64
SAFETY
Setting the foundations for a thriving railway The industry has come together for Rail Safety Week. Rail Director was at the opening day conference that featured fascinating speeches and an overall passion to bring rail safety to the forefront of people’s minds.
Images: Rail Forum
T
he UK rail industry has come together around a shared commitment: ensuring every person who uses, works on, or lives near the railway returns home safe, every day. Rail Safety Week (RSW) is at the heart of that mission, bringing safety to the forefront of people’s minds, and keeping it firmly in the spotlight, with ideas and best practice being shared between industry colleagues. This year’s event, which happened just days before two East Midlands Railway trains collided near Bedford in which one of the drivers sadly died, opened with a conference in York. Addressing the audience Paul Evans, Chief Executive Officer at headline sponsors Carlisle Support Services, described the week as one where the industry “pauses, reconnects, reflects, but more importantly, recommits to the standards
Paul Evans
Jul/Aug 2026
that underpin everything that we do”. He added: “However, safety should never be just for a week, nor should it be for a couple of days. It is the foundation of the trust that underpins the railway in every single service, contract and partnership that operates across it.” Paul asked the several hundred attendees at The Milner Hotel in York to reaffirm three commitments: “We need change in the way that protects and supports the people who are actually delivering it; we treat every service incident as an opportunity to learn, to improve and to share those lessons openly, and finally we need to recognise that wellbeing is fundamental to safety, not just a part of it. “If we hold ourselves to these principles, we do more to reduce harm, we strengthen our trust that is in the railway that we all love, we will enhance professional and personal pride and we will