Health and safety
HM Chief Inspector of Railways IAN PROSSER CBE discusses the ORR’s latest annual health and safety report.
Health and safety has improved, but there are still major challenges ahead for the rail industry. To mark the publication of the Office of Rail and Road’s latest annual health and safety report, HM Chief Inspector of Railways IAN PROSSER CBE discusses its findings with PAUL STEPHEN
As in all walks of life, some years in railway history stick in the mind more than others.
There are far too many noteworthy dates to catalogue here, but surely the Rainhill Trials (1829), the Grouping (1923), Mallard’s world speed record (1938), nationalisation (1948), the Beeching Report (1963) and the break-up of British Rail (1994-97) would all feature on most people’s lists.
To what extent 2020 will be remembered is a purely hypothetical question, although it seems unimaginable that future generations will choose to overlook the significance of the Coronavirus pandemic and the sweeping changes it has (at least temporarily) brought to the railway and to society at large.
The duration of the public health crisis remains unknown, and its full effects have yet to be fully understood, but the firm consensus within the industry is that it stands collectively in the midst of one of its most sizeable challenges to date.
In the immediate term, there is a host of new operating procedures to be developed and to become familiarised with, in accordance with social distancing. But, perhaps more significantly, the medium and longer-term health of the railway is also at stake if the precipitous fall in passenger numbers recorded since the commencement of lockdown measures in late March cannot be sufficiently reversed.
One man who is under no illusion of the scale of the task ahead is HM Chief Inspector of Railways Ian Prosser CBE, who heads one of the longest-established organisations on the network.
Created in 1840, and incorporated into the Office of Rail and Road in 2006, Her Majesty’s Railway Inspectorate (HMRI) has borne witness to all subsequent great historical challenges - and is still supporting the railway some 180 years later.
Prosser tells RAIL: “The last few months have been one of the most challenging periods for many a year for the country as a whole, the railway and the Inspectorate. Sadly, in the pandemic many people have lost their lives before their time, and our thoughts are with so many bereaved families and friends.
“However, HMRI is approaching its 180th anniversary in August and has consequently been through some very tough times. It’s seen the railway through two major world wars and lots of other challenges, such as the Great Depression of the 1930s, which wasn’t easy for the railway either.”
He adds: “It’s particularly important that we still support the railway, which continues to provide an invaluable service for key workers and vital goods in these difficult times.”
Prosser is rightly proud of the way in which ORR has helped operators and the rest of the industry adapt to new ways of living and working. For the past four months, practical guidance has been rapidly issued and then reissued to enable frontline staff to get on with the job in hand, amid several alterations to
government and scientific advice.
Meanwhile, ORR staff have been in continuous contact with Network Rail and train operators, to help them address issues that have emerged during what has been a constantly evolving situation.
Prosser and ORR have also played an integral role in the COVID-19 Joint Executive Oversight Team and the Rail Coronavirus Industry Forum, which have brought together the rail industry, unions and government to solve problems and to develop and agree principles so that new operating procedures can be implemented.
None of these have been the easiest tasks to perform, as Prosser explains: “I would like to acknowledge the great efforts made by my teams in working with and between the industry and unions to keep people moving forward in the same direction.
“There have been lots of changes in guidance and advice from government - for example, on face coverings [which became mandatory for passengers in England on
June 15] and on social distancing [which was reduced from two metres to one metre plus in England on July 4]. It’s all quite nuanced, but we’ve managed to get good guidance out there and we’ve managed to take the unions along the road with industry and ourselves.
“I think we’ve shown great leadership during these times, which is what historically the Inspectorate has done in both difficult and normal times. It’s always been there for industry… and always will be as we start to focus on areas where there is still real concern, such as the importance of looking after one another and our mental as well as physical health.
“This is what I call ‘the end of the beginning’. There will be lots of challenges as we slowly get more people travelling on trains. We need to listen to each other and progress important initiatives in the next few months, such as the Million Hour Challenge [see panel, page 41].”
