The path to a healthy, safe, affordable railway
Safety is a vital issue. It is an essential part of our 2024-25 member-driven annual business plan. The initiatives we've committed to this year will help industry meet its vision of striving for the healthiest, safest and affordable railway in the world.
Initiatives to drive rail forward
As we start the new financial year, we can't ignore the challenges that lie ahead. Our industry needs initiatives that can help with:
- Reducing costs
- Ensuring passengers are safe and satisfied
- Improving the network's reliability and resilience
- Increasing the safe growth in freight
- Adopting new technologies
- Delivering value to society and sustainability
In 2024-25 we deliver initiatives to support members address these issues. We will also focus on providing support for multi-system challenges through our new strategic multipliers. A combination of expertise to address important areas of overlap.
Prioritising a safer, healthier, and affordable railway
Focusing on member needs drives our approach to safety and health. Focusing on all parts of the industry, our initiatives will address the most pressing concerns faced by stakeholders. These include rail assets and their operation, employee safety, passenger safety, and freight safety.
Improving safety and resilience in rail operations
The safety and resilience of rail assets and operations is foundational, so we will carry out many important projects in this area. Perhaps the biggest is enabling the effective sharing of data about failures, faults, and defects.
Over the ten years, this is expected to have benefits of:
So its benefits are considerable. But there are other projects we're running in this area, like the management of dynamic risks associated with underline bridges and improving capabilities in modelling safety risks.
Employee safety is another crucial area so we will test a new method of monitoring driver alertness. We will also test a new method of monitoring driver alertness. We will help improve passenger safety by our work on the platform train interface, as well as hat on trespass and suicide prevention. We will improve industry's resilience to emerging public health threats. And safety also include freight safety. There is little point in helping freight growth if that growth isn't safe. So we will work with the National Freight Safety Group to prioritise projects that will reduce freight safety risk. And we will develop a data strategy that maximises the benefits of the Precursor Indicator Model for Freight. This is just a taste of what's to come.
True collaboration is the key to success
True collaboration, where we work together as a team, is the key. By sharing knowledge, and tackling challenges together, we can identify and solve issues, avoid redundant efforts, and boost overall effectiveness.
The vision is reflected in the Rail Health and Safety Strategy, a five-year strategy developed through extensive industry consultation. We're committed to supporting industry by providing data analysis, and tools to help them deliver their vision: the world's healthiest and safest affordable railway in the world.
But this requires commitment and action and hinges on industry working together. If you want to get more involved in improving safety, read the Rail Health and Safety Strategy to find out how.
See how we're tackling industry challenges head on. Read our 2024-25 Annual Business Plan.
Find out how you can contribute. Explore the Rail Health and Safety Strategy.