And More Resources and Services

Standards

Standards help make a better, safer railway. Agreed by the industry, standards are developed and maintained by RSSB. They may be mandatory or optional, depending on type; and describe a common way of working for all railway undertakings in areas where they apply

• Railway Group Standards: contain National Rules, which are imposed by law.
• Rail Industry Standards: are optional, but where adopted must be used in full.
• Guidance Notes:
• Company specific briefings, communications and training support are available for all RGSs, RISs and GNs.

RGSs, RISs and GNs cover six specific areas: Control, Command and Signalling; Energy; Infrastructure; Plant; Rolling Stock and Vehicles; and Train Operations Management.

• The Consultation and Stakeholder Register: lists documents currently open for industry consultation.
• Deviations Register: a database of deviations submitted, approved, in force and withdrawn.

Research & Development

The government-funded, cross-industry R&D programme covers subjects that would be of benefit to the whole, or a large part of, the industry. Issues that would not be commercially viable for one company to investigate.

The research & development programme scope includes engineering, operations and management topics that aim to deliver reductions to industry cost and carbon footprint, increases in capacity and customer satisfaction, and improvements to safety management.

• SPARK: a knowledge sharing hub where the rail industry and other contributors can find and share information on research and innovation.

Training opportunities

• Accident Investigation Training: standard, advanced and refresher training courses for incident investigators working to RIS-3119. Online training and investigation support. [RM3 – MRA3]
• Human Factors Awareness Course for Incident Investigators: for people involved in undertaking incident and accident investigations in the rail industry. [RM3 –MRA3]
• Non-Technical Skills Awareness and Integration Course: courses, company briefings and refresher courses for people who need to cascade NTS training in their organisation.
• SMIS Business Intelligence Training:
• SMIS System Input Training

Keeping you informed

We produce regular information bulletins around the work we are doing to help deliver a better, safer railway.

• Level Crossing Digest: industry’s corporate memory for level crossing development and risk mitigation.
• Railway Legislation News: a web page with news and updates on emerging and evolving railway legislation and standards.

Human factors support

If you manage performance issues among your staff, RSSB’s human factors team can help. The RSSB team has many years’ experience in the rail industry and a broad range of supporting resources to address your high priority issues.

• Railway Action Reliability Assessment (RARA) Toolkit: a technique for human error quantification that will often be a component of human reliability assessment. [RM3 – OP2]
• Human Factors Good Practice Guide: industry-wide advice on what human factors advice can a non-expert apply.
• Human Factors Advice and Consultancy
• Non-Technical Skills On-line Training and Materials: [RM3 – OP1]
• Non-Technical Skills Guidance: a range of supporting materials to develop NTS for those in safety-critical roles. [RM3 – OP,OP1]
• Single company briefs on NTS [RM3 –OP2]
• Risk-Based Training Needs Analysis Toolkit: helps complete analysis of training needs, to support development of competence management systems. [RM3 – OP, OP1,OP2]
• Competence Development Guide: practical advice about managing and contributing to competence development activities. [RM3 – OP, OP1,OP2]
• Safety Culture & Behavioural Development Guide: practical information and advice on how to create a culture of continuous safety improvement. For more information, please get in contact with us.
• Safety Culture Toolkit: one-stop-shop for safety culture assessment, improvement and good practice exchange. [RM3 – SP4, OC1,OP1]

Events

• Non-Technical Skills Forums and Conferences: ongoing support for participants from Train-the-Trainer courses.
• Health and Wellbeing Conference

For more information on any of these events, please contact us.