REGISTER

Gareth Topham C Eng, B Eng, MSc, MIRSE, MIET, MSaRS

Rio Tinto

Decisions on rail safety are traditionally based on established practice and experienced judgment, supported by tests and trials as judged necessary. However, the past is not always a useful guide when conditions are changing and practice needs to keep pace with technology.

The Yellow Book was developed in the UK to provide a pragmatic set of guidance to applying engineering safety management in line with the internationally adopted CENELEC Standards (50126/8/9). The Yellow Book is no longer supported and a new international Engineering Safety Management publication has been developed to fill this gap.

The primary purpose of the new international Engineering Safety Management (iESM) is to help people who lead and undertake railway engineering make sure that their work contributes efficiently to improved safety and helps new railways and changes to be accepted more efficiently.

The new iESM Handbook should help:

• Tackle the pressures from increased complexity of railway systems;
• Address decreased public and passenger tolerance for avoidable accidents;
• Focus spending on preventing incidents and smooth the way for acceptance of new technology or novel applications.