Railway (Railroad) Safety – a useful introduction for beginners

When flying or using the Railway (or Railroad) most people take safety for granted. This is for good reason; rail travel is one of the safest and most environmentally responsible ways to travel.

However, rail travel does carry safety risks that need to be controlled by rail infrastructure managers and train operating companies and the way they do it will vary in different countries. This article provides general insight on the most common railway safety risks for the benefit of non-rail sector safety professionals or others wishing to gain an insight of the industry.

When you think of rail safety, most automatically just think of catastrophic train crashes, but the management of safety is much more far reaching. Railway safety needs to consider the risk of injury to passengers, the operational teams that run, maintain, and improve the railway, plus members of the public who may interact with it. Let us look at each of these in turn.

Passenger safety risk

This mostly considers the hazards passengers could face at the station and when they are onboard a moving train.

When at a Station – This is straightforward. The need is to provide safe access and egress from the station to the train carriage. There are accidents, these are generally slip, trip and falls, often when passengers are using stairs and escalators (to cross between platforms) and on the main platforms. The risk is heightened when passengers run for trains, especially with luggage, so safety awareness campaigns and providing lifts really help. Another risk is when passengers get on and off (alighting) the train. There are instances where people fall into the gap between the train and platform. This risk is often known as platform / train interface (PTI). There are times when a passenger may also fall off an empty platform accidently or when wheeled items like pushchairs and wheelchairs could be pushed off by the wind.

There are other risks associated with stations including emergency management (i.e. fire, first aid), crowd control during busy periods (i.e. major events or during periods of service disruption), poor passenger to passenger behaviour (threat of violence) and the usual security threats that all public spaces need to consider.

On board a train - Once on board, the passenger may encounter minor general hazards in the carriage itself where there are no opening windows and accidents are rare and generally low risk (i.e. moving luggage or a dropped coffee).

The biggest risk they face and worry about is obviously a train collision. This could occur when a train makes contact with another train, other items like buffer stops at stations, hitting items left on the rail or by derailment when the train leaves the track. At this point, must stress these events are rare when you consider the amount of miles trains travel without any incidents (see first picture again verse other transport modes).

To reduce the likelihood of an accident the railway the industry aims to have good trains, signalling systems, infrastructure maintenance inspections, many safety procedures, plus operational, driver and signaller training in place to help reduce the risk.

However, despite this we do have occurrences of irregular working when something occurs that’s not planned or expected – possibly by system or human error that may cause events like wrong routings (this when a train is directed onto the wrong track). We also see trains pass through red signals, this is called a SPAD – signal passed at danger in the UK (or in US a stop signal overrun, Canada passing a stop signal). So many railways install automatic train protection systems in higher risk places to reduce the risk of a train collision. Why do trains pass through the signal? - this maybe because of signaller or driver error, due to faulty signals (sometimes called a signalling wrong side failure) or because other risks. Track adhesion (ability for the train wheels and rail to make good contact) can sometimes cause SPADs when they cannot stop in time on applying brakes before signals. In countries with trees, this risk could increase in autumn due the impact of ‘leaf’s on the line’.

Beyond this, we have the risk of derailment. This is when the train comes off the track due to a number of reasons. One could be infrastructure failure when there is damage to the rail. This could be the track points (the bits that move the train between tracks) or the track itself, like when the track buckles in excessive heat or when the rail breaks in the cold.

We might see ballast washouts (ballast is the small stones under the track with the sleepers) during flooding, or an embankment landslide that blocks the track, a failure of a bridge or bits of a tunnel or gantry.

We have further derailment risk due to having non infrastructure objects on the line, this can range from road vehicles that accidently crashes from an adjacent road or overbridge, flooding, animals entering the track (think of a herd of cows or camels), large trees falling onto and blocking the line, neighbouring sheds or trampolines in windy conditions, materials falling off freight trains or deliberate acts (like shopping trolleys or stones thrown on the railway).

