SETTING THE STANDARDS
RSSB, the Rail Safety & Standards Board (although it prefers to be known by the acronym), has been in the limelight recently. Its pronouncement at the end of last year that driver-only operation (DOO) is safe brought excoriation from the RMT union, claiming the organisation is a tool of the train operator owning groups.
It is true that RSSB’s members – about 75 organisations in total, comprising Network Rail and rail industry suppliers as well as operators – supply the body’s funding, but Chief Executive Mark Phillips is adamant that the RSSB is serious about its independence. After all, it was established as an independent not-for-profit company limited by guarantee, separate from Railtrack / Network Rail, in the wake of the 1999 Ladbroke Grove rail accident, precisely because the safety body needed to operate at arm’s length from the industry.
But Mr Phillips stresses that RSSB is about more than just safety: he is keen that the organisation should fulfill a wider role in helping the industry to operate more efficiently. Relevant to that vexed question of DOO, for example, is a downloadable platform–train interface tool that allows operators to assess risks at stations, wit…
