Caution when climbing signals at height
An incident on the mainline railway network at Newbury has highlighted shortfalls in not only Network Rails structural surveys, but also within London Undergrounds own survey standards. The incident involved a signal post which had rusted at/below ground level causing the signal to collapse across the track and a train colliding with it,
LU’s Civils Department have stated that their current inspection process would not have been able to detect this fault on our assets due to them carrying out their metal thickness tests at 1 metre above ground level and not below ground level. LU’s Head of Safety has been informed of this issue and we await a reply on how they are going to rectify this safety concern.
In the meantime, please be cautious when working on signal structures. If in any doubt it’s advisable to not access the asset and report it through the asset at height reporting form and process that can be found on the intranet.
http://onespace.tfl.gov.uk/lu_/cms/CMSLibrary/GN/G1313.pdf
http://onespace.tfl.gov.uk/lu_/cms/CMSLibrary/F/F1019.doc
Link to RAIB investigation:
http://www.raib.gov.uk/publications/current_investigations_register/141117_newbury.cfm
Further updates to follow.