New technologies can make railway a safer place
Rail sector health and safety professionals are being urged to embrace new technologies that will create safer and healthier ways of working.
The call came from industry leaders at the Institution of Occupational Safety and Health’s (IOSH) annual rail conference in Nottingham on November 9, in response to challenges posed by Network Rail’s ongoing devolution strategy and Digital Railway programme, and the likely impacts that these will have on worker protection.
Stuart Calvery, NR’s Early Contractor Involvement Lead for Digital Railway, said that improved traffic management would provide an opportunity to increase worker and passenger safety by leading to more reliable services and less congestion at platforms.
He also advocated the more widespread use of smart monitoring systems, which can provide huge data analysis of railway systems in real-time, and the use of remote monitoring tools that reduce the need for manual high-risk surveying work of trackside equipment.
“If someone is wearing an orange coat it means they are in a risky situation,” he said. “Smart monitoring can mean more scheduled maintenance, which means fewer risky situations for employees.”
George Bearfield, Director of Systems Safety and Health for RSSB, added: “The vision is to get the right data to the right people. We need to embrace this brave new world of data and make the most of the opportunity it provides.”
Gary Cooper, Director of Planning, Engineering and Operations at the Rail Delivery Group, said that health and wellbeing warranted the same level of attention as safety, especially with issues such as fatigue and mental health costing the industry more than £300 million each year.
“The taxpayer spends a lot of money on the industry, so we must look at ways of preventing so much money being lost,” he said.
“As the network is expanding, we are going to get thousands more employees in the industry. No matter when or where they are working, their health and wellbeing must be considered.”