The Rail Safety and Standards Board Podcast

As RSSB celebrates its 20th year, this episode looks at the work that it has done to  help improve safety at level crossing, one of the biggest sources of risk for the railway.  00:57 About Michael Woods 02:00 The Ufton level crossing accident described 03:32 How Michael got RSSB involved 04:56 RSSB directors brief ministers and help secure RSSB’s future independence 05:54 Looking at new technolog...

Finding the right people to fill vacant roles can be difficult. Steve Womack of Amey Infrastructure Wales talks about how he has found workers with transferable skills. He's also contributing social value to his local area by employing ex-offenders.  Hear about lessons from a steep learning curve and the benefits to be found. 01:41 About Steve Womack 02:31 Getting involved with the Pathway Pr...

The Rail Accident Investigation Branch does what it says on the tin. It looks at both accidents and incidents to find their underlying causes. No blame is laid, but recommendations for mitigations are made; some of which may be around organisational culture. Here, two of RAIB’s accident investigators talk about a company’s safety culture, learning opportunities, and how the two work together to de...

This is the first in a series on specific health conditions. In this episode, recorded in Prostate Cancer Awareness Month, an RSSB employee talks with one of our health and wellbeing specialists about his experience of diagnosis, and the support received during treatment.  00:43 About Deb Archibald 01:04 About Tavid Dobson and discovering his cancer 02:05 Tavid talks about his treatment options 02...

Colds, flu, and other respiratory illnesses always increase over the winter period. That list now includes Covid-19, which is still with us. So, how can we best protect ourselves from it and the others in the coming weeks and months? Claire Shooter, our Public Health Manager, explains what we can expect and do to stay as healthy as possible. 00.44 Claire explains when and why there are peaks in re...

Standards are talked about very often within rail, so this podcast provides an introductory overview. It describes what standards are, when rail started using standards, what the different types of standards abbreviations mean, how standards development is triggered, and where to find out more.    00:37 Introducing Tom Lee, Director of Standards at RSSB 01:47 Brief definition of standards 03:17 Wh...

The railway is a very complex system. RSSB has developed tools for the industry to assess and target some hazards, but not all of them. Much of our risk analysis knowledge is based on the Safety Risk Model (SRM), now in version 9. One response to some identifiable hazards is to impose a blanket speed restriction. These can cover wide areas, and may themselves actually increase some types of risk....

Achieving net zero carbon by 2050 will need more electrification of the GB railway. This episode looks at new and updated standards that don’t just make the requirements easier to understand. They also have the potential to deliver cost savings of well over £27m over five years. So, if you design OLE or AC-powered trains, you’ll want to listen to this episode. 01:24    About Mike Tatton 02:14    H...

Overspeeding isn’t just an issue when driving trains. It happens on the roads as well. With nearly 10,000 road vehicles in its fleet Network Rail took steps to put numbers to it, and the findings were alarming. Hear what’s being done to tackle the problem and the outcomes so far. 00.48   About Simon Morgan 04.04   A definition for and consequences of road overspeeding. 05.15   The proportion of in...

Good decision making needs the support of good data. So, in this episode you can hear about the work that goes into assuring data quality, and the people behind it. 00:46 Introducing Siona Vass 01:43 About data quality and why it’s important 03:29 How RSSB measures data quality 04:26 Industry’s involvement in improving data quality 06:15 Continuous improvement and when data quality is ‘good enough...

SMIS is celebrating its 25th anniversary in 2022. Hear something of its history, its reason for being, and what it has done for our industry. How SMIS supports risk modelling and safety decision making.  00:48  Introducing Kevin Thompson 01:16 The origins of SMIS after the 1988 Clapham rail crash 02:39  How SMIS functionality and technology have developed 03:34  The components that make up SMIS to...

Good information makes for good, evidence-based, safety critical decisions. Much of that information comes from data in the railway’s Safety Management Intelligence System, SMIS. This podcast looks at what’s being done and planned to make it easier and more efficient to use.   01:34 A bit about Paul Murray 01:58 About SMIS and how it is used 02:56 Why we continually improve and simplify SMIS 03:36...

