Continued focus on industry improvement required to ensure ongoing safety of Britain’s railways

The UK Office of Rail and Road (ORR) has published its Annual Report on Railway Health and Safety performance which shows passengers on the mainline railway continued to be assured of a safe journey on Britain’s railways. However, ORR identifies challenges which must be carefully managed if passengers and workers are to continue to be protected. On the mainline railway, there were several significant structural and earthwork failures, any of which could have resulted in potentially serious train accidents.
July 21, 2017 Read time: 2 mins

The UK Office of Rail and Road (ORR) has published its Annual Report on Railway Health and Safety performance which shows passengers on the mainline railway continued to be assured of a safe journey on Britain’s railways.  However, ORR identifies challenges which must be carefully managed if passengers and workers are to continue to be protected.

On the mainline railway, there were several significant structural and earthwork failures, any of which could have resulted in potentially serious train accidents.  The report notes some sites are very vulnerable to failure in bad weather, especially cuttings and retaining walls. ORR is monitoring 5021 Network Rail to ensure lessons are learned from recent incidents and that the deferral of any renewals is managed safely.

ORR’s continuing campaign to persuade companies to incorporate ‘safety by design’ procedures has achieved real success on the Crossrail and High Speed 2 projects and is starting to be taken up among current railway operators.

Operational and technological developments are changing Britain’s railways and ORR is pressing the industry to adapt quickly to meet the health and safety challenges posed by those changes. ORR has published guidance intended to help companies meet health and safety requirements and is pleased to note that it’s Leading on Health and Safety on Britain’s Railways guidance, which commits firms to collaborate on resolving priority risk areas, is becoming widely adopted.

Progress has also been made on ORR’s occupational health programme, including securing agreement with the Rail Principal Contractors Group on the management of Hand Arm Vibration risks and producing a video stressing the importance of occupational health.

For more information on companies in this article

Related Content

  • Excessive lighting is safety issue
    May 21, 2012
    A UK-based group has set up an Internet-based petition to tackle the safety issue of drivers being dazzled by lights from other vehicles. The organisation, Lightmare, is the combination of two road sector groups that have campaigned against the improper use of vehicle lights in daytime and against the particular hazard posed by high intensity xenon lighting. The issue is a key one as there is a move towards all EC nations requiring the use of daytime running lights on vehicles. At present only a few Europea
    Read More
  • EBRD investment to modernise Serbia's railways
    March 15, 2012
    The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) is continuing to support the modernisation of Serbia’s transport infrastructure and promote further reform of the rail sector with a sovereign-guaranteed loan of up to €95 million (US$125 million) to the Serbian Railways company.
    Read More
  • Quality public transport systems key to safety, says report
    February 9, 2015
    A new report, Traffic Safety on Bus Priority Systems, produced by Embarq with funding from Bloomberg Philanthropies, argues the case that investment in high quality public transport systems in developing world cities can help achieve significant traffic safety benefits, while meeting the growing mobility needs of city residents. According to the World Health Organisation (WHO), over 1.2 million people die on the world’s roads each year, and traffic crashes could become the fifth leading cause of death by
    Read More
  • Improve and increase mass transit systems to minimise congestion
    January 24, 2012
    Rather looking to solve congestion by spreading the load, perhaps we need to look at concentrating it. Michael L. Sena writes. We humans were made to walk and run at embarrassingly slow speeds by comparison with other, more fleet-footed organisms. The sea is not our natural habitat and we were definitely not designed to fly unaided. Nevertheless, humankind has evolved a method of living during the past century that is dependent on transporting its members over very long distances during relatively short per
    Read More

Highlighted Content