Light Rail Safety and Standards Board

Established in 2018, the Light Rail Safety and Standards Board (Light Rail SSB) is committed to further improvements to what is already one of the safest forms of public transport

Drawing on experience and expertise from across the sector, it brings all aspects of light rail safety under one roof while providing a central resource where colleagues can access the latest guidance and standards documentation.

In a report published in 2022 on the organisation’s work to date, the Office of Rail and Road (ORR) said the Light Rail SSB is adding value to the light rail sector and supporting continued improvements in managing safety.

In assessing whether the Light Rail SSB is on track to deliver Rail Accident Investigation Branch (RAIB) recommendations that followed the fatal Sandilands derailment in 2016, the regulator also found that the organisation is providing guidance and tools to improve the sector’s understanding of risk.

At the heart of this approach is the development of an Integrated Risk Management Framework that has been developed in partnership with key stakeholders, including its members and statutory organisations such as the ORR.

It also incorporates a series of interconnected projects that run in parallel with each other to deliver a comprehensive platform that is already making a significant contribution to light rail safety.

Key elements of the framework include the continued development of a Tram Accident and Incident Reporting (TAIR) database, a pioneering online reporting system aimed at enhancing tram safety. As well as the integration of the ORR’s Risk Management Maturity Model (RM3) into the light rail sector.

Whilst all tramway and light rail services have different challenges and potential hazards, the TAIR database enables them to add their own data to the platform and contribute to the most comprehensive risk management tool developed for the light rail industry in the UK. With strong support from across the wider light rail community and funding from the Department of Transport, the LRSSB is also taking the lead on numerous research projects.

These initiatives have been fully incorporated within a sector-wide Risk Model and the introduction of new Bowtie Risk assessment database. Combined, these projects provide a continual development cycle that progressively drives down industry risk to as low as reasonably practicable (ALARP) levels.

LRSSB continues to support research and development projects in a number of important areas in particular in technology providing obstacle detection and avoidance systems. The initial results are promising for the UK light rail sector as the technology is now being utilised in Europe.

LRSSB is structured by the LRSSB Board which consists of the Chief Executive Officer (CEO), Non-executive Chair, 4 Bon-executive Directors, the Managing Director of UKTram and an ORR Observer. In May 2020, LRSSB appointed a new Chair, Sue Byrne, and a new CEO, Carl Williams, in October 2020.

The current management structure of LRSSB consists of a CEO, Administration Manager and Safety and Assurance Manager, with the intention to recruit further posts in safety engineering and data analysis. LRSSB has also been supported by UKTram colleagues during the year.

Case study

In Spring 2022, LRSSB was invited by Transport for West Midlands (TfWM) and Midland Metro Alliance (MMA) to conduct a compliance review of their processes against the Railways and Other Guided Transport Systems (Safety) Regulations (ROGS) to help ensure a safe and smooth handover of the multi-million-pound extension to West Midlands Metro to the operator, West Midlands Metro.

MMA utilised LRSSB’s BowTieXP software system to develop a comprehensive database of assessments as it prepared for the opening of extensions to Edgbaston Village and Wolverhampton Railway Station.

Named after the shape of graphics to illustrate its core principles, BowTie contains eight elements: hazard, top event, threats, consequences, preventive barriers, recovery barriers, escalation factors and escalation factor barriers.

KEY PERSONNEL

Chairperson: Sue Byrne

Chief Executive: Carl Williams

Administration Manager: Erica Pearson

Safety Assurance: Mark Ashmore

Head of Engineering Safety & Innovation: Craig O'Brien

Head of Commercial: Jamie Swift

CONTACT INFORMATION

Email: info@lrssb.co.uk

Visit: www.lrssb.org

Address: LRSSB, 16 Summer Lane, Birmingham, B19 3SD