31.07.14
Network Rail hosts railway safety conference for suppliers
Network Rail has briefed its key suppliers on safety changes designed to avoid injury and fatality on the railway.
More than 300 delegates from Network Rail’s supply chain attended the one-day event at the National Exhibition Centre in Birmingham, which formed part of NR’s ongoing safety and maintenance programme.
Themed ‘Planning and Delivering Safe Work,’ the event looked at the issue of extreme weather conditions over recent years which have brought public attention to the vital importance of safely maintaining railway infrastructure.
Matt Voigt, project leader at Network Rail, said: “The Planning & Delivering Safe Work Programme is the highest profile change project within NR and will affect over 100,000 personnel.
“It was therefore vital that the programme team were able to communicate these changes effectively to our vast supply chain.”
As part of the programme, Network Rail is implementing a number of safety changes that will ultimately touch everyone that works on the railway infrastructure. In particular, there are three key elements designed to “alleviate any concerns that people have”. These are:
- New Electronic Permitting (ePermit) technology, which will replace safe system of work packs: “The new ePermit tool will bring multiple improvements to all personnel working on the railway. It will guide users through the planning and risk assessment processes to produce relevant paperwork that fully describes the plan, and attached track schematics will allow us to visualise all activity on our infrastructure in one place”.
- A Single National Control of Work Process: “With the aid of the ePermit tool NR will make use of the new Control of Work Process, which will be used to plan, risk assess, deliver and hand back all work carried out on Network Rail infrastructure”.
- A Single Accountable Person: “One of the largest changes being introduced will be the new competence of Safe Work Leader (SWL). All individuals appointed to act as the SWL will be the person accountable for safe delivery of work within a worksite, ensuring that risks associated with both work site and task are appropriately managed”.
To learn more about the Planning & Delivering Safe Work Programme, click here.
Tell us what you think – have your say below or email [email protected]