EVERYONE HOME SAFE, EVERY DAY
Network Rail’ s Head of Corporate Workforce Safety RUPERT L OWN tells PAUL STEPHEN how safety is fixed firmly at the heart of the company’ s plan to improve Britain’ s railways
For both passengers and workers, the safety of the UK rail network is second to none as it continues to register the best performance among Europe’s ten largest railways. Official statistics from the Office of Rail and Road (ORR) confirm that it is been more than ten years since a passenger was killed as a result of a train accident, while 2015/16 was the first year since ORR’s current statistics began, in 2002/03, that no industry-caused workforce fatalities were recorded. Network Rail repeated the feat in 2016/17 on NR-managed infrastructure, although unfortunately one fatality did occur as the result of a road traffic accident.
The overall level of workforce harm also continues to decline as indicated by the industry’s official measures - the workforce fatalities and weighted injuries measure (FWI) and Lost Time Injury Frequency Rate (LTIFR).
Two years ago (2015/16) we had a reduction of 23% in the LTIFR, and in 2016/17 we saw a further 16% improvement across Infrastructure Projects.
It’s ample evidence that for employees and contractors working on Infrastructure Projects, NR’s clear and simple safety vision of everyone home safe, every day is yielding dividends.
But despite working on the railways becoming much safer, the railway is still not immune from risk and NR continues to work towards its target of eliminating all workforce fatalities and major injuries.
Head of Corporate Workforce Safety Rupert Lown explains: “Infrastructure Projects has a good safety record at the moment, which is a really positive story. It was achieved through targeted improvements. It is very much a joint effort and our supply chain has been integral in helping us to improve.
“But there remain too many accidents. For
“For both passengers and workers, the safety of the UK rail network is second to none as it continues to register the best performance among Europe’ s ten largest railways .”
example, in our last (four-weekly) monitoring period which finished towards the end of July, we still had 11 lost time injuries across the IP portfolio, and that’s 11 too many. From that point of view we still have work to do.
“We’re in a significantly better place than we have ever been before, but as you reduce your numbers it becomes harder and harder to get down to zero. We have to become more intelligent about how we do it.”
Home Safe, Every Day
Underpinning NR’s workforce safety performance is its Home Safe Plan, which is continually reviewed to focus on key areas that carry the greatest risks. Employees and contractors must comply with NR’s Lifesaving Rules that make safe behaviour a requirement.
The Home Safe Plan includes road safety as a key priority, after road traffic accidents emerged as the main source of workforce fatality.
ORR figures showed a 34% increase in the number of road traffic accidents involving NR staff or contractors on duty in 2016/17, and so NR is taking action to help staff drive within the speed limit. A number of safety arrangements have already been put in place under the Home Safe Plan. NR has rolled out a Vehicle Speed Warning System across its fleet of 7,500 vehicles. This provides the driver with real time audible and visual warning of road speed enabling them to alter their speed.
“Certainly, the most prevalent area of fatalities has been on the roads,” adds Lown. “And we mustn’t be complacent about that. If you go back across the last seven years we’ve had eight fatalities on the roads. These were all unacceptable, so this is one of our strong focus areas now. It’s about reducing the potential for people to fall asleep at the wheel and getting
“As well as applying the highest standards in safety and analysing high risk areas, Network Rail prides itself on the creation of a strong safety culture that has permeated through to all levels of Infrastructure Projects .”
people to change their behaviour off-site in the same way they’ve changed their behaviour on site.
“We calculated that NR has a fleet of 7,500 vehicles that covered in excess of 100 million miles in 2014/15, and that’s without including the supply chain. We want to help everyone drive home safely at the end of their shift. This starts with the quality of the road fleet and making sure that it is properly maintained. But, we also need to have drivers appropriately trained and we need to make sure they are fully alert when driving home to see their families, so we undertake a lot of education around that.”
Lown says that restricting the duration of hours spent on duty is more critical than limiting the total amount of distance travelled. IP therefore operates a 14-hour rule which includes time spent on-site and travel time either side. This is strictly enforced whether IP workers are part of the 5% directly employed by NR, or the 95% provided by the supply chain. It is very much a collaborative effort.
Reducing Risk
“Evidence suggests that after 14 hours the risk of fatigue starts to escalate and, in reality, there is a growing number of contractors that only work ten hour shifts and then have an hour either side for travelling.
