LRD guides and handbook July 2015

Health and safety law 2015

Chapter 5

Railways

[ch 5: page 90]

The trend in track workers being injured increased to its highest level in seven years, according to the 2014 ORR annual report. Three rail workers were killed, 79 workers suffered major injuries and 1,641 reported minor injuries during the past year. Safety incidents on platforms, such as when passengers get on and off trains are also on the increase. The rail regulator warned Network Rail to improve its management of the network and called for better infrastructure management as the industry faces pressures from rising passenger numbers — up 5.7% to more than 1.5 billion passenger journeys in 2013-14.