Rail Safety
Railway operating companies worldwide face a unique set of health and safety challenges. As Serco's railways portfolio expands, its efforts to address these challenges continue. The rail safety section of our Group website details the rigorous safety management systems we have developed for each of our rail contracts.
Our safety standards are of utmost importance to us. While there was a 45 per cent increase in passenger journeys during 2005, the reportable accident rate showed a 2.2 per cent improvement on the 2004 figures.
The work of UK-based Chris Leech, Northern Rail's Schools Liaison Officer, provides an inspiring example of how much can be done to improve rail safety through direct involvement with young people. Some of the schemes he has launched are featured in more detail in our Community section.
Efforts to eliminate verbal and physical assaults against our staff by members of the public are also producing positive results, achieving a 50 per cent drop in reported incidents over the last three years. By the end of the year, the physical assault rate had fallen to below three incidents per 100,000 exposure hours, compared to six in 2003.
Commenting on this development, Steve Quinby, Assurance Manager at Serco Integrated Transport, says: “We have a zero-tolerance approach to assaults on our staff while they are carrying out their duties. Not only does violence threaten their physical well-being, it also prevents them from carrying out their responsibilities effectively. The sustained and intensive efforts we have made to protect them over the last three years are now producing tangible results. We committed ourselves to halving the number of assaults by 2006 - and we achieved that target 12 months early.”
To sustain this trend, we continue to foster the cross-fertilisation of best practice from inside and outside our business. For the third successive year, we held a Personal Security and Reducing Staff Assaults conference at the National Railways Museum in York, UK, to address the issue of assaults and how to prevent them. Delegates included Serco employees from across our divisions as well as representatives from external bodies such as the British Transport Police and the rail unions.
As well as protecting the health and safety of our staff, we are also committed to making our stations safe for all those who use them. In August, the Serco-operated Docklands Light Railway (DLR) became the first urban railway in the UK to achieve secure station accreditation at all its stations. By the end of 2005, 40 per cent of stations on the Merseyrail network, which is also operated by Serco, had achieved accreditation. Working closely with Passenger Transport Executives (PTEs) in its area, our Northern Rail franchise is on target to achieve accreditation at ten of its 472 stations by the start of 2006. When we won the franchise at the end of 2004, the network had just one accredited secure station.