Track worker safety

Duncan Lindsay writes about automatic collision avoidance systems (ACAS) software that has been available for many years, and only requires Network Rail to make the investment to save lives ( Open Access, RAIL 887).

As far as I am aware, aircraft are routed to be clear of each other, and ACAS warns of an approach within a significant clear margin vertically and horizontally. In the concept of track work, the system is only necessary where track work is planned in traffic.

If I have the analogy correct, the workers should be ‘routed’ clear of the conflict by some means before the approach of the train, otherwise the train will receive a warning of the conflict and avoid it by stopping.

How clear do they have to be? Does the system envisaged include warning the track workers of the approaching train so they can move clear? How much time does the system then give them to be clear? How does the system then know they will remain clear?

Where multiple trains may operate through a junction or a section of line, how do the track workers know what warnings relate to which trains when they may resume their on-track duties?

I would love to know how the existing collision avoidance software achieves all of these, how much it would cost to deploy, and how Duncan envisages it being introduced for track workers and train drivers?

If it is a realistic proposal and the best way of enabling in-traffic track work to take place safely where it is justified, it seems to me there is a lot more to do to achieve Duncan’s vision than just finding the money,

Peter Halliwell, Cheshire