25.11.08
Business performance and safety go hand in hand
The Rail Safety and Standards Board was formally established in April 2003 to lead and facilitate the efforts of the rail industry to meet its obligations under the Health and Safety at Work Act. Five years on, RSSB no longer describes itself as a Cullen recommendation – it is now a flourishing, member-owned, independent not-for-profit organisation, delivering significant products and services across the range of rail industry activities, says Anson Jack
RSSB works with the industry - its members - to deliver continuously improving safety, reductions in costs and improvement in performance. During RSSB’s first five years, the number of people and goods moved by rail has increased dramatically, creating the fastest growing major railway in Europe while safety performance has continued to improve.
Whilst Network Rail and the respective train operators can take credit for growth and safety improvements, as their day-to-day attention to detail and service is core to these achievements, RSSB has supported and facilitated improvements across the whole range of its services – through research, standards, safety plans, analysis of risk and much more.
Safety through intelligence
An important component of RSSB’s services is the management and provision of the Safety Management Information System. The national web-based IT system is used by the rail industry to record all safety related events that occur on Network Rail-managed infrastructure. This industry’s own standard mandates its use so that all data is accessible for the industry to use the information to analyse risk, predict trends and focus activities on major areas of safety concern.
RSSB publishes regular reports collating and summarising the statistics reflecting key risk areas. These are collectively published in the railway’s Strategic Safety Plan which is another document that RSSB collates and publishes on behalf of the industry. Other publications include the detailed Annual Safety Performance Report, published each spring for the previous calendar year, as well as monthly, quarterly and half-year reports.
The most recent report for the first half of 2008 shows safety performance was in line with that seen during the same period in 2007. Improvements were seen in some areas such as workforce major injuries along with passenger boarding and alighting injuries. A distinct message the statistics provide is that areas of risk which are in the industry’s direct control can be managed and minimised with the support of technology and an appreciation for the human factors involved.
At level crossings, higher number of pedestrian fatalities and collisions between trains and road vehicles - both of which were above average for the half year to June 2008 – point to this being a key risk area where the primary risk source is outside the direct control of the industry ie. the misuse of crossings by the road user. Indeed, the recently relaunched cross-industry Road-Rail Interface Safety Group facilitated by RSSB has sponsored both published and ongoing research into level crossings from the public behaviour perspective.
However, the bigger picture is one of ever improving safety and this means the rail industry can focus on improving business efficiency and driving out unnecessary costs as drivers to achieving the same high levels of safety. The statistics also provide signposts for the cross-industry groups facilitated by RSSB to take decisions or commission research.
Taking safe decisions
Almost every policy, investment or operational decision taken by the GB railway industry has an impact on safety. It is therefore vital that the consideration of safety is embedded effectively into the decision-taking process. To support this, Taking safe decisions – was published by RSSB in June.
Taking safe decisions is the product of an extensive programme of research, analysis and consultation. It describes the industry consensus view of how decisions should be taken that properly protect the safety of rail industry staff, passengers and others, satisfy the law and respect the interests of stakeholders, whilst remaining commercially sound.
The consensus was developed by a think tank of industry experts and was approved by the industry through the Safety Policy Group and RSSB board. It was developed in parallel with guidance on cost-benefit analysis in support of safety-related investment decisions, which was produced by the Office of Rail Regulation for its own inspectors and published openly on the ORR website.
Taking safe decisions identifies that, in the GB railway industry, duty holder decisions which impact on safety are taken:
• in order to meet legal requirements, or
• because they are sensible from a commercial perspective
These different types of decision have different implications and involve different considerations which the document clarifies. The consensus that the document brings may result in changes to what has previously been done in some parts of industry. Key clarifications are:
• Societal concern about risk impacts on government decision making. The document states that societal concern should not be taken into account by duty holders when deciding whether a measure is necessary to ensure safety so far as is reasonably practicable. However, the impact of societal concern on a company’s reputation might mean that the company takes account of it optionally for business reasons.
• A judgement about whether a measure is required to ensure safety so far as is reasonably practicable might be supported in some circumstances by a CBA. New guidance about how to construct a CBA for this purpose is included.
• This document clarifies that application of the Tolerability of Risk framework (published by the HSE in Reducing Risks, Protecting People) is not a requirement of the Heath and Safety at Work Act etc 1974. The TOR framework is a conceptual guide for regulators that may help duty holders manage and prioritise safety activity by providing an alternative perspective on risk.
Taking safe decisions describes these key principles in full, provides guidance on what they mean in practice, and includes some worked examples for those taking decisions that impact upon safety.
Safety culture toolkit
Understanding and improving safety culture is recognised internationally as a fundamental factor in the management of safety. For the rail industry this has the dimensions of industry level, individual company and potentially geographic culture.
As a research project, RSSB developed a web-based safety culture toolkit that supports rail companies in measuring their own safety culture and determining what actions they could take to tackle any issues identified without the need for extensive external support. The toolkit also facilitates the accumulation of benchmarking data to establish industry norms against which companies can compare their own culture.
The web-based safety culture toolkit includes:
• A safety culture questionnaire based around 11 elements (factors)
• Analysis reports enabling detailed interpretation of survey responses
• Automatically generated graphical outputs of survey responses
• Good practice guidance, taken from rail and other high-hazard industries linked to the automatically generated results
• Advice and guidance on implementing the solution interventions
• Advice on the management and monitoring of safety culture and enhancement interventions
• On line user guidance
Development of the toolkit has involved consultation with experts in the rail industry and in the high-hazard industries. Full scale pilot trials have been undertaken by several rail companies.
The toolkit has been launched for use by RSSB members and First Group is piloting the tool in a number of their rail locations. RSSB can help members in setting up and using the toolkit and with the ongoing development of the benchmarking capabilities.
Research and development
Research and development is vital to ensure that the rail industry meets its future customers’ and stakeholders’ needs as efficiently as possible to deliver a better railway for all.
RSSB manages a programme of R&D on behalf of the railway industry, funded primarily by the Department for Transport. The programme provides a wealth of knowledge to support industry action and decision making across a range of issues. Research is generally proposed by RSSB members and it can be undertaken in any area that supports the improved performance of the UK railway system.
In taking on board the formal involvement of core railway undertakings as well as opt-in membership of suppliers and manufacturers, RSSB is well placed to manage research that no individual company or sector can address on its own.
It therefore includes research covering ‘systems’ issues across the whole railway and the engineering interfaces within the railway, as well as the interfaces with other parts of the community. The programme is also instrumental in supporting the development of a future vision for the railways and assessing how that vision can best be delivered.
In a boost to the industry’s overall research capacity, DfT has recently announced a new strategic research programme, allocating its management and £15million of additional funding over five and a half years to RSSB. The Rail Technical Strategy represents long term challenges which require step changes in many areas, and the new strategic research programme is designed to support its delivery.
In facilitating a wide range of cross-industry groups and cooperation at various levels, combined with significant in-house technical expertise, RSSB is an efficient means of delivering the programme under one roof, saving the industry money.
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