RED 65: how can we improve safety at the PTI?

Good data comes from good reporting. Good reporting focuses action where it’s needed, and that’s exactly what happened back in 2010, when we reported a rise in risk at the platform-train interface (PTI). That led directly to a poignant dramatisation of the subject in RED 28 and eventually all the PTI work we’re familiar with today, including the existence of the cross-industry People in Trains and in Stations Risk Group (PTSRG) itself.

As Jenny Saunders, PTSRG Chair and Customer Services Director for Govia Thameslink Railway, says: ‘Given the combination nationally of aging infrastructure, diverse rolling stock and the financial challenges facing our industry, PTI risk management must continue to feature highly. We need to provide a customer experience that makes it easier for passengers to make safe choices. As an industry, we want passengers not to rush, not to travel under the influence of alcohol, to use the handrails, and heed our safety warnings.’

‘Trap and drag’ is still an issue, many people still believing that a hand in a closing door will see it reopen like a lift. RED 45 revisited that subject, but RED 65 picks up on Jenny’s theme, featuring a dramatisation of a young person falling between train and platform. They are intoxicated, the platform information isn’t clear to them, and a moment of distraction for the dispatcher leads to terrible consequence.

Thomas Anteh, a dispatcher with c2c, advocates avoiding distraction when dispatching trains. ‘This might mean restarting the dispatch process where necessary and using audible tools like whistles to aid me,’ he explains. ‘We need to target potential hazards and have the confidence to challenge unsafe behaviour such as cyclists and scooters being ridden on the platform.’

Tony Ellis, RSSB’s Principal Strategy Implementation Manager, Station Operations, reminds us that ‘we can all play a part in improving things by raising awareness to our customers, empowering our workforce to make positive interventions, and embracing technological advances that mitigate incidents’. 

For Peter Jukes, Senior Stations Ops Lead at MTR, one of the best ways ‘to address the risk is through the development and maintenance of non-technical skills, which focus on communication, situational awareness, teamwork and leadership – all essential for safe system operation’. 

By addressing all these issues, we can help improve safety at the PTI and start to reduce the risk for everyone.