RAIB chief: management assurance is key to rail safety
“The industry has been unable to carry people with it in its attempts to bring about real change,” is the damning verdict of Chief Inspector of Rail Accidents Andrew Hall, in his first annual report since succeeding Simon French on April 1.
It is one of seven recurring themes running through the work of the Rail Accident Investigation Branch (RAIB) during 2021: the safety of track workers; people getting on and off trains; railway operations; management of bad weather; freight wagon maintenance; safety at user-worked crossings; and management assurance.
Highlighting the ‘disconnect’ between “what happens on the ground” failing to correspond with “what all the carefully devised rules and processes say should happen,” Hall says that in all aspects of railway operations, management assurance is important.
“The safety of people who work on the track continues to be a matter of considerable concern,” he wrote.
“Everyone working on the railway has a responsibility to themselves and their colleagues, which includes not letting dangerous or non-compliant actions go unchallenged.
“Managers need to be aware of staff behaviour, and the management structure should make it a normal part of their work to be getting out there and seeing what goes on. It’s all very well to check paperwork, but it’s important to know what is really happening on the ground.
“Management assurance is not just about audits and compliance checks. Formal processes need to be complemented by an open and honest culture that encourages the flow of information throughout the organisation.
Adding that the railway is “awash with data”, and that there are “numerous examples” of where data could have been used to avoid an accident happening in the first place, Hall said: “The data may be there, but the management wherewithal to best use it to reduce risk is not always.
“Not recognising this can lead to a false sense of security. Having invested in equipment that gathers data, organisations can develop a belief that the risks data can be used to manage have been mitigated, when they have not.”
In 2021, RAIB received 391 notifications. It deployed staff on 29 occasions and carried out 47 preliminary examinations. Of these, 16 led to full investigations and eight to a safety digest. In addition, it wrote seven letters to coroners, one letter to industry, and started nine industry investigation reviews.
Regarding extreme weather, Hall wrote: “Given it is so difficult to predict which assets will fail next, it is vital that the railway applies the precautionary principle. The most obvious is heavy rainfall associated with summer storms.
“This means slowing trains in areas exposed to extreme weather that poses a general but significant risk to assets.
“This should not be overly disruptive to the operation of the railway, provided operations staff have been given the training and procedures they need to fully exploit the technology to forecast and track weather conditions in real time.”