All RSSB articles
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Rail Business UKGuidance on traction power changeover locations updated
UK: The Rail Safety & Standards Board has updated industry standards and the Rule Book to include requirements and guidance for locations where multi-mode trains switch between external electric power and internal sources such as diesel or battery.
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NewsAI, robotics and novel rail vehicles in RSSB business plan
UK: The Rail Safety & Standards Board includes a focus on digital transformation to help the industry embrace new technologies in its Annual Business Plan for 2025-26.
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Rail Business UKRunaway Risk Tool enables site-specific safety measures
UK: The Rail Safety & Standards Board has developed a Runaway Risk Tool to identify locations where the track conditions or gradient could cause rail vehicles to move away from worksites, and which sections of track would be vulnerable if they did. The tool uses high-resolution ...
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Rail Business UKUpskilling for a rapidly evolving rail industry
UK: Two more training courses have been launched by the Rail Safety & Standards Board. One will help frontline rail workers develop leadership skills for a ‘dynamic and complex’ environment, and another is aimed at equipping operational decision-makers with the skills to make rational choices under ...
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Rail Business UKRail industry guidance aims to increase reporting of work-related violence
UK: The Rail Safety & Standards Board has published a report with guidance and practical tips on how to ensure work-related violence is properly reported within an organisation. It was developed following consultation with the Work-Related Violence Group led by the Rail Delivery Group and chaired ...
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Rail Business UKEnhanced toolkit aims to reduce SPAD risk
UK: In late spring the Rail Safety & Standards Board is to launch an enhanced version of a toolkit designed to reduce the risk of trains passing a signal at danger. Originally launched in 2019, the Red Aspect Approaches to Signals toolkit uses signal status and ...
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Rail Business UKScenarios developed to help the rail industry plan for climate change
UK: The Rail Safety & Standards Board has developed a standardised set of climate change scenarios to enable the industry to take a consistent approach to risk assessments, asset design and strategic planning. The projections based on different scenarios for greenhouse gas emissions set out how ...
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Rail Business UKRailway time and date standard issued
UK: The Rail Safety & Standards Board has released a standard promoting the wider use of Coordinated Universal Time and the consistent formatting of date and time values across the railway network. This aims to help the industry combine and analyse data, specify new systems and ...
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Rail Business UKColour blindness testing change opens rail jobs to more people
UK: More people with colour blindness will be able to work in safety critical railway roles such as train driving as a result of research undertaken by the Rail Safety & Standards Board at the request of drivers’ union ASLEF. The Ishihara test commonly used to ...
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Rail Business UKTrain driver psychometric assessment standard updated
UK: The Rail Safety & Standards Board has updated the standard related to psychometric assessments in train driver selection, to provide greater clarity on the process and validity of psychometric tests and to increase the number of attempts that can be made at passing from two ...
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Rail Business UKResearch identifies carbon emissions in the railway supply chain
UK: The Rail Safety & Standards Board has undertaken ‘groundbreaking’ research to identify causes of carbon emissions within the complex supply chain, which it says accounts for approximately half of the rail industry’s greenhouse gas emissions. The ‘hotspots’ include materials such as concrete and steel, as ...
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Rail Business UKAI tool for wagon wheelset condition monitoring
UK: A Wheelset Intervention Support Tool which uses predictive AI to identify problems before they lead to damage and disruption is being trialled by the Rail Safety & Standards Board and freight operators. The tool uses data from wheel impact load detectors and other sources to monitor ...
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Rail Business UKRSSB research supports lowering minimum age to be a train driver
UK: Research into the feasibility of reducing the minimum age of train drivers from 20 to 18 undertaken by the Rail Safety & Standards Board has found that existing training, competence and safety systems could be deployed for younger entrants. RSSB found that experience, rather than ...
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Rail Business UKNear-miss reporting guidance aims to increase level crossing safety
UK: The Level Crossing Strategy Group has published guidance to improve the reporting and management of near misses at level crossings. The guidance is the result of collaboration between stakeholders including Network Rail, the Rail Safety & Standards Board, operators LNER and c2c, and train drivers’ ...
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Rail Business UKRoute Availability Calculator launched to simplifying train planning
UK: The Rail Safety & Standards Board has launched a Route Availability Calculator to streamline and simplify the ‘time-consuming and complex’ calculations to assess vehicle compatibility with a route Users input a vehicle’s axle distances and axle loads, and the calculator on the RSSB website then ...
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Rail Business UKRail Health & Safety Strategy for 2024-29 published
UK: The Rail Safety & Standards Board has published its Rail Health & Safety Strategy for 2024-29, saying it aims to create ’the world’s healthiest, safest and affordable railway’. The strategy identifies five key risks: health and wellbeing; operations; occupational health and safety, including fatigue; ...
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Rail Business UKElectrification hopes sidelined in RSSB sustainability strategy
UK: The Rail Safety & Standards Board has launched a Sustainable Rail Blueprint, which it says will support the rail industry in making progress on environmental and social sustainability challenges. According to RSSB, the industry faces a challenge not just to deliver net ...
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Rail Business UKPlatform Train Interface safety tool updated
UK: The Rail Safety & Standards Board has updated a tool for identifying risks and assessing the effectiveness of safety management arrangements around the Platform Train Interface. The first PTI Risk Assessment Tool was launched six years ago. It has now been enhanced with a new ...
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Rail Business UKRSSB develops zero waste metrics for the rail industry
UK: The Rail Safety & Standards Board and Ricardo have completed the first phase of a project to develop metrics to help the rail industry measure circular economy, waste and resource management performance. Core metrics include: station waste generated, reported by treatment method; proportion of ...
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Rail Business UKBattery train deployment report commissioned
UK: The Rail Safety & Standards Board has commissioned consultancy WSP to produce evidence-based recommendations for optimising and standardising the adoption of battery-powered trains. WSP said it would draw on its experience of battery train development in Norway and Sweden, as well as in the UK ...