In this episode Simon Turner, Campaign Manager for Driving for Better Business (DfBB), talks about what DfBB aims to do to help reduce road accidents, injuries and deaths. One of the tools DfBB has produced is a Gap Analysis Tool. Simon talks about what it can do to help rail industry companies to identify whether they are meeting legal requirements, and to better manage road driving risk.00:52 Driving for Better Business, its objectives, some benefits, and legal requirements.02:3...
Only when we investigate can we understand. Incidents while driving for work can have fatal or life-changing results, so we need to investigate to find ways to stop incidents repeating. Here’s what’s needed for an effective investigation. 01:58 About Gill Milner, RTC investigator02:55 Gill offers a definition of an RTC03:40 Why start your investigation in the Golden Hour04:45 The five stages of the investigation05:37 How to debrief a driver07:35 How the driver may have added to the cause...
The significant trends in safety risk from 2022-2023, and what's being done to keep our railway one of the safest in the world.01:19 About Robert Sigrist01:55 The work of the RSSB Risk and Safety Intelligence Team02:55 The significant safety findings for 2022-202304:03 Changes in public behaviour, trespass and sitting on the platform edge05:09 The trend in signals passed at danger06:16 Issues around asset integrity, the whole system risk model07:20 So...
Rail has been the most environmentally-friendly form of long distance transport for many years, and now needs to reduce its carbon emissions even further. George Davies, director of sustainability at RSSB, and Martin Watt, counsel at global law firm Dentons, discuss the challenges and opportunities of net zero carbon for rail.
Joana Faustino, Work Psychologist at RSSB, talks about the feelings we might be experiencing and some coping strategies for the pressures that we are facing.01:00 Possible effects of the lockdown on your mental health.03:10 Acknowledging your emotions.04:12 How are news reports affecting you?04:55 Managing worry.07:09 Managing difficult situations.09:30 Physical and mental health working together.10:40 Keeping a routine.12:28 Getting help from others.13:30 Identifying and solving problems.15:...
Trevor Parkin of East Midlands Railway and Chris Harrison of RSSB talk about what the rail industry is doing to reduce the number of signals passed at danger, and so the likelihood of a potentially fatal train accident.01:25 About Trevor Parkin.02:10 About Chris Harrison.02:35 SPADs in the 1990s and the changes made since.03:53 The Train Protection and Warning System (TPWS).06:07 Optimising the safety benefit of TPWS.07:59 The Red Aspect Approaches to Signals (RAATS) Tool.12:32 How to reduce ...
This podcast looks at the part that CIRAS, the Confidential Incident Reporting and Analysis Service, contributes to the continual improvement of safety management for the railway and other transport systems.In this episode Catherine Baker, director of CIRAS, talks about how the confidential reporting service works—the types of incidents and reasons for calls, and examples of the results that CIRAS achieves. She also talks about what CIRAS does to maintain confidentiality, and how the se...
In this episode Dougie Hill, Head of National Freight Strategy & Policy at Direct Rail Services, and Geoff Spencer, former CEO of DB Cargo (UK), talk through the challenges to get competing companies to collaborate. Their work in the National Freight Safety Group (NFSG) has led to the Freight Integrated Plan for Safety.00:50 About Dougie Hill.01:50 About Geoff Spencer.02:45 Freight sector risk reduction in 2016.03:40 Practicalities of getting competing companies to collaborate.05:00...
In this podcast Sara Sherrard and Tom Moran talks about failings in customer care and the improvements implemented after Sara's mother suffered a fatal accident at Mill Hill Station.Sara Sherrard's mother, Priscilla Tropp, died following a fall down a station staircase. Tom Moran is now the MD at Thameslink and Great Northern Railways. Sara describes her experience as she learned the details of her mother's accident, treatment and what happened around the Coroner's Inquest. Tom talks about hi...
In this podcast Dr Emma Taylor, former rocket scientist and chartered mechanical engineer, talks about how the changing railway and increasing number of digital components will start to blur the lines between rolling stock and infrastructure design and build. And how it will be increasingly beneficial to have software engineers and cyber security specialists in teams.Emma has been talking to stakeholders across the rail industry about what keeps them awake at night. And it turns out to be the...
