Rail Infrastructure Corporation (RIC) was the owner of the NSW State Rail Network. It has the right to use the network to the two main Rail Operators, State Rail and Freight Australia, as well as other smaller operators. One of its key responsibilities was to ensure that the Network is used safely. RIC undertook to completely overhaul its track-use related safety processes and associated documentation.

Collectively known as the ‘Safeworking Rules’, this safety documentation is relied on by all the organisations working on and around the tracks. This includes not only employees of the rail operators, but also all those maintaining the tracks, overhead wires, signalling equipment, and so on. The Safeworking Rules are the touchstone for all track-related safety activity and RIC Management had become increasingly concerned about their adequacy. As result it undertook an ambitious project to comprehensively review and upgrade the Rules.

After two years of intensive effort, the project produced a revised set of Safeworking Rules that were universally applauded as much clearer, more concise, and much easier to understand than those they replaced. They provided a more effective basis for training, and the easier-to-read manuals gave field workers clear and unambiguous guidance. As part of the project, 11000 rail workers were retrained using the new Rules.

The result to date has been a stunning 65% reduction in the number of safety incidents on the NSW rail network.

Realisation (then called HCi) won the keenly contested tender. Realisation was selected because of its record as a specialised consulting firm that had worked successfully with many large Australian household names, its experience in quality management, and its capacity to field and support a large team.

Realisation was also chosen because of its willingness to work flexibly with RIC to help them implement an appropriately tailored approach, rather than attempt to impose a rigid, externally-derived methodology.

Development methodology

The Project Leaders settled on a development methodology that involved these steps:

• dividing the required information into new, more logical, subject areas, such as ‘Work on track’ and ‘Train control’, that would give readers instant insights into its scope

• deconstructing the existing documentation and reclassifying it in the new subject areas

• weeding out superfluous information and either disposing of it or sending it on to other areas responsible

• devising and writing-up new rules based on SME input (incorporating relevant existing information)

• guiding the new rules through a review and approval process with key stakeholders (field representatives, Rail Operators, the Unions, etc)

• re-writing the information to incorporate review feedback

• tracking the transformation of the old rules into the new to provide an audit trail

• doing regular quality checks, including development process reviews, readability measurements, and usability tests

By processing all the old information through the new subject area framework using this methodology, and by filling information gaps that became evident along the way, the project team was able to complete its task in the smoothest, most time-efficient way possible. Testimony to the robustness of the methodology, and the dedication of the team applying it, is the fact that the project was completed right on time against an ambitious set of deadlines.

This was a commendable result given the number of stakeholders involved and their separate political agendas, as well as the sheer volume of information to be reviewed, written, and published. The initial complexities and challenges were such that there was a serious danger of the project exceeding its deadline by many months, or even bogging-down altogether without a satisfactory conclusion.

The degree of consensus achieved among stakeholders was unprecedented. The new Rules reflected the active participation and endorsement of the Rail Tram and Bus Union, the Australian Services Union, the Electrical Trades Union, the State Rail Authority, Freight Australia, Pacific National, and others. It is a credit to these organisations and the project’s management that they were able to cooperate so closely and effectively on the important issue of safety.

The quality of the work produced has subsequently been confirmed in an unexpected way. The Victorian Rail Authorities are using the NSW Safeworking Rules as a model for the redevelopment of their own safeworking processes, and the Australian Rail Track Corporation has adopted them as benchmarks for their operations. In this way, the project has made a significant contribution to the development of the rail industry in Australia as a whole.

Most importantly, however, has been the impact in the field. This is the only true test project’s success and, while there are many important influences on safety besides knowledge and training, the 65% reduction in the number safety incidents since the project’s completion provides the most satisfying feedback for those involved.