“We have a legal framework with the supply chain to make sure this happens, and the supply chain has the same legal responsibility to work safely and organise itself effectively. We work collaboratively so when contractors go to the front line they know what to expect, and the rules and expectations are the same regardless of who you work for.
“There are lots of options around how people manage fatigue, and some people will be booked into hotels when they finish their shift so they can have a sleep before travelling home. But we know that some people don’t want to take up those offers and just want to get back to their families.
“Getting people to act responsibly is sometimes difficult so we check to ensure those systems work. It’s understandable that people want to see their families, but there is a balance to be struck and we want them to get home safely and correctly.”
On-Track Safety
In terms of improving track safety, NR is rolling out its Planning and Delivering Safe Work (PDSW) process, which is transforming how IP projects are planned and implemented. It will mean the creation of a new, unified Safe Work Leader role which makes a single person accountable for all aspects of the work they are overseeing. This replaces a system of split accountability.
Lown says: “We’ve been working extremely hard to prevent track worker fatalities since the last one we had in January 2013 near Newark. That was a tragic event and we want to prevent it from ever happening again, so PDSW is about ensuring that when the team goes out to work on the track, they’re not going to be struck by a train.
“It’s about properly planning the work, and putting arrangements in place to change things for the better. We used to have someone who was in charge of preventing people being struck by a train, and then someone else in charge of doing the actual job. That seemed very sensible but part of what we’ve learned is that by having two people in charge, sometimes those plans don’t align and the tasks cannot be done safely. With PDSW it brings accountability into one place so you have a single person who oversees the work and safety of the team.
“It’s a significant change and has been in development for the best part of a year. It came into force across the network on July 3, and is being carefully phased in so that by September 23 everyone will be using the same system.”
Safety Culture
As well as applying the highest standards in safety and analysing high risk areas, NR prides itself on the creation of a strong safety culture that has permeated through to all levels of IP. Accident prevention must come down to the individuals, who have all been empowered to report unsafe conditions or act decisively if a risk emerges.
This strategy not only helps IP to live within its means by boosting efficiency, but ensures that it never undertakes any activities that could compromise safety.
“If we weren’t safe then we wouldn’t be efficient,” says Lown. “You want your staff to come in the next day to do the work that you’ve trained them to do, and the only way to do that is to plan the job properly.
“If possessions do look like they are going to overrun, we’d far rather that teams checked their plans, ensured they were correct and
did the job safely than rush to cram work in. That is not sensible as it elevates levels of risk. We’ve all got to make sure that when a difficult situation arises and a possession is going to overrun, we say ‘you know what, we can’t do this job safely so we’ll take an extra half an hour to make sure it’s done correctly’.
“When an error creeps in and we realise we’re overrunning, we need to stop and work out how to do it safely so it’s about managing the process properly and not taking shortcuts.”
Digital Opportunities
Looking to the future, Lown predicts that further safety gains will be delivered as a result of NR’s Digital Railway programme, which principally aims to create additional train paths by deploying modern technologies to keep track workers separated from trains.
Looking to the future NR now has a strategy to harness the technology offered by Digital Railway solutions to reduce the risk of track workers being struck by trains. Due to the range of signalling architecture and the phased approach of introducing Digital Railway systems such as Traffic Management, ETCS and ERTMS there is not an easy ‘one size fits all’ solution. NR needs dynamic systems to suit the differing geography, signalling architecture and infrastructure, varying line speeds and train frequencies across the Routes.
NR is working closely with trades unions and investing in the development of new protection and warning systems. These will provide further opportunities to access the track to perform maintenance tasks and will be used for inspection, surveillance and non-intrusive activities, and will maximise the opportunity for asset maintenance and enhancement works. Over time they will reduce the reliance on historic systems of lower integrity containing multiple human error failure modes.
“Digital Railway will increase the number of trains on the network we operate, but there are some strong opportunities within that to improve safety, such as how can we use highintegrity signalling systems.
Our plans all revolve around preventing workers from being injured. We want Everyone to Go Home Safe Every Day.
“We’ re in a significantly better place than we have ever been before, but as you reduce your numbers it becomes harder and harder to get down to zero. We have to become more intelligent about how we do it.”