Assets are everywhere. They are the things, physical and digital, that make up the systems we work with. When they work as designed and planned, to meet their objectives, the people who manage them go un-noticed. But these are the people who keep the risk of using them as low as reasonably practicable. 00:56 Chris Knowles, an introduction 02:07 Asset integrity and why it’s important 03:42 The whol...

Safety Culture is everybody's business. In the first of a new series Ellie Burrows, Chair of the System Safety Risk Group, talks about the role of leaders in embedding safety culture. She describes the need for a fair culture and how that works to support safety learning. 01:43 Ellie Burrows, an introduction 02:20 What Safety Culture means to Ellie 03:54 Ellie’s role in leading and supporting...

RSSB’s work with BowTie risk analysis has made it easy to visualise operational hazards, their precursors and mitigations. At LNER they’re applying the method in a novel way, to develop a corporate risk register. To identify the hazards faced in running a train operating company. 01:29 Introducing Ian Baulch-Jones 02:55 Ian recaps risk analysis and how BowTie analysis works 04:58 What LNER is doin...

Not just a certificate for the wall, but a seven step guide for how to support your employees and colleagues towards better mental health. 00:00 A little bit about mental health at work 01:47 Meet Faye Bacon 02:14 About the Railway Mental Health Charter 02:42 How the Charter helps companies support mental health 03:28 Action 1, the importance of senior leaders’ support 04:45 Action 3, increasing a...

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 investigator 02:55 Gill offers a definition of an RTC 03:40 Why start your investigation in the Golden Hour 04:45 The five stages...

On the railway the state of the track that trains run on is vital to the safety of passengers and crew. It needs to be monitored and maintained regularly. But in the late 1990s that wasn’t always happening. And in October 2000, that led to a derailment that caused 4 deaths and injured over 70 more. 00:37 What happened at Hatfield 02:18 What causes rails to break 03:30 What led to the accident 05:4...

If road traffic collisions cause as many as half of the fatalities to our workforce, why aren’t they RIDDOR reportable? Fortunately, few collisions have fatal results. But that means close calls and near misses must be investigated seriously, to prevent the next incident, that may be more serious. When a collision happens: Who is responsible? Was the driver competent? Was the vehicle safe? What po...

One of the railway’s aims is to deliver better customer service. Much of the operating timetable is set many months in advance. But there is also a need to make very-short-term plans (VSTP) for train paths. Sometimes just hours in the future. PathFinder aims to be an end-to-end solution for VSTP that can design, deliver, approve, and resource a new train path. In far less time than is currently po...

Learning from… previous experience is vital. But unless we keep and communicate what we learn, the memory is lost. As Right Track magazine celebrates its 10th anniversary, we look at why and what it delivers for those who work at the front line on the railway. 00:48 Why Right Track was created 01:25 How Right Track set out to stand out from the crowd 02:23 Some of the ‘firsts’ that Right Track bro...

We can learn a lot from accidents. As we try to avoid history repeating itself, Greg Morse looks back at the Potters Bar accident of 20 years ago. What went wrong? What have we learned? 00:36 What happened at Potters Bar. 02:28 The errors that led to the accident 04:19 The blurred edges of maintenance programmes 05:38 How we now respond to safety reports, including from the public 08:08 Summary an...

As it has accounted for as many as half of our workforce fatalities, road driving is an important area for risk management. Both as employers and contractors of services, rail organisations have a duty of care to those who work for them. Part of the Road Risk Group’s strategy for reducing road driving risk is to implement the National Highways programme Driving for Better Business (DfBB). And that...

Small talk does save lives, as Dom Mottram found out when it saved his life. Now a project manager at Network Rail, he talks about how someone helped him with small talk, and how he now pays that back. 00:04 Introduction 01:27 A bit about Dom 02:00 Samaritans work with the rail industry in the last year 04:05 The 2021 Small Talk Saves Lives campaign—how the rail industry benefits and supports it 0...

Christmas is a time for many to celebrate with family and friends. But for others it can be a time of isolation and despair. It's a time when Samaritans can be called on to shed some light in a dark place, or we can make an intervention with someone for whom small talk could save their life. When you could be that Christmas Star. In this episode we hear from two people: one who works for Sama...