RED 64: time to take another look at depot safety

But safety can sometimes take a long time to build. In the early days of depots, personal accidents were frequent – from staff being struck by trains, to dropping heavy items on their feet, to all manner of slip, trip and fall injuries.

As technology developed and working practices improved over time, the fatality and injury rate has improved enormously. But that doesn’t mean we can afford to be complacent. The RED series has featured depot work before. In RED 17, we considered the risk to ground staff, specifically the role of the shunter. In the re-creation, the dangers of standing between moving rail vehicles was brought starkly to life.

Fast-forward a decade or so, and a specific Depot Working Group (DWG) had been set up through the Passenger Operators Safety Group. This recognised that more was needed to be done in line with the industry strategy, Leading Health and Safety on Britain’s Railway (LHSBR), which presented a strategic challenge that there was no clear industry-wide understanding of this area. 

In 2021, the DWG worked with the Rail Safety and Standards Board (RSSB) to develop a deeper understanding of train operator depot health and safety risk. The findings were presented in a Depot Safety Data Insights report, which offered the industry information on where to focus collaborative efforts to improve the status quo.

RSSB’s data showed a steady state of accidents and incidents in depots, which has meant the loss of one life every two-and-a-half years over the last 10 years. The data also confirmed a peak in the number of reported incidents at around 10am. RSSB’s Principal Strategy Implementation Manager, Darryl Hopper, makes this point in RED 64, our latest frontline-facing safety video, and the latest to look at depot safety.

The episode visits Ramsgate and Slade Green depots, discussing the development of the depot environment and the changing risk profile. It considers the recent fatality at Tyseley, while Infrastructure Safety Leadership Group chair Stuart Webster-Spriggs describes the issues that can arise in depot maintenance.

Depots are undeniably safer spaces than they were in 1850 and 1950. But to improve them even more for 2050, we need to keep the lessons of the past as we go on into the future.