, taking into account the benefits of fewer car journeys.
The Restoring Your Railway (RYR) programme is investing in new and reopened railway lines and stations, and has pledged £500m for new schemes. To make sound decisions on proposals, the team needs a good understanding of the socio-economic impacts of the schemes, and a consistent approach to assessment.
Appraisals of incremental improvements to existing lines can extrapolate from the existing baseline of rail demand. But for new rail openings, the lack of a demand baseline complicates the appraisal.
This research, carried out under RSSB’s rail economics partnership with the Institute for Transport Studies, looked at whether standard appraisal methods can be readily applied in the context of rail reopening. Using real-world examples from the RYR programme, the research proposed and tested improvements to the appraisal approach.
A review of existing business cases revealed a lack of consistency and robust methods in appraisal practice. The official Transport Analysis Guidance (TAG) – while being world-leading – is not fully developed for introducing a ‘new mode’, such as a new rail line or station.
For a new rail service, most rail trips move over from other modes of transport, whereas the standard approach to appraisal look at benefits and demand only within rail. The project developed a new multi-modal approach better suited to modelling the case for new lines and stations.
This approach has been successfully applied to three different case studies from the RYR programme. The new approach significantly changed the business cases for these three proposals.
The Department for Transport is now considering inclusion of the proposed changes into TAG.
To read the findings from the laboratory research, go to the RSSB Research Catalogue and search for COF-ECO-ROA.
For further information, contact Andrew Gleeson, Senior Partnership and Research Grant Manager: Andrew.Gleeson@rssb.co.uk