Nor has ORR been immune to the effects of the Coronavirus outbreak.
It has been adaptable in how it performs its essential and day-to-day regulatory and monitoring functions.
Inspectors have transitioned to working remotely in order to hold liaison meetings with duty holders, including train company heads of safety, and to inspect key documents and plans using software such as Microsoft Teams.
Physical inspections have continued where necessary. And other ‘business as usual’ tasks, such as safety enforcement, authorising new trains into use and issuing improvement notices, have all remained relatively uninterrupted to help ensure that ORR and the industry can uphold the reputation of Britain’s railway network as one of the safest in the world.
Another sign of ‘business as usual’ at ORR was the publication on July 14 of its Annual Report on Health and Safety Performance on Britain’s Railways 2019-20. Given the publication’s reporting period runs from April 2019 to March
2020, it comes as no surprise that Coronavirus barely gets a mention in the 86-page document, although Prosser does acknowledge its looming presence as a contextual factor as part of his introduction.
The last few months have been one of the most challenging periods for the country. It’s particularly important that we still support the railway, which continues to provide an invaluable service for key workers and vital goods.
Ian Prosser CBE, HM Chief Inspector of Railways
Tram 236 reverses north of Nottingham station on June 22 and prepares to head to the west of the city with a Nottingham Express Transit service to either Clifton or Toton. ORR has recognised the light rail sector’s positive response to the 15 recommendations made to improve safety following the fatal Sandilands tram crash in November 2016. DAVID COOPER.
“The pandemic will be something that we talk about this time next year, but it has affected us as we put this report together,” he says.
“I don’t talk about it much in my foreword, but I think it’s safe to say we’ll be having a very different conversation next time, and there will be a lot more work we do with the industry over the next few months as we get back to a bit more normality.”
Now in his 12th year as HM Chief Inspector and ORR Director of Rail Safety, Prosser was instrumental in the decision in 2010 to recommence publication of an annual health and safety report, following a period when it had fallen into abeyance. He says it was important not only for ORR to be regularly providing its independent view on the industry’s health and safety performance, but for it also to be increasingly transparent about its own regulatory activities.
The report identifies core themes and highlights areas where the industry is performing well and not so well, with all its findings and analysis fully underpinned by ORR’s RM3 health and safety assessment tool (see panel, page 42). The scope of the report covers not only the main line railway, but also London Underground, heritage operations and the light rail sector.
In recent years, Prosser has also taken the opportunity to focus on three recurring main challenges for the industry, which continue to be relevant from year to year.
These are managing pressure on the system, supporting people, and the effective
I’m someone who believes that you achieve your goals by having good long-term plans and sticking to them.
introduction of new technology.
This year he has opted to reintroduce a fourth main challenge - managing change - in recognition of the many recent high-profile and well-publicised failures of the industry at key moments, such as the May 2018 timetable change.
Ironically, Prosser believes subsequent events since the end of March have proven that industry can successfully manage change, as demonstrated by its handling of the Coronavirus pandemic. But with the national response to the virus a fastmoving environment, and with several other significant threats on the horizon, he says the industry must be reminded that it will need to be fleet of foot if it is to prevail and emerge stronger on the other side.
He explains: “We’ve seen a bit of a contrast in the last few months to what we were seeing before, when it was a bit of a mixed bag when it comes to managing change. Sometimes it’s been done well, but we have had other projects that have gone very wrong, like the 2018 timetable meltdown.
“We’ve also seen issues with the construction and introduction of new rolling stock, so I thought it was important to highlight this and its importance in relation to the other three themes, as they are all interconnected.
“I’m very concerned about the number of times where we haven’t had any realistic implementation plans and the quality of risk management wasn’t as good as it could have been, so I wanted to highlight that as we’re going to go through a lot more change.”
He continues: “The other big challenges I see going forward, such as climate change and decarbonisation, will require new technologies to be introduced. We need to manage them in a robust way with strategic plans so that we can have stability, increase safety and also efficiency.
