Introduction
From Luisa Moisio, Director of Research
The railway relies on its workforce to run safe, efficient, and customer-focused services every day. We draw heavily on their collective knowledge and experience. With support from organisations across the industry, we carry out many research projects aiming to protect staff, promote their wellbeing, and support their professional growth.
Rail is a safety-critical industry. For everyone’s protection, some staff are debarred from certain roles on health or disability grounds. But these restrictions need to be justified and transparent. We are carrying out work on colour vision, aiming to align testing more closely with the requirements of the role and move away from blanket restriction. We are also producing guidance to help occupational health professionals make safe and fair decisions on medical issues that may cause sudden incapacitation.
In this issue, we also revisit our findings on lone working, which provided practical guidance to lone workers themselves, their managers, and employers. We are looking to improve awareness of the risks, including dedicating the next RED safety video to this topic.
Much of the value frontline workers bring to the railway stems from their long experience. But working practices need to move with the times. There are benefits from allowing mobile devices in the cab, such as easier access to information and less reliance on paper. We have now produced a standard set of requirements to help industry procure mobile devices that are fit for purpose.
The industry, including RSSB, needs to focus on technological innovation, including the application of artificial intelligence in rail. But, as recognised in the Rail Technical Strategy, the successful deployment of new technologies comes with attraction, retention, and upskilling challenges. That’s why our research efforts focus not just on technology, but also on how people and machines work best together.
What else should we be tackling to keep railway staff safe, healthy, and productive? If you have identified a people-focused issue that would benefit from cross-cutting research, do let us know.
Luisa Moisio, Director of ResearchLuisa.Moisio@rssb.co.uk
RSSB’s cross-industry Research Programme enables a safe and efficient railway by providing knowledge and solutions to best utilise existing assets and unlock future change.
The research challenges and opportunities we focus on require strong collaboration across the rail industry and benefit greatly from the steer and coordination RSSB provides, with its independence, strong technical capabilities, and world-class risk modelling and analysis expertise.
The Research Programme is mostly funded by the Department for Transport. We also owe a big thanks to many organisations across the industry that provide significant in-kind support to research, co-fund work with us, and pioneer translating the findings into positive change on the railway.
Much of our research supports the Rail Technical Strategy, which comprises five functional priorities. We also research topics to help improve the health and wellbeing of railway staff and those who use the network.
Where our research specifically feeds into any of those, we use these icons.
