Peer review: Ian Prosser
Director of Railway Safety, ORR
The article and the infrastructure report both highlight the extensive proposals to enhance the existing network, with transformational mega-projects such as Crossrail and High Speed 2.
It is very heartening for me to see the railway not just continuously improving its health and safety, but also developing and growing to take some big leaps into the 21st century through transformational projects - such as at King’s Cross, which is now completed.
However, while the railway gears up for enhancements, electrification and the large-scale projects, all of which are great news for the travelling public, I believe the critical issue is ensuring that the duty holders fully consider and secure ‘safety by design’ benefits at the very very early stages - in a complete and full sense, and not just bare minimum compliance with the requirements of the new Construction and Design Management (CDM) Regulations 2015.
I believe this will not only improve safety operation, such as in the case of stations safety design, it can also have a positive impact on cost reduction and the passenger experience.
This is not about “gold plating” - quite the reverse, in fact. This also includes the need to maintain the systems on an ongoing basis, as well as managing whole-life costs.
I am always struck by the example of the Shinkansen in Japan. This was designed as a complete system with safety uppermost in everyone’s mind right from the start, including managing future maintenance needs. So it has signalling systems that protect trains completely, enabling it to operate lightweight trains and minimise infrastructure and maintenance costs. The outcome is a railway that for 50 years has had a zero passenger fatality record (a performance that everyone else around the world aspires to) and high customer satisfaction and growth levels.
This has been achieved by looking at how the passenger is treated - from how they get to the station (including cross-model transport system integration) to how they are then treated in the station, to ensure not just safety, but also consistently great customer experience. Stations’ people flow and capacity are proactively optimised, minimising the number of platforms required, and hence capital costs. Key potential safety concerns, such as the platform train interface, are managed effectively.
In some of the industry projects, such as electrification, we as the regulator have seen a lack of ‘safety by design’ thinking at the very front end. Disappointingly, in some cases, it has been necessary for us to enforce, to try and ensure legal requirements have been met. Often these are at the basic, rather than the excellent level demonstrated by the likes of the Japanese.
So although it is very pleasing to see sustained strategic investment in Britain’s railways following decades of under-investment in areas such as electrification, it is very important that as an industry we make the very best of the opportunity to provide cost-effective developments that improve safety, efficiency and customer satisfaction. The way of achieving this is through ‘safety by design’.
