Railtrack safety

The Railtrack Safety Case and those approved by Railtrack were not overly prescriptive in nature, but included a description of the activities undertaken, risk assessments of the hazards identified, analysed to an appropriate degree of detail, and descriptions of the control measures in force to... 

The HMRI had the power to reject Railtrack s Safety Case and to question Railtrack on issues within TOC safety cases that they had accepted. It is pertinent to state that as far as this author is aware, no TOC safety case issue accepted by Railtrack has ever been challenged by the regulator. However, the Safety Case has been used by HMRI to test for compliance after an accident, and as it is a legal document, to mount prosecutions on the basis of non-compliance. Railtrack Safety Standards has been carrying out safety case compliance audits as part of its own safety case commitments to control risks imported by TOCs, and HMRI can sample audit the Railtrack audits as a check on their thoroughness. 

Harrison 2000], A. Harrison and R. H. Pierce. Data Management Safety Requirements Derivation. Railtrack. West Coast Route Modernisation Internal report. June 2000. RAILTRACK PLC, London 2000... 

These accidents and their aftermath are credited with being the catalyst for more profound changes in attitude towards health and safety. This is explicitly acknowledged in the Chairman s foreword to Railtrack s first Safety Plan (1994/5) which pays tribute to the former BR Chairman After the tragic accidents at King s Cross and Clapham Junction it was he and his team who initiated profound changes in the way safety was managed on the railways (Railtrack, 1995 1). 

Institutionally, privatization replaced a unified vertical command structure with a complicated structure of some sixty independent businesses contracting with each other. Some of these had previous railway experience, others had none. The new structure separated the operation and the maintenance of the infrastructure from the operation of train services. At the centre of the new structure are the infrastructure controllers, the only widespread element in the new system (HSE, 1996 129) and important because they have been allocated central safety responsibilities (see below). Railtrack, which was set up in April 1994, is so far the only infrastructure controller and as such it owns and manages the track, signalling, and other operational infrastructure of the railways. The company is devolved geographically into ten zones. BR remains in operation to control those parts of the industry not yet privatized, so the company is effectively being slowly run down. 

The safety case is regarded as an increasingly important audit tool and of greater potential value than off-the-shelf safety audit schemes. Local managers are expected to undertake regular safety audits and are externally audited every three years. Railtrack s safety case is audited by its own auditors and also by the Railway Inspectorate, who assess Railtrack s procedures for auditing the train operating companies compliance with their safety cases (HSE, 1997 13 ff.). 

Railtrack has become the focus of increasing concern in debates about Britain s railways. The Railway Inspectorate and the trade unions have indicated their anxiety about the role of the company and so has the Commons Select Committee on the Environment, Transport, and Regional Affairs. This committee had been worried for some years by the safety arrangements on the privatized railway. It recommended in 1998 that transport safety regulation should... 

This additional report commissioned by the Deputy Prime Minister expressed concern that the safety and standards directorate of Railtrack was insufficiently distinct from the company s commercial interests and it recommended separation of the safety departments from commercial interests in the company (HSE, 2000c). This report was also critical of accountability in the new system and recommended that HSE should oversee Railtrack s safety operations much more rigorously and should take a much more active role in checking Railtrack s audits of network users. But beyond this it also recommended that HSE should take over some of the safety responsibilities currently held by Railtrack, in particular its responsibilities for accepting and auditing the safety cases of one group of network users, namely the train operating companies. 

Railway Group Safety Plan 1994/95, London Railtrack pic. 

Dennis C et al, (2001a). Railway Safety. Profile of safety risk on Railtrack controlled infrastructure. SP-RSK-3.1.3.11 Issue 1 January 2001... 

ATP, SPADRAM, and the Cost-Benefit Analysis of Rail Safety Michael Jones-Lee Commissioned by Railtrack, June 2000... 

Standards Directorate has been formed into a separate and subsidiary Railtrack owned company called Railway Safety . 

Finally, the third principle of safety risk assessment is the necessity of extensive use of Domain Specific Expertise. The systematic risk based approach to any undertaking has been developed within Railtrack PLC (now Network Rail) and has become a nationwide Engineering Safety Management guidance adopted by LUL and the whole of UK railways. The following are the key risk assessment principles (RSSB, 2007) ... 

RAILTRACK REPORT - Lucic I. (2005) ERTMS Safety Targets - report London... 

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