Our role involves investigating significant safety incidents, and also undertaking proactive activities such as inspection visits to operators. With a large number of operators spread out across the country this can be a challenge.
There is a vibrant and knowledgeable heritage sector and part of our role is to ensure they’re clear on health and safety expectations, so to engage with operators on these matters we have collaborated with the Heritage Railway Association to deliver a series of workshops across different regions in 2025, starting in Sussex and finishing up in Glasgow.
These workshops have covered key topics such as competence management, occupational health, level crossings, safety culture and on-track plant, and have provided a great opportunity for our inspectors to engage with railways and tramways on issues that are important to them.
They have also enabled us to communicate our expectations. The workshops also provided a chance to discuss the approaches taken by other railways and tramways and to share good practices.
Running these workshops meant we interacted with more railways and tramways, encouraging greater collaboration and sharing of information within the sector, and ultimately helping the sector strengthen its management of health and safety issues.
It was a pleasure meeting so many people committed to improving health and safety in the the heritage sector.