“We need these reminders because they are things that don’t go away, and I’m someone who believes that you achieve your goals by having good long-term plans and sticking to them. It requires continuous improvement and a good old slog so that you’re not jumping around all over the place.”
Starting with the positives, the main body of the report concludes that significant progress has been made in several areas - including safety at level crossings, following a repeat of last year’s lowest ever number (two) of level crossing fatalities.
Prosser praises the publication of NR’s level crossing strategy during the last year as a particularly welcome development, and one that builds on the achievements of the dedicated risk reduction fund, which existed during Control Period 4 (2009-14) and CP5 (2014-19).
NR closed 77 crossings in 2019-20 ( bringing the total since the start of CP4 to 1,254), and has a central Level Crossing team which continues to engage with ORR to further reduce risk, despite no longer having a dedicated level crossings closure fund.
Prosser says: “I think that a real success story for the industry over the last ten years has been at level crossings, and NR should be given a lot of credit for this.
“It’s encouraging to see that risk continues to be reducing, and is probably about half of what it was ten years ago. But there’s still a lot of things we can do, and I talked recently with the Department for Transport about how we can make it easier to close level crossings, which will be especially important for any rail reopenings.”
ORR also notes that the lowest number of trespass fatalities in the past ten years was recorded in 2019-20, as well as a slight reduction in reported trespass incidents in the last half of the year.
There has also been a levelling out of the estimated risk of SPADs (signals passed at danger), although ORR has seen an increase
The other big challenges I see going forward, like climate change and decarbonisation, will require new technologies to be introduced, and we need to manage them in a robust way with strategic plans.
Ian Prosser CBE, HM Chief Inspector of Railways
in incidents over the last year where driver alertness was an underlying factor.
Prosser has identified this as an obvious area for improvement during the next year, with the pandemic presenting an unrivalled opportunity to study the link between SPAD risks and the number of services that are run on the network.
“Last year, we had a reminder of the risk from SPADs with the 20th anniversary of the tragic piece of railway history that occurred at Ladbroke Grove [on October 5 1999, killing 41 people and injuring more than 400].
“We’ll see what happens over the next few months as we have a quieter railway, but the industry has made strides to identify how to make improvements. I think there was an impact from the [pre-pandemic] level of congestion on the railway, as during the period when we saw an increase in SPADs we also saw a 10% increase in services, so there definitely is a link.
“The RSSB has recently done a deep dive into the data, and until we can replace existing signalling technology - which will be a long way into the future - we must look to make incremental improvements elsewhere. We can’t make big step changes until ETCS [European Train Control System] is implemented, but there are other areas we are working on which are coming to fruition.
“We are working with the unions and industry on principles for driver alertness, which we started after Sandilands [fatal tram crash in November 2016]. Those principles should be completed by September, so that we can start some pilots with the agreement of the unions - in particular in areas like the freight sector.”
Prosser also references Sandilands for a second time in his foreword, when praising the light rail sector for the “significant progress” that it has made in implementing the recommendations made by the Rail Accident Investigation Branch (RAIB) following its investigation into the incident, including the establishment of a dedicated Light Rail Safety and Standards Board (LRSSB).
As the first major fatal incident across the entire sector since the derailment at Grayrigg almost a decade earlier, Prosser has often described the Sandilands crash as one of the lowest points of his 12 years at the helm of ORR.
But the headline message from this year’s annual report has to be the increased risks posed by climate change, following exceptional weather conditions experienced during the last 12 months.
For example, record-breaking rainfall in the UK made February 2020 the wettest February on record, while July 2019 was deemed to be the warmest month on record worldwide.
This has coincided with a four-fold increase in earthworks failures and trains striking objects such as trees felled by high winds and storm conditions.
Although Prosser concedes that the severity of temperatures and flooding in 2019-20 was difficult to predict, he says that Network Rail’s plans to address climate change and increase the resilience of the network have not kept pace with the frequency of extreme weather events. NR has therefore been instructed to improve identification of imminent failure by means of remote monitoring.
