Emergency Special Working – what next?
RSSB’s Lee Shann puts out a call for your views and experiences of Emergency Special Working five years on.
During a major signalling failure, trains may have to be authorised to pass multiple consecutive signals at danger to keep them moving. Previously, the main way of doing this was Temporary Block Working (TBW), which was originally introduced into the Rule Book in the early 1990s. Emergency Special Working (ESW) was introduced in 2018, allowing trains to be moved more quickly following a signalling failure.
Currently, ESW may only be introduced for unplanned signalling failures. This means that TBW remains an option where planned outages of the signalling system take place. TBW requires staff to be trackside, exposed to moving trains and the environment for the duration of the degraded working. With safety being always the primary concern, the industry is supportive of ways to reduce this type of risk to railway staff.
TBW also requires the use of detonators, also known as fog signals or by the proper name, ‘Signals, Railway Track, Explosive.’ The use of Victorian technology poses many difficulties in the modern age. RSSB continues to carry out research into the continued use of detonators on the main line.
So where are we five years after the introduction of ESW? An RSSB project is reviewing the continued use of ESW and TBW. We are working with the industry to answer key questions:
What have we learned?
Is there anything that needs to change?
Can the way that we all keep trains moving safely and as efficiently as possible during signalling failures be improved?
One of the challenges faced in thinking about degraded working situations is that by their very nature, they are rare and unlikely to be something a signaller carries out regularly and may be an even rarer occurrence for a driver. Research is extensive, workshops thorough, but the staff at the front line are those who must understand and follow the rules come rain or shine.
How much simpler might refining standards be if every person involved in the process of creating standards could sit in the cab with the driver as they carry out ESW for the first time or alongside the signaller as they talked to the many drivers that may be involved?
As useful as that experience might be, it’s not practical. It is with that thought in mind that RSSB is keen to hear from staff who have been involved in carrying out ESW. Your experience and thoughts can contribute valuable lessons to the ongoing ESW/TBW project.
Help us improve standards by sharing your experience of ESW.
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