Network Rail and Tracsis: transforming rail safety planning

Improving safety for Network Rail workers while delivering an estimated £10 million+ (US$13 million+) in efficiency savings.

Network Rail has carved out an enviable reputation for running one of the most condensed and operationally complex rail networks in the world to extremely strict compliance standards.

Yet despite Great Britain’s railways consistently performing as some of the safest in Europe, Network Rail was concerned that maintenance was not being completed as safely and efficiently as it could be. They wanted to utilise technology to underpin an organisation-wide transformative change towards a pro-active rail maintenance safety culture.

Tracsis has been designing and implementing innovative technology to improve track worker safety for more than 15 years – we have more than 15,000 users across 160 organisations. Our experience working in partnership with leading rail operators has taught us that successful digital transformation is about much more than integrating new technology; it’s about listening carefully and collaborating effectively, setting clear and achievable goals, and, fundamentally, ensuring all stakeholders are along for the ride.

In close collaboration with Network Rail, we delivered a rail safety technology solution which not only dramatically improved rail safety for maintenance workers, resulting in a 99% reduction in unassisted red zone working and a 50%+ decrease in track worker near-misses, but also made pro-active safety planning easier and more efficient.

We slashed the amount of time that Network Rail workers had to spend on labour intense manual work, reducing frustration and task duplication. We made it easier for Network Rail teams to collaborate and work from the same information, reducing the risk of errors that could lead to rail safety incidents.

The economic bottom line: £10 million+ (US$13 million+) in estimated work bank efficiency savings.

The organisational bottom line: renewed employee confidence in Network Rail’s motto: “Everyone home safe every day”.

Find out more about our work with Network Rail: watch the video case study.

The Rail Safety Challenge

Network Rail own, operate, and develop Britain's dense railway infrastructure, overseeing 1.8 billion passenger journeys a year on more than 20,000 miles of track.

Maintenance is made more complex due to the age of the infrastructure – a considerable number of bridges, tunnels and stations date back to the nineteenth century – coupled with extreme weather events. The need for constant repairs and upgrades results in an annual maintenance bill of more than £2.5 billion (US$3.3 billion).

In 2018, Network Rail was looking at some alarming rail safety statistics. Eighty per cent of incidents where track workers had been struck by trains were caused by ‘red zone lookout failures’, during which personnel were working between running trains. The remaining 20% involved workers who had typically strayed outside of their safe area. There had also been an increase in near misses, with more than 2,000 track workers affected over 12 months.

A Safety Task Force was initiated in 2019, underpinned by significant investment from Network Rail.

The Safety Task Force aimed to: Eliminate red zone working, better use technology to plan safely, drive data-led, pro-active planning, champion leadership accountability, and embed a safety-first culture

How Tracsis Helped: A Collaborative Rail Safety Technology Solution

Tracsis worked with Network Rail for 18 months to design and implement a technology-driven solution to underpin a pro-active safety-first culture among rail maintenance teams, while delivering maximum ROI.

David Smith, Tracsis Strategic Account Director, explained that the project involved a deep understanding of the business change required to make sure the technology would deliver the maximum impact. “It was important that we juxtaposed the outcomes of not just a technology programme, but the wider programme itself to make sure that outcomes had driven safety in a way that Network Rail considered to be a success,” he said.

Tracsis worked closely with Network Rail and their stakeholders to ensure concerns and feedback were taken into account throughout the process.

“We optimise user experience, user interface, and human-centric design,” Mr Smith said. “Tracsis’ technology approach uses a configuration design philosophy, which enables us to act in an agile, nimble way; we can take our products and configure them rather than rely on complex, expensive, bespoke technology processes.

“This mix of configuration and customisation allows us to tailor our solutions to achieve both better rail safety and optimal business outcomes, maximising ROI.”

Network Rail required technology that would be easy to use and adapt for workers in different roles, and that could interface easily with 10 different data sources. It also had to be extremely secure, with resilience as standard.

How it works: The NR RailHub

We took our technology platform, RailHub, and adapted it to Network Rail’s unique requirements to create NR RailHub. The intuitive, user-friendly interface provides information in a format which is easy to read and easy to work with – real-time information clearly displayed to avoid information overload.

NR RailHub includes 3 core elements:

The Safe Work Pack & Mobile App

Featuring role-based access controls, the Safe Work Pack provides rail workers with the most accurate real-time information on hazards on any line. This model can be configured to ensure compliance with safe working standards in any country.

Line Blockage

The Line Blockage app digitises one of the most safety-critical processes in railway maintenance, ensuring every blockage is planned and protected before work begins. As with the Safe Work Pack, information is in real time. Track workers can easily see line blockages without relying on spreadsheets.

Access Register

The Access Register is a digital centralised record of all worksite access requests and allocations across the UK rail network. An Outlook-style calendar view provides complete visibility of who is accessing the railway, when and why, in a format that workers are already comfortable with.

Result: A Changed Approach to Rail Safety Planning

The NR RailHub has had a transformative impact on rail safety culture within Network Rail, reducing the risk of incidents while speeding up processes and improving maintenance efficiency. The result is a system which makes pro-active safety planning easier from the outset, ensuring transparency and improving accountability.

The new system has also reduced overwhelm and administrative fatigue for Network Rail staff by eliminating thousands of hours of manual checks, time which can now be spent on more meaningful work. The rollout was completed in 2022 in Scotland.

Key rail safety and ROI outcomes include:

99% decrease in unassisted red zone work

Over 50% decrease in annual track worker near-misses

Estimated efficiency savings of £10 million+ (US$13 million+)

81% positive user feedback

45% reduction in duplication

75% reduction in rejected line block requests

Incident Response saves almost 6 million delay minutes annually

The creation of millions of error-free access requests

Winner of the prestigious ERP Today Transformation Project of the Year

“This is a tremendous achievement for the industry,” Mr Smith said. “Over 90% of work now takes place within green zones, where trains are not running, and that's facilitated by NR RailHub and the improved planning process.
“And all of that time that's been saved by not needing to apply for repeat line requests means that users can instead focus on safety and how work can be completed in a more safe and efficient way.
“It's facilitated improved collaboration across a number of different roles and also nationally, with thousands of hours of manual conflict checks saved.
“The trust in the product has ensured that the creation of millions of access requests have been completed without error and also at the same time allowed sustained uptime to ensure the operation of a mission critical national infrastructure, such as the UK railway network.
“Outside of the safe work planning process and the broader maintenance regime, passengers themselves see added benefits by having a railway that's not only safer, but also more reliable and more punctual.
And we're proud also to be announced the winners of the prestigious ERP Today Transformation Project of the Year, where we beat out over 60 competitors from multiple industries to demonstrate how technology can truly transform an industry and our safety practices can be best embedded.”

Tracsis’ innovative, technology-driven rail safety solutions

As we expand our operations internationally, we are excited by opportunities to deliver these kind of outcomes for more rail operators in the UK and around the world – our software can be adapted to a variety of regulatory environments.

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