“These earthworks on the whole are very
I’ve often said that, before I retire, we’re to get rid of flags, whistles, forms and detonators because we shouldn’t be using this stuff in the 21st century.
Ian Prosser CBE, HM Chief Inspector of Railways
Whatever changes come our way we must have good plans that are risk-assessed effectively. We need to engage with the workforce, get health and safety reps involved, and then give ourselves the right sort of thinking time to get the implementation right.
old, and therefore heavily affected when we have hot dry conditions followed by heavy rainfall,” adds Prosser.
“NR has a renewals programme for CP6 and more money to spend than it did in the last Control Period, but we have to try and keep pace with trying to predict through remote monitoring.
“We’ve been quite fortunate with earthworks failures and have had some near misses, but it’s an issue we’ve been pushing them on for some time. These earthworks are not built to modern standards, and in some cases by guys with shovels and wheelbarrows in the 19th century, so when they get saturated and then dry out they’re really being stretched to the limits. NR is working on that and it’ll be a big focus for us over the next few years.”
Another key focus for Prosser and ORR is track worker safety, following the tragic deaths of four people in three separate incidents during 2019-20 at Margam, Tyseley and Waterloo.
ORR issued NR with two Improvement Notices for track worker safety in July 2019, and these must be complied with by July 2022. ORR notes that NR has responded positively by putting together a task force, while new technology to protect trackworkers has started to be implemented.
For Prosser, addressing these risks forms part of a personal ambition he made upon his appointment in 2008 as HM Chief Inspector of Railways: to help the industry deliver a rate of zero industry-caused fatalities to passengers, workforce and the public.
He reflects: “Sadly, it wasn’t long after Margam and the improvement notices that we put on NR that I issued my report last year. This has been a difficult area for a number of years but, as I said in the last report, NR really doesn’t have anywhere to go now but to tackle this issue in a proper way.
“It’s a cultural problem as much as anything that people have accepted red zone working and unassisted look-outs using technology that existed in the 19th century. I’ve often said that, before I retire, we’re to get rid of flags, whistles, forms and detonators because we shouldn’t be using this stuff in the 21st century.”
According to Prosser, the solution to this problem lies in two parts. The first is to dramatically improve planning so that access, line blockades and NR’s work bank of maintenance and renewals can be aligned more effectively.
The second will be through the more widespread introduction of new technologies such as track circuit operating devices, which have been in use since 2014 and which provide greater protection - for example, if a signaller makes a mistake on a line that should have been closed to traffic.
“The workforce at ground level need to accept these changes because we cannot and will not go on in the way we have been,” adds Prosser.
“I’m sure there is a real drive to make this happen from the leadership, but it’s getting it all the way to the bottom which will be the challenge. We’ve provided the tools to do it and the determination is there, but we have to stick at it because what we’ve seen in the past is that when things get difficult, they then try something else.
“But it’s long term and NR has three years. We’re coming to the end of the first one and we’re going to force them to stick with it even if I have to engage with the union leaders myself to make it happen, because it’ll make the railways so much better.”
If there’s one single overriding message from Prosser and the ORR annual report, it can best be summed up by his words to “stick with it”. Whether it be SPADs, level crossings, track worker safety, the various impacts of Coronavirus, or even the anticipated end of the UK’s transition period from EU membership at the end of the year, Prosser believes the key will be to have robust, long-term and realistic implementation plans.
He concludes: “That’s why I’m focused on change management, because the changes could be good or not so good, depending on how they are managed. Whatever changes come our way we must have good plans that are risk-assessed effectively. We need to engage with the workforce, get health and safety reps involved, and then give ourselves the right sort of thinking time to get the implementation right.
“That’s the important thing - not rushing into it and then changing this, that and the other. If we can stick with it then we can all get through this.”
This way, 2020 might just be remembered for the right reasons and celebrated for the objectives that have been met by the railway industry, rather than for any failure to meet the challenges ahead.