There have been a number of accidents and close calls involving vehicle deliveries and collections near railway lines. These have involved articulated lorries, flat bed lorries (including those with lorry loaders), and vans. Those who are involved in the planning of deliveries adjacent to railway lines are reminded about the risks of working in close proximity to railway lines and the controls needed to protect infrastructure, trains, passengers, and others. Drivers who are moving, unloading or loading vehicles next to railway lines are reminded about the risks of working adjacent to railway lines and to adhere to the their planned safe system of work. Safety Bulletin 334 provides additional detail.
To reduce risk of accidents and to ensure legislative compliance, consideration needs to be given to:
- Whether to STOP plant being stored at the access
- Whether to STOP heavy materials delivered by lorry loader (HIAB) being stored at the access
- To determine ALO risk of deliveries of Plant and heavy materials (needing a crane or forklift to unload)
Ellipse (Network Rail’s asset register) shall be used to better understand access points combined with site visits.
Rail Infrastructure Network Model (RINM) provides visualisation of access points. This is available to Network Rail currently and will be made more widely available during CP5.
A local dossier should then be produced with visualisation of each access along with the restrictions, with this then sent to third parties
Access Point data for locations used for OTP and OTM heavy materials deliveries and collections including potential ALO risk can be viewed below:
NB.When visiting site and it is clear data provided isn’t up to date, please use the template below, and forward suggested amendments to your local Network Rail representative to validate and arrange for Ellipse records to be updated at local level.
An interactive PDF map of access points can be accessed via the attachments, please note for the interactive functionality to work you will need to click on the document in the attachments, then right click and save to your computer, then reopen the saved version.
When you open the saved PDF there will be no access points showing. To display the layers click the plus sign next to the layers folder, and this will show the two access point layers you can turn on:-
- OTP Heavy Materials Access Points with RRAPs of 10m and larger
- All other OTP Heavy Materials Access Points.
(Note : When zooming in to see the detail of a site, right click anywhere on the map and select ‘Object data Tool’, then when you have this selected triple click on the desired point of interest. The details will then show in the bottom left hand corner of the layers panel.)
The attachment “Road Based lineside Deliveries and Collections” shares good practice information for Delivery & Collection Point Management.
The use of public highway for delivery and collection of Plant and heavy materials, Network Rail and those working on behalf of Network Rail need to comply with legislation which includes:
- The New Roads and Street Works Act 1991
- Traffic Management Act 2004
- Transport Scotland Act 2005.
- Highways Act 1980
The attachment “Highways Interface” provides additional information to support compliance with legislation.
In the delivery and collection of Plant and heavy materials, CDM Regulations 2015 apply. Standard NR/L2/OHS/00047 provides additional information and supporting documentation. The focus is on the principle of prevention.
In helping ensure access points are fit for purpose, with the risk of accidents and injury minimised, for example from slips trips and falls, they shall be kept clear of scrap material. The good practice guidance “Scrap recovery Best Practice” in the attachments includes how to handle scrap material and how to work with NSC to support its recovery.
In enhancing access points, work has been undertaken setting out good practice design. This will be included in Plant Manual NR/PLANT/0200 during 2015. Fuller details are contained within report “CS075481 Network Rail Infrastructure Access Points Best Practice Design Guide“, and associated appendices:-
Network Rail has undertaken a “benefits assessment” to support access point investment. This can be seen within the attachment section.
