Operational Safety

Railway operations is a generic term to define the collection of disciplines and activities associated with the safe preparation, despatch signalling and driving of trains. These activities are undertaken by members of the workforce in Network Rail, passenger operators, freight operators and infrastructure contractors and because their duties directly control the safe movement of trains, all such personnel are deemed to be safety critical. Employers are legally required to have in place management systems to ensure that all such employees are fit and competent to undertake their duties.

The rules, procedures and instructions used by the railway operational workforce have been developed and refined over many years and they include all necessary arrangements to deal with disruption, emergencies and unplanned incidents on the mainline rail system. In the railway operational community, such incidents are referred to as abnormal and degraded mode working.

A quarterly report is produced for the industry, which is available in the Safety Performance Reporting section.

Operations Focus Group (OFG)

The Operations Focus Group (OFG) facilitates the progressive improvement of operational safety through the understanding and development and promotion of justifiable and effective campaigns, programmes and tools.

OFG members are nominated by their relevant constituency groups and represent Network Rail, Train Operators, Freight Operators, Infrastructure Maintenance Companies, Trades Unions, Office of the Rail Regulator and London Underground.

The OFG has no statutory responsibilities, and aims to:

• Monitor industry performance in relation to operational safety and recommend changes to priorities and strategies.
• Understand the operational safety performance of the mainline railway system. Monitor the effectiveness of the link between the national initiative and the Network Rail facilitated Operational Risk Reduction and Mitigation (OPSRAM) groups. Identify and initiate activities to improve duty holder management of operational safety risk including identifying and sharing good practice across the industry.
• Scope the need for research and development including acting as the sponsor group.
• Sponsor improvement initiatives, programmes and tools to improve duty holder management of operational safety risk.
• Determine operations safety research and development priorities.
• Review and endorse industry trajectories with respect to operational risks included in the industry’s Strategic Safety Plan.
• Agree national priorities and strategies to be implemented to reduce the risk and mitigate the consequences of operational safety incidents including SPADs and voice communications.

OFG is facilitated by RSSB, the secretary is Susan Cassidy, Programme Manager, Operational Safety. Contact Susan by emailing susan.cassidy@rssb.co.uk or call 020 3142 5373.