In this first podcast about trespass, Oliver Bratton, Director Network Strategy and Operations, Louise McNally, Trespass Prevention Lead, at Network Rail, and Inspector Becky Warren, of the British Transport Police, talk about the human, safety and operational impacts of trespass on the railway.They talk about its human costs, as a result of fatalities and life-changing injuries. On the family and friends of those whose lives are altered or taken, and on those who witness the traumatic ...
In this episode Jason Alexandre of Samaritans talks about the Samaritans' partnership with Network Rail and the rail industry to reduce the number of suicides on the railway. Customer experience manager Rizwan Javed talks about how the training gave him the confidence to intervene, and then tells the story of just one of the 29 life-saving interventions he has made.01:19 About Jason.01:57 About Rizwan.03:22 Samaritans' partnership with the rail industry.05:15 Talking numbers, and the su...
In this episode Dr Emma Taylor talks about the 'NIS Regulations', what they mean for the industry and about what the industry needs to do to comply with the regulations. She looks at who should be concerned, and what we need to do to demonstrate compliance and avoid fines of up to £17m. What to do until we have a good body of precursors to digital incidents; and what aspects of operations should be considered as safety critical.01:44 Who should be aware of the NIS Regulations, and why.07:20 W...
In this episode, Dr Emma Taylor talks about the human aspects, the culture change that will be needed to address digital safety threats. The need for traditional design engineers to broaden their sphere of thinking, and to bring others into design conversations. Emma also talks about the need to start thinking about reasonably foreseeable scenarios. For us all to start thinking about what could go wrong when you consider the digital components within your physical assets.ISO 61357...
In this second podcast about trespass, Walt Cartwright, of DB Cargo UK, and Simon Martin, Route Crime Manager at Network Rail, talk about the practical sides of assessing trespass risk and putting prevention measures in place.Walt talks about the benefits of the new guide and the consistency it can bring to understanding how to assess trespass risk. How it will increase understanding of how to judge when that risk has been reduced to 'as low as reasonably practicable'. Simon talk about the re...
In this third podcast about trespass, David Whitmarsh, acting Principal Inspector of Railways for Scotland, talks about the ORR's expectations of the industry when it comes to trespass prevention.He talks about why the ORR might decide to prosecute a railway company rather than the trespasser, and how the level of fines is calculated by the courts. What the ORR would consider to be 'good and sufficient [fences] for today's railway'; and how the new guidance on trespass risk assessment will he...
In this fourth podcast about the impact of software failures on railway asset safety Dr Emma Taylor talks about the causes of the Cambrian Line Incident. Failures both of the software system and of the processes during development, testing and implementation. Also, about the industry's response to recommendation 3 in the RAIB report on the incident.01:04 The Cambrian Line Incident described.01:52 How the European Rail Traffic Management System works and what went wrong.03:39 How this failure ...
In this fifth podcast about the impact of software failures on railway asset safety, Dr Emma Taylor talks about the causes behind an accident that happened during testing on a city metro system. Checks from the V-model that should have been applied during the development, testing and implementation of the complex, software-based system.02:04 Using the V-model to verify and validate the integrity of safety-critical software systems.03:10 The signalling failure incident and the major changes th...
In this sixth podcast about software failures in safety-critical systems, Dr Emma Taylor talks about an incident that happened in 2014 during normal working of the National Air Traffic System. We look at what went wrong, and how good recording and documentation at each stage in the V-model allowed a complete shutdown of the air traffic control system for southern England to be quickly reinstated—without any harm to the thousands of passengers in the air.02:05 The incident and its impact on pa...
In this episode I talk with RSSB's recently appointed Director for Sustainable Development, George Davies, about his vision for a new Rail Sustainability Strategy. He also talks about his plans for how to collaborate with industry colleagues to agree, implement, and communicate the strategy and the progress it achieves.00:55 The broad scope of sustainability, its definition, and its primary elements.02:59 How Sir David Attenborough ignited his passion for the environment.04:19 Pandemics as a ...