UK: The Freight Safe Programme industry collaboration has launched a Horizon Scanning process to help rail freight companies identify emerging and future risks to the sector, including extreme weather conditions and cyberattacks.
Development was overseen by the Freight Safe Programme in partnership with the Foresight & Horizon Scanning Team at the Rail Safety & Standards Board.
‘The primary motivation for the scanning service is to address a recognised gap in that the sector, previously, had no shared evidence and risk-based understanding of future risks and emerging safety hazards’, said Guy Yeomans, Principal – Horizon Scanning at RSSB. ‘This service gives the industry a quarterly Horizon Scanning Brief, which presents research and analysis on possible emerging risks, a tool to evaluate the risks and follow-on tracking and monitoring options.’
The first edition of the Horizon Scanning Brief is to be released in September.
Geoff Spencer, Chair of the Freight Safe Programme Steering Group, said ‘projects such as the Horizon Scanning Service put rail freight companies on the front foot so that they are better prepared to foresee challenges they may face in the future and to create strategies to lessen the impact on customers if they do occur.’
