The Rail Safety and Standards Board Podcast – Details, episodes & analysis

If you’ve spent any amount of time in the rail industry, you’ll know it’s passenger services that most often grab the headlines. Meanwhile, rail freight takes the role of the ‘unsung hero’, quietly moving billions of pounds worth of goods across the country, contributing significantly to our economy and helping to ease congestion on our roads.  

But for all its importance, the rail freight sector faces a unique set of challenges—challenges that need to balance the imperative of safe operation with ambitious targets for growth.  

To better understand the barriers to freight safety and growth in the UK, dedicated research is absolutely key.  

Joining us for this episode is Luisa Moisio, our Director of Research at RSSB. We explore what’s behind the drive to improve freight safety and growth, how our research can help, and some of the ways our findings are already helping our members move more. 

In this episode, we're joined by Tom Lee, our Director of Standards at RSSB. 

We discuss specific challenges in safety and satisfaction for customers, how we’re helping industry overcome them, and what a renationalised network might mean for those we serve.

Find out more at: https://www.rssb.co.uk/our-business-plan

This is the third and final episode in our Rail Industry Road Safety Week miniseries.

This episode, we're joined by Rik Wenham, an investigator in the Commercial Vehicle Unit of the Metropolitan Police. Rik discusses the important processes of responding to and investigating road traffic accidents, covers how the police work with the parties involved, and shares advice on how best to manage occupational road risk. 

Content warning: This episode contains mentions of mental ill-health, suicidal ideation, and completing suicide. If you’d like to skip over this discussion, please jump from 02.26 to 04.25.

If you’re affected by this and need support, contact Samaritans on 116 123.

Find out more at https://www.rssb.co.uk/managing-occupational-road-risk

This is the second episode in our Rail Industry Road Safety Week miniseries.

This episode, we're joined by Jamie Mills, a Section Manager at Network Rail. He speaks with us about his experiences of managing an employee who experienced a road traffic accident in the line of work. Jamie discusses what he did in the immediate aftermath to support the employee and what came next to drive down future risk.

Find out more at https://www.rssb.co.uk/managing-occupational-road-risk

This is the first episode in our 2024 Rail Industry Road Safety Week miniseries. 

In this episode, we're joined by Dave Whelan, a train manager at GB Railfreight and someone who experienced a work-related road traffic accident. Dave speaks with our host, RSSB's Principal Health and Wellbeing Specialist Joana Faustino, about what led to the accident, his life in the aftermath, and what GBRf has done since.

Find out more here: https://www.rssb.co.uk/managing-occupational-road-risk

This month, we're speaking with Helen Costello, RSSB's Director of Business Management and Performance. 

She’ll be speaking with us about the biggest hurdles rail is facing at the moment, some of the solutions that RSSB has developed to help overcome these, and the value they’re generating for industry. 

Find out more at https://www.rssb.co.uk/strategic-business-plan-2024-29

This month we're joined by Vaibhav Puri, RSSB's Director of Sector Strategy and Transformation, to speak about the value of industry-wide collaboration for the rail sector.

As well as the benefits, Vaibhav touches on how RSSB facilitates this collaboration, what 'good' looks like, and some challenges and misconceptions. He also discusses the role that collaboration will play in innovation and creating a strong future for rail.

Find out more at https://www.rssb.co.uk/

We're joined this month by Johnny Schute, our Chief Operating Officer. Johnny speaks with us about RSSB's unique whole-system perspective and what that means for the GB rail industry. 

He touches on the value it generates, the efficiencies it enables, and how it helps us strive for safety while also ensuring cost reduction, revenue growth, and improved service reliability and resilience for our members.

Find out more at https://www.rssb.co.uk/our-business-plan

This month we're joined by Marcus Dacre, RSSB’s Head of Risk and Safety Intelligence.

He talks with us about the importance of having good quality health and safety data in the rail industry. Marcus also covers the work that got us to this point, what the future holds, and the improvements we're making to SMIS to aid better data capture. He finishes up with a discussion of some standout stats from our 2024 Annual Health and Safety Report.

Find out more at rssb.co.uk/risk-and-safety-intelligence

Welcome to another episode of the RSSB podcast! This month we're joined by Dougie Hill, who is Chair of the National Freight Safety Group. He talks about the freight landscape in 2024, what it'll take to safely meet the government's rail freight growth target, and what RSSB is working on to make this happen.

Find out more about the NFSG here: www.rssb.co.uk/national-freight-safety-group