The roots of RSSB go deep into the rail industry, learning with it, and learning for it, so that the railway can flourish for the good of the UK. To quote RAIB's Chief Inspector Andrew Hall, ‘those who don’t remember the past are condemned to repeat it'. The rationale for our creation was to ensure learning from all lessons from the Ladbroke Grove crash and subsequent public inquiry. From our earliest days, we have continued working with and for industry, developing the tools, services, and resources the railway needs to help it thrive. For instance, in our first four years alone, we created Rail Industry Standards, developed the All Level Crossing Risk Model, as well as becoming the guardian of the Railway Group Standards Code.
Critical to the success of all our activities is our independent role within the rail industry. We are here for the whole of the industry now and in the future, not just a particular part of it. Our independence is vital in enabling all parts of the industry to trust us, so that we can all benefit even when there are difficult lessons to learn.
As the industry reforms and changes, RSSB’s role continues to be critical and essential, including in supporting our members, government bodies, and the wider sector in navigating the industry change effectively, efficiently, and safely. Many of our outputs reduce industry cost and drive efficiency, such as our work on strengthened freight couplers and runaway risk modelling, which means that we play a vital role in the industry’s commitment to value for money.
We enable industry collaboration, collective leadership, and decision making through our unrivalled expertise which is available to all. Through our groups and committees the knowledge and experience of our industry stakeholders and partners elevate the discussions and insight into resolving shared industry challenges. We also hold frequent events and webinars, update standards every three months, and conduct numerous research projects so that the rail industry can take advantage of cutting-edge knowledge.
The rail industry recognises us as the independent home of excellence to help the sector.
Since 2019, we’ve produced services, tools, and resources in six areas: safety, health, harmonisation, efficiency, sustainability, and future rail, to help our members deliver a smarter, safer railway. We’ve developed stronger relationships with our members by helping them implement our tools and guidance, so that they can improve their business performance and reduce costs.
We have worked to embed our products more deeply into the industry. We’ve also looked ahead to the future so that RSSB as an organisation is ready for the challenges ahead. Building our financial reserves and a commercial revenue stream helps to ensure our long-term success, and our creation of a digital and data capability will help us solve problems for the rail industry that were previously unsolvable.
Our vision for the next five years (2024-2029) is based on solid foundations. During these five years we will drive positive change across six strategic multipliers, new but important areas for us and our members: safety and health insights for the future, enabling automation and benefitting from artificial intelligence, improving testing capabilities, exploiting the value of data, improving weather resilience, and embedding sustainability by tackling emissions and increasing social value.
Our strategic objectives on how we run RSSB comprise five areas: digital transformation; increasing our commercial income; improving the customer experience; financial sustainability, and organisational health.
Our goal is that by 2030 every rail employee will be using an RSSB tool or service every day.
Mark PhillipsChief Executive, RSSB
