SECURITY & PASSENGER SAFETY
to call the Samaritans or posters to high- light the service to people in distress. Ad- ditionally, staff at these stations are receiv- ing training in basic counselling and how to look out for people who show signs that they are inclined to commit suicide.
Jack commented: “Curing suicides is not something that the rail industry is re- sponsible for or can realistically do. But mitigating the effects, discouraging people, is something the rail industry feels it can make some impact on.
“The real consequence that the railways see is delay to passenger trains and the real trau- ma that the drivers on the trains involved go through. Some never drive again and many need significant amounts of time off.”
Fatalities due to trespass is a “societal is- sue” Jack said, and added: “There are many places where people choose to put them- selves at risk rather than going slightly lon- ger routes over bridges or crossings.”
The risk mainly lies with people trying to get to places by taking dangerous short- cuts, and where there are high levels of this behaviour, the railway can then invest in better quality fences or a stricter attitude to prosecution to combat this.
Deliberately dangerous
Taking a harsher line with offenders is something that is also helping to reduce misuse, and therefore danger, at level crossings.
Level crossings remain a significant area of risk with a number of people in cars or on foot either willfully or inadvertently misusing crossings, putting themselves at risk. As Jack said: “Some of those lead to accidents and often those accidents involve fatalities.
“What can the industry do about it? Net- work Rail has a regular programme of risk assessment where they consider whether the number of trains or the number of vehi- cles going over level crossings has changed significantly. If it has gone up it might be justifiable to upgrade the level crossing; to put in barriers and in some cases to close the crossing and put in an over-bridge. Those measures can help to reduce the risk.”
Jack said he believes that around half of level crossing misuse is deliberate, with people driving around barriers, and this is something the industry is working to discourage. Campaigns such as Interna- tional Level Crossing Awareness day, now a
Network Rail has also included a “very substantial amount of money” in its Initial Industry Plan for CP5, 2014-2019, to upgrade many more level crossings, with a target of reducing this risk by 50%.
Factors for the future
While risk as a whole has been reduced, maintaining this level of safety is just as important for the rail industry. Jack stated: “Everyone needs to keep vigilant. The fact that no-one has been killed in a train accident in the last five years doesn’t mean that all risk has disappeared. We continue to have events, some of which could become more serious.
“The industry’s going through a fairly
“The most expensive thing you can do is to have an accident and the cheapest thing you can do is to run very efficiently, punctually and reliably – and that delivers improved safety.”
Anson Jack
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www.rssb.co.uk
rail technology magazine Feb/Mar 12 | 69
Jack said: “You don’t want people to mis- use crossings. But if they do and are seen to be prosecuted effectively – more than a slap on the wrist – that helps to deter peo- ple in the future.”
world-wide event, can help to raise aware- ness of the dangers of misuse.
The increase in co-operation between Net- work Rail, British Transport Police, the highway authorities and the Magistrates’ Association is helping target this problem more effectively and ensuring the criminal justice system takes a more serious attitude to transgressions.
significant period of change; franchises are changing, the relationship between Network Rail and the franchises is changing, they are getting closer together. All of those things should help continued improvement in safety but as you go through change there’s the risk of taking your eye off the ball.”
Jack said that so far, Network Rail and the train operating companies involved were managing potential risk professionally, by seeking support from organisations such as the RSSB and independent safety assessors to identify the sorts of risks that could arise.
The other challenge, one with the highest profile for the industry, is to reduce overall running costs, as set out by the McNulty review, which the Government is set to formally respond to with a DfT command paper this year. Jack believed that most people working in rail had accepted that action must be taken to reduce costs.
He concluded: “It’s traditionally described that you have to trade off between profitability and safety, but we don’t see it that way. A reliable railway running on time is a low-cost railway.
© Ed Schipul
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