Appendix

Achievements in 2023-24

Cost reduction

We have:

taken the first step to help industry save £80m over ten years in control, command, and signalling systems. We updated the relevant standard for management of these systems. This will enable duty holders of complex signalling systems to better manage operations and be alerted to the underlying defects that cause faults and failures.
prioritised areas where industry can get more value from data. This will involve standardisation of both existing and future data. The Data, Systems and Telematics Standards Committee agreed delivery route maps for these areas. The creation of relevant standards has started and will continue into 24/25.
revised NTSNs so that necessary work was reduced. We ensured we met the objectives of the Rail Standards Strategy when we did this work. We also took advantage of European standards developments.
started work on DC electrification standards for conductor rail. This follows new knowledge and changes in legislation about electrification standards. Our work will promote good practice and decarbonisation.
used a first-principles approach to level crossing design. We focused on mitigation of risk and minimising cost. Our consultation asked about new level crossings and digital signalling technology.

Safe and satisfied passengers

We have:

delivered two workshops on pandemic preparedness, with more planned. A public/passenger/staff health hub is live on our website.
enhanced our PTI Risk Assessment tool to cover at least 66% of all UK stations. Sitting on Platform Edge (SOPE) is now a reportable event. A SOPE steering group was formed and the risk featured in RED 68.
engaged with members to understand obstacles preventing the use of the current trespass risk assessment guidance. We published a short video highlighting important and useful sections of that guidance.
published the first guidance note on passenger seat comfort. This will provide a method to measure seat comfort objectively, so customer experience improves.

Improving system reliability and resilience

We have:

embedded the Whole System Risk Model within PRIMA. PRIMA has been used in a live trial in Network Rail’s North West and Central region since September 2023. Network Rail will now extend the operational trial into Scotland with RSSB support.

developed industry guidance on cyber security for railway asset managers. We developed this in collaboration with the Rail Cyber Security Committee and the National Cyber Security centre.

drafted a new medical standard reviewed by medical practitioners. We reviewed and updated the Rail Wellbeing Alliance. This is now meeting under the new governance structure.

published revised Non-Technical Skills (NTS) materials on our website. These include good practice examples of three rail companies using them. We ran two events about the revised materials and set up an industry working group. We provided one-to-one support to rail companies so they can use the revised NTS materials to improve their competence management.

saved £2m over 5 years by revising the standard for track. This reduces track design and maintenance costs. The revised standard will improve performance, particularly for curving and loading.

developed interactive dashboards for five areas. These are: level crossing safety, freight safety, signals passed at danger, and workforce safety in stations and on trains. These dashboards now give current safety intelligence to industry risk groups and member companies.

launched Version 3 of Leading Health and Safety on Britain’s Railway. Version 3 is called Rail Health and Safety Strategy. This revision is fully aligned with emerging risks. We delivered the Risk, Safety and Operations Conference. This brought over 220 practitioners together to share good practice and discuss emerging safety risks.

kept the Rail Technical Strategy current by including new cross-industry research and innovation planning. This will help decision makers and solution developers coordinate and target future investments.

developed the case for a standard on speed restriction management. Our expertise also informed the Network Rail National Operating Procedure on blanket speed restrictions. This met recommendation 2 in the RAIB Laurencekirk to Portlethen report.

disseminated findings from the trials of anti-icing treatments for contact wires.

_{^{This is RSSB at its best}}

^{Martin Frobisher}^{, Group Safety and Engineering Director, Network Rail}

Adopting new technology

We have:

developed guidance for optimising driving policies and defined the key elements that can be codified. This improves modelling of the impact of policy instructions on whole system safety and performance. The guidance is being used to update GTR’s driving policy. Our modelling approach is being used to understand train driving needs with a new fleet by Northern.
continued to support the industry’s application of insights and solutions from the RSSB Research programme. Good examples of this include the portable train dispatch baton and the Wheel Impact Load detector (WILD).

Freight safety and growth

We have:

enabled freight operators to move heavier loads so they can save up to £6m in operating costs over 10 years. This also unlocks additional network capacity to help freight growth.

provided resource and analysis for the freight sector’s major risk review. This helped the sector identify deliverable risk priority projects for the Freight Safe Programme.

implemented an industry endorsed structure to address recommendations 6 and 8 from RAIB’s Llangennech accident report. This enables the development of suitable guidance for the management of maintenance for Entities in Charge of Maintenance.

researched freight loads and identified how they can be increased safely.

_{^{I am closely involved in the ‘Guidance on limits of freight train trailing length as governed by tractive effort’ project and believe it will deliver significant benefits in providing an approved tool to confirm available tractive effort and potentially lead to increase in payloads for existing and future diesel traction. The work also highlights an opportunity to exploit the increased mid-range pulling power of electric traction where electrification is available. This will I believe increase the competitiveness of Railfreight and potentially support further expansion of the electrified Network by demonstrating the additional performance available with electric traction.}}

^{Tim Gabb,}^{Head of Engineering Standards, Freightliner Ltd}

Value to society and sustainability

We have:

delivered the Sustainable Rail Blueprint Maturity Tool. This enables industry to monitor progress on its implementation of The Blueprint.

worked with industry groups to embed The Blueprint into day-to-day operations and the supply chain.

published guidance on supply chain decarbonisation. This will accelerate progress towards net zero carbon emissions by 2050. We have communicated this information to over 100 industry colleagues.

started the Rail Carbon Accounting Framework project. This will establish a new baseline for the industry carbon footprint.

completed the climate change maturity assessment in The Blueprint for the rail industry.

engaged with industry about social sustainability.

_{^{The climate change risk and adaptation strategic priority areas in the Sustainable Rail Blueprint and Long Term Strategy for Rail both include enhancing ’adaptive capacity’ as a core theme. Embedding resilience and adaptation into everything we do is key to improving the railway’s ability to adapt to the changing climate. This will help improve understanding and management of climate change as well as creating efficiencies through industry wide research, guidance, and training. This maturity baseline project is key to understanding the current adaptive capacity of the rail industry and the roadmap has provided us with clear guidance on the activities required by a range of actors within the industry to support an uplift in the industry’s knowledge and capability on climate change adaptation.}}

^{Lisa Constable,}^{Weather Resilience and Climate Change Adaptation Strategy Manager, Network Rail, and Industry Sponsor
Network Rail}

_{^{This research is hugely promising. It’s great to see how we’re continuing to improve our freight network, so even more goods and materials can be moved with every journey, strengthening the UK supply chain.}}

^{Huw Merriman,}^{Minister of State for transport, UK Government Cabinet Minister}

_{^{The Anti-icing and de-icing mitigations for pantograph and Overhead Line Equipment project has produced valuable insight into how ice accretes on overhead lines and affects the pantograph interface and mitigations for this. A special thank you should go to all the companies involved in the swift mobilisation and collaboration of cross-industry teams to carry out in-service trials.}}

^{Michael Dobbs}^{, Principal Engineer North West and Central Region, Network Rail
(}^{Relating to anti-icing treatments}⁾