In Britain we enjoy one of the world’s safest railways. That safety is built on a surprising foundation – numbers and data. When it comes to collecting and sharing safety data, Britain’s rail industry is uniquely co-operative. This is thanks to the impartial presence of RSSB, which co-ordinates data recording, analysis and reporting across our network.

We begin with information 

The data we use to build risk and safety intelligence comes from many sources. But there’s no doubt that the Safety Management Intelligence System (SMIS) provides more safety data than any other single source – around 80,000 safety-related reports each year. It’s designed to provide a platform for operators to openly share safety information, for the benefit of the whole industry.  

Originally set up in the nineties, SMIS is now owned and developed by RSSB. We’ve significantly updated the system to make it easier for frontline staff to use, and further increase its value to the industry. 

For some analysis we supplement SMIS with other sources of data: 

  • CIRAS, rail’s confidential safety hotline, captures safety concerns raised by individual workers
  • And external information, like climate and weather data, can stimulate even more analysis

Detailed analysis moves us forward

RSSB models like the Safety Risk Model (SRM) take vast quantities of sector data and turn them into a manageable picture – in this case, a network-wide view of risk. 

The SRM measures how often particular incidents are likely to occur, and how much harm they could cause. The latest version of the model can even focus on individual operators and locations. And RSSB’s recent overhaul allows users to spend less time on data entry, and more on analysis. 

That way we can offer even more value, using the SRM as a ‘base’ to inform other models like the Precursor Indicator Model (PIM), which tracks a range of accident precursors (events that must occur for an accident to take place). 

Intelligent application creates value

The industry sends data in; RSSB sends actionable intelligence back out. 

We put a huge amount of effort into creating and publicising intelligence that will help rail become safer and smarter. A recent success has been PRIMA (Proportionate Risk response to Implementing Mitigating speeds to Assets). The PRIMA decision support tool will help decision-makers prepare proportionate operational responses to adverse weather. 

Other pieces of data analysis have helped save the industry millions – for example, averting up to £50 million of spend on power doors that were found not to be cost-effective for reducing the risk of ‘tap and drag’ events.  

Intelligence everywhere

We know that safety intelligence has most impact when people can make use of it. So we distil the learnings from decades of data analysis into tools that can be used easily, throughout the industry. Bowtie Models, the Taking Safe Decisions Framework, even the industry standards that govern day-to-day operations: all benefit from RSSB’s work. 

We know that running the network will become more complex in the future. But by continuing to learn – and share our learnings – we can navigate change successfully.

For more about RSSB's risk and safety intelligence activity, visit https://www.rssb.co.uk/safety-and-health/risk-and-safety-intelligence.