Local neighbours also create potential hazards when they are doing things like building work or if they are unfortunate enough to have a lineside fire. All these risks need to be monitored and risk profiled so a number of controls can be introduced to reduce the likelihood of them happening; and when the risk is heightened (i.e. during storms) allow for additional controls to be temporarily introduced to reduce the potential impact.

We have a very big risk of the track being blocked at level crossings where bikes, cars, trucks, buses and even combine large harvesters can cross. Due to the significant risk of high-speed collisions at level crossings, they need addition protection and care; and in many countries specialist risk teams are employed to monitor and act in risk reduction work.

A further risk is a failure of the train itself (passenger or freight) that could see driver errors, decoupling of carriages or train faults like wheel failures.

Worker safety

To keep trains operating, the tracks, signals and all the other bits of infrastructure like bridges and tunnels need to be inspected, maintained, and eventually replaced. These means people need to go on or near the railway line. This carries significant risk of them of being struck by a train or by heavy items of on track maintenance plant they work close to. This is the biggest workforce safety risk the industry faces. Many countries, including the UK have ambitions to remove all people off track when trains are running.

The rail industry also has a large road fleet to help teams maintain, improve, and react to rail incidents. Road risk is generally the second biggest risk to people working in the industry as they need to drive many miles into remote locations. Another significant risk is electrified lines that have on the ground and/ or overhead conductors and risk of accidental contact with live conductors.

There are other industry specific hazards including the threat of violence to workers at stations and on-board trains, finger entrapment in moving points on track and the usual cross industry risks liked to fatigue (especially due to night working), slip, trips and falls and manual handling. Focus on occupational health (i.e. HAVS, noise, respiratory) and mental health and wellbeing continues to be a challenge also.

There are some shared hazards that can impact both the passenger and workers. An example is when major construction works are happening on or near the track. The risk of fouling the track by materials, equipment and the movement of heavy plant and their booms (like excavator buckets swinging around) need to be managed to prevent hitting passing trains.

Members of the public

Finally, the industry must manage the risk to members of the public who interact with the railway. We see heighten risk again at level crossings, by public trespass on the tracks and deliberate attempts by people to harm themselves.

Level crossings is a significant public safety risk consideration by the industry. This is because it is the only part of the railway where people are allowed to cross a live railway. And people have varying attitudes towards safety, physical and mental abilities, they may have limited understanding of railway risk, may be distracted on phones or walking dogs and may accidentally think its safe to cross when it is not. Many Railways seek to close crossing by installing bridges, underpasses or by road and path diversion. Where unable, these crossings are usually risk profiled so additional warning equipment, signage and other aids can help level crossings users cross safely.

Trespass remains an ongoing issue. For younger people and others, the railway looks an interesting place to explore and hang out so extensive fencing and railway safety programmes are required to prevent them getting hit by a train or being electrocuted. Enforcement action also aims to deter playing or other criminal activities (like spray painting or theft) on or near the line.

Sadly, many people use the railway for deliberate acts of harm like suicide. Programmes are available to reduce track access, support vulnerable people directly and improve general education on this for rail industry colleagues and others.

Safety Culture

Finally, the final consideration to run a safe, reliable railway for passengers, the workforce and members of the public is the need to collectively build and maintain a strong safety culture. Without this, all the controls, processes, tools, training and equipment designed to protect people will be exposed to failure.

So, whilst the above hazards are known and controlled, poor safety leadership and workforce, public and passenger safety behaviours will potentially end in a tragic outcome. So, it is an essential must that all safety programmes are built on a foundation of trust, as trust encourages people to report on safety, that gives knowledge, allows it to learn, and allows the railway to act and collectively make the railway safer.

I hope the above gives an insight and perhaps thoughts of a future career in the railways, where safety is everyone’s responsibility every day.

If you have any comments or special risks you manage in your own country that’s not covered, do drop it in the comments box. Thanks and stay safe and well.