Right Track 42: Corporate memory, depot safety, and mental wellbeing

Take Paisley Gilmour Street. When it happened in 1979, Jim Callaghan was still the Prime Minister (for a month more, at least). What relevance can it have today? The accident happened because a driver took power after the guard had given the ‘Right Away’. The train passed the platform signal at danger and struck another up ahead. Both drivers and five passengers were killed.

Our Train Protection Digest, and Episode 49 of our RED safety videos for the operational front line, show how we’ve mitigated against SPADs more effectively since then. Yet these train dispatch incidents continue to happen. They also encapsulate a particular error type and are being looked into by the People on Trains and in Stations Risk Group. That’s why Paisley Gilmour Street features in our latest issue of Right Track (42) and is our Lesson No.1. Asset integrity is No.2.

Our railway is becoming more digital, but the wrongside failure that led to a derailment at Dalwhinnie in 2021 was caused by a wiring error the like of which can be traced back to the Clapham accident of 1988. That’s why Dalwhinnie is our RAIB report brief, and why the Asset Integrity Group is striving to look to the past as it looks to the future.

Depots too have a long history, as the recently released Episode 64 of RED demonstrated. In Right Track 42, we explain some of the current challenges, the focus of the Depot Working Group and our recent data insights project, which showed that one life every two-and-a-half years has been lost in a depot over the last decade. We know there’s more to do, and that will be steered by more information. Accordingly, Lucinda Neal, of CIRAS, asks if depots could be made healthier and safer by reporting any concerns through company channels or the confidential safety reporting service.

Elsewhere, Marianna White, one of our Engagement Managers, reports on an excellent new ‘Campaign Comic’ initiative from Serco Caledonian Sleeper. The subject is mental wellbeing, an issue close to many, and one we have considered several times before. Indeed, the Railway Mental Health Charter has just received its 100th signature. You can learn more about how mental health affects the railway in Episode 52 of RED, and Episode 63, which deals more specifically with bullying in the workplace.

Finally, Right Track 42 also looks at SPADs and the incidents that can lead to them, the horrors of trespass and the effects it can have on all involved, and how we go about producing and updating the Rule Book. It’s all here, because the railway is all these things and more.