While our South Rail Systems Alliance (SRSA) continue to deliver their comprehensive programme of work throughout the UK, our Anglia division have been heavily involved in making the railways safer through implementing changes as part of the Freightliner Safety Improvement Plan (FSIP).

The FSIP programme started in November 2021, with the team enhancing the safety measures across four sites:

• Harlow Mill
• Chelmsford
• Parkeston
• Bow Midland

The main purpose of the programme is to improve shunter and train driver safety in high traffic areas, coupled with injuries caused by slips, trips and fall being the most frequent type of accidents for drivers and shunters.

These improvement works completed by the SRSA will make steps to actively reduce the potential for injuries to occur on site.

To summarise, the team completed the following works:

Harlow Mill

• Installed 150m of debris netting on site to prevent waste landing on the tracks
• Cleared a large amount of scrapped materials, to create a new footpath between the access gate to site, reducing the risk of slips, trips and falls.
• De-vegetation works carried out to ensure staff have a safe area to walk when travelling throughout the sidings
• Installed four sets of footboards to handpoint areas across the sidings to reduce the risk of slips, trips and falls
• Reinstated a compound that was previously overgrown and could not access site

Chelmsford

• Installed 137m of ballast boarding to prevent the bordering aggregate yard from encroaching the track limits
• Tidied 180m of type 1 from site – in order for the boarding to be installed
• Converted two sets of handpoints to RACOR design (safer and easier to use system compared to traditional standard)
• Installed two sets of footboards to handpoint areas across the sidings to reduce the risk of slips, trips and falls

Parkeston

• Installed a 480m drivers walkway covering the most used areas of the track there for shunters and groundstaff
• Added 390m of 2.3m tall palisade fence to protect site from unauthorised access
• Converted a set of handpoints to RACOR design
• Installed two sets of footboards to handpoint areas across the sidings to reduce the risk of slips, trips and falls
• Fitted cateyes across driver’s walkway to provide a visual aid for staff working in poor lighting conditions

Bow Midland

• Installed approximately 500m of high traffic/high visibility driver’s walkway
• Total of eight handpoints converted to RACOR design
• Removed redundant scrap from site to reduce risk of slips, trips and falls.
• Ground leveling works completed to reduce risk of slips trips and falls

The SRSA is comprised of Colas Rail, Network Rail and AECOM, an alliance created to deliver a portfolio of works across the southern region of the UK over a 10-year period.