Railway safety and crime

ORR advises RSSB to agree new settlement with members

29.11.16: The Office of Rail and Road (ORR) has advised the RSSB to agree a new settlement with its members in its five-yearly review of the rail standards body. The ORR consulted with RSSB members and industry groups to report on the RSSB’s st...

Train driver not at fault in Grimston Lane crossing fatality, RAIB concludes

21.11.16: The RAIB’s investigation into the death of an elderly pedestrian on a level crossing near Felixstowe launched earlier this year has found that the pedestrian was struck by the train after he started to cross the track when he had insuffici...

Using technology to reduce platform edge accident risk

18.11.16: RSSB’s safety management systems specialist Kevin Thompson explains how a new tool can help reduce safety risks at the platform edge. There are about 5,000 platforms on the British mainline train network. While our railway is one of t...

Croydon tram was travelling over three times speed limit, RAIB finds

16.11.16: The RAIB has released its interim report into the Croydon Tramlink accident last week, which killed seven and hospitalised 51 others, concluding that the vehicle was travelling over three times the permitted speed limit at the time. Just af...

ORR warns of level crossing safety risk as industry moves towards ROCs

15.11.16: Rail safety could be compromised by plans to give a single signaller control of a larger area as part of industry moves towards introducing the digital railway, the chief inspector of railways said yesterday. Network Rail is already taking...

Improving safety through early track void detection

15.11.16: Dr Farouk Balouchi, project technical lead at the Institute of Railway Research, University of Huddersfield, Dr Adam Bevan, head of enterprise, Institute of Railway Research, University of Huddersfield, and Roy Formston, lead development enginee...

NR criticised for lapsed safety system following Lamington Viaduct probe

14.11.16: Network Rail failed to address the risk of scour on the Lamington Viaduct, which was closed following flood damage this winter, despite problems being reported for over 10 years, a report by the Rail Accident Investigation Branch (RAIB) has foun...

Southern train ‘ran with doors open’, but RAIB not to investigate

09.11.16: A Southern train at Reedham station briefly ran with its doors open on Monday morning in what could have been a potential safety breach. The operator confirmed that the 05.54 service from Tattenham Corner to London Bridge moved one coach le...

Passengers trapped after tram derails at Croydon

09.11.16: Passengers are trapped and some are reported to have been killed after a tram derailed in Croydon this morning. Two carriages of the London Tramlink tram are derailed at Addiscombe Road near Sandilands tram stop. London Fire Brigade (L...

Driver avoids being hit by 105mph train ‘with three seconds to spare’

02.11.16: A Virgin train driver missed being hit by a 105mph train by three seconds and had to lie on the ground to avoid it, a Rail Accident Investigation Branch (RAIB) report has stated. The incident, which took place on 3 August this year, happene...

Rail safety campaign urges passengers to report any suspicious behaviour

02.11.16: Passengers should keep an eye out for suspicious items or activity around British stations and trains, a major new safety campaign says. Posters for the ‘See it. Say it. Sorted’ campaign were unveiled at stations in London, Birm...

RAIB: Boom crash points to ‘lack of understanding’ of rail maintenance role

28.10.16: An accident in February where a train collided with a conveyor boom raises wider concerns about whether Entities in Charge of Maintenance (ECMs) understand their safety responsibilities, the RAIB has said. The accident occurred at around 10...

RAIB opens investigation into Hampshire level crossing fatality

21.10.16: A mobility scooter user was struck and killed by a train at Alice Holt level crossing on 5 October, prompting an investigation from the Rail Accident Investigation Passenger (RAIB). The man, named in local news reports as 83-year-old Derek...

Manchester Victoria roof collapse ‘isn’t good enough’ as MP calls for inquiry

20.10.16: The construction process for the roof at Manchester Victoria wasn’t “good enough” after it collapsed, a local MP has said. Rain water leaked through part of the roof, filling one of the plastic panels underneath and leadin...

RAIB: London Midland processes for assessing driver managers ‘inadequate’

07.10.16: A train carrying around 2,000 passengers broke a temporary speed restriction earlier this year because of a miscommunication in an incident that could have been ‘very serious’, the Rail Accident Investigation Branch (RAIB) has said. ...