A unanimous need

Safety is fundamental to a successful and sustainable railway, along with performance and value for money. The first passenger need, in the Great British Railways document, says ‘I need to be safe and feel safe,’ a sentiment loudly echoed by rail staff, freight customers, and government. Reducing the risk of rail accidents and incidents to ‘as low as reasonably practicable’ (ALARP) has been an overarching legal requirement since the 1974 Health and Safety at Work act, and the approach we follow ensures those decisions are rational and demonstrably compliant with ALARP. 

Accidents and improvements 

In the past, safety management was often reactive: major safety improvements typically followed major accidents and addressed a single cause. This led to important improvements in the way we design, build, and operate the railway. However, it could also result in disproportionate, knee-jerk responses and a narrow focus that failed to address more significant but less attention-grabbing sources of safety risk.

As the industry’s understanding of risk matured, including the investigation into the 1988 Clapham Junction accident, so did its ability to take a wider view and act in advance of accidents The Safety Panel introduced a more rigorous evidence-led approach so that safety investment could be prioritised where it was needed most, based on a robust understanding of the benefits. Important elements of today’s current risk and evidence-based approach to safety decision-making can be traced back to the improvements introduced by the Safety Panel. Actions that would affect different risks to different people in different ways could be evaluated on a common basis, ushering in a more holistic approach to managing safety. This led, among other initiatives, to substantial investment in safe walking routes for rail staff. The new measure of risk that combined outcomes of different severity evolved into the Fatalities and Weighted Injuries (FWI) metric that we use today. 

Taking safe decisions for a modern railway

By the mid-2000s, confidence in railway safety had again been shaken by a series of accidents and the subsequent collapse of Railtrack. Industry decision makers were under scrutiny and there was a concern that excessive risk aversion was driving unnecessary cost into the sector. The situation wasn’t helped by a lack of clarity over how to interpret legal terms like ALARP and how to provide assurance they had been met. This precipitated a major programme of research, engagement, and consensus building that resulted in the industry guidance document Taking Safe Decisions (TSD).

This framework sets out the essential stages of risk management and implementation: identifying the need to make a change, deciding what that change should be, making the change safely, and monitoring its impact. It can help to prioritise safety improvement, identify where to invest and where not to, and demonstrate compliance with legal obligations. Several key questions on good practice in decision making are also foregrounded:

  • What are your legal responsibilities for safety risk?
  • When should decisions be taken?
  • Who should take decisions?
  • How should decisions be taken?

Fast forward to today, and TSD principles are as relevant as ever for delivering a safe, efficient, and high-performing railway that is fit for the future. TSD incorporates recent legislative changes and developments in good practice risk management. Our Risk and Safety Intelligence team apply TSD to cross-industry problems and help our member companies use it when making safety-related decisions. 

Collaborating to improve safety and reduce cost

Risk management has come a long way but there will always be new techniques and innovations. For example, bowties have become an increasingly popular risk management tool in recent years and we have developed supporting resources. Digital transformation has the potential to bring about a step-change in risk management.

Collaboration across the industry remains invaluable. Sharing your data with us enables us to identify risks for the whole industry. Sharing your experience of using our tools enables us to improve them. Sharing your problems with us helps to keep our focus on the most important areas. All enable us to work together to reduce safety risks for the whole industry. 

This year we’ll be helping our members understand or refresh their understanding of key TSD principles, developing new user-friendly briefing materials, and supporting their application. This will support our members take decisions that meet business and legal requirements confidently. We’ll also continue to extend the risk and evidence-based approach to health as well as safety management, building on recent developments such as the Health and Wellbeing Index and company health dashboards.