Abstract
Workforce injuries still occur in the rail industry even though considerable amount of progress has been made since the early emergence of the railway. Workforce injuries can be encountered by all operatives working in the rail industry. However, there has been very little research undertaken of the trackworker role, and specifically concerning their health and safety when performing these responsibilities. Trackwork can take place whilst trains are running on an open line under the safety of lookouts who alert the workforce of oncoming traffic. Activities can also take place under possession scenarios where the lines are blocked to traffic and major works can occur using on track plant and engineering trains to restore track defects. A review of current literature displays that safety has improved over the years, but those specific to trackworkers need to be addressed. Further research was conducted through interviews with rail professionals working for a tier two rail contractor which provided an insight into the methods imposed to support trackworker safety. After analysis of the data, the solutions point to requirements for a new understanding of current safety methods to reduce workforce fatalities and incidents, as well as recommendation for more detailed research to be conducted in this field of study concerning trackworkers.
Introduction
The railway industry continues to be one of the most dangerous industries to work in due to the number of fatal accidents that occur year on year. Although, this number has decreased over the years – the Department for Transport has seen a 2.8% increase in safety incidents between 2019/20 involving over 6,000 passengers (Department for Transport, 2020). High risk activities occur mostly on site with railway workers ensuring renewals, maintenance and improvements are completed on the infrastructure. UK contractors remain to ensure safety is maintained on their sites and on the rail infrastructure.
The UK has made remarkable progress from its early days in the development of the rail infrastructure. In 1900 alone ‘over 16,000 workers were injured or killed’ (Railway Museum, 2018). Railway contractors viewed that worker’s had to protect their own safety compared to the current ages, where a whole division of Health, Safety, Quality and Environment (HSQE) has been adapted by contractors to ensure safety is met on their projects.
The Rail Safety and Standards Board (RSSB) annual reports state that the risk to track operatives completing work on track is three times the rail industry average (RSSB, 2005). These works can occur on track where trains are travelling up to a speed of 125mph and carrying electric volts of up to 25,000 kV. This has made the rail industry the second most dangerous sector to work in. In May 2022 the Rail Accident Investigation Branch (RAIB) reported a trackworker being struck by a train whilst carrying out track inspections. Due to being distracted – he was unaware of his surroundings and the layout of the rails may have disoriented him leading him into accessing onto an open line (RAIB, 2022). Construction activities on the railway consist of civils, track, signalling or telecoms work. This can include constructing a new bridge (civils), installing a new line (track) or electrifying the railway through overhead power lines (signalling and telecoms). All these disciplines either renew, enhance, or maintain the railway network.
The dissertation will investigate and compare methods of health and safety controls used on the UK rail infrastructure, whilst providing areas of improvement to ensure safety is critically met by UK contractors. This will create awareness for current contractors in the rail industry, as well as display the different methods used to ensure safety can be enhanced for fewer incidents on and off track.
Key themes such as health and safety culture, risk control, communication, individual factors, and continuous improvement will be explored (Clarke, 1998). Health and safety culture can be identified through an organisation’s beliefs and systems put in place, and risk control will be monitored through the various techniques provided to protect trackworkers. Communication will be discovered
through safety briefings and positive reinforcement from the strategic level of a business. The rail infrastructure is split into many different disciplines as named above; therefore, different methods will need to be adopted depending on the types of works involved. Continuous improvement techniques will be measured for their effectiveness by viewing how lessons learnt are implemented within a business.
Research Rationale
The purpose of this research is to demonstrate the current controls implemented by rail contractors to maintain safety on their sites and review these methods to observe how effective they are within the sector. Fatalities still occur across the rail network even with the many years of experience and lessons learnt we have had on the infrastructure. Railway operatives are a major asset to the network, as they provide maintenance and renewals of track infrastructure across the country. This in turn allows passengers to travel the country safely and quickly. Other issues on the infrastructure occur due to workforce mistakes or shortcuts created by workers to make certain tasks ‘easier’. But we do not know exactly why these decisions are made and this could be possibly due to the culture created within the company they work for. Reviewing health and safety methods by contractors may shed light to the positive and negative influences it can have on the workforce. A lot of emphasis is focused on protecting train drivers and associated train staff, rather than trackmen working on the lines.
Aim and Objectives
The aim of this research is to evaluate current health and safety approaches used within the railway industry, with a purpose to improve such methods through better recommended practice from the research outcomes. Hence – the following objectives to achieve are: