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Tuesday, February 25, 2025

ONRSR Safety Message: Installing, Upgrading and Commissioning Signalling Assets

Signalling systems are critical pieces of infrastructure that are fundamental to the safe operation of railways across Australia. As such, the full scope of these systems, from introduction to ongoing maintenance must be carefully and systematically managed.

Image AUS Rail wyard with signalling gantrys 2019

ONRSR is committed to providing rail transport operators and rail infrastructure managers with safety advice and intelligence, and in this context our investigations and regulatory activities have identified several contributing factors that increase the risk of incidents involving signalling and related systems.

Signalling assets can include any signalling communications electrical and control systems (SCE&CS) e.g. interlocking systems, control systems, level crossings, signals, train detection, points equipment, power supply and distribution equipment, radios, object controllers, structures, condition monitoring systems, equipment alarm management systems and cables.

Incidents involving SCE&CS, such as the failure of level crossing protection to activate, points incorrectly set and/or signal displaying a false proceed indication can have serious consequences, such as wrong side signalling faults, resulting in derailments and collisions.

Such signalling-related incidents often occur following testing, commissioning, installation or maintenance of SCE&CS, and ONRSR is advising Rail Infrastructure Managers (RIMs) of the following common issues:

  • Resourcing issues e.g. high demand on rail safety workers with signalling expertise. Projects or work packages not providing sufficient time for rail safety workers and signal technicians to complete works safely including updating, completing and finalising SCE&CS documentation.
  • Competency issues e.g. signalling technicians not having sufficient competence. Experienced technicians retiring or leaving the workforce resulting in knowledge and experience gaps.
  • Technology issues e.g. a greater number of new and varied technologies are being developed and rolled out. Legacy technologies continuing to be used that require more frequent upkeep and maintenance.
  • Safety culture issues e.g. rail safety workers being discouraged to report incidents including unsafe or poor work practices. Non-compliance and shortcuts are accepted and normalised – see how to avoid this in the Safety Message: Promoting a Positive Safety Culture

These issues could lead to established procedures and engineering processes being missed or not followed.

RIMs are required by the Rail Safety National Law (RSNL) to ensure the safety of rail infrastructure, which includes SCE&CE, so far as is reasonably practicable.

During regulatory activities and interactions, ONRSR identifies both good and poor practice regarding testing, commissioning, installation, upgrades and maintenance of SCE&CS. Good practices regarding testing, commissioning, installation, upgrades and maintenance of SCE&CS are identified under the following five topics:

  1. Planning, resourcing and scoping
  2. Risk assessment
  3. Supervision and checking
  4. Competencies and good practices
  5. Documentation and configuration management

1. Planning, resourcing and scoping

  • Consider testing, commissioning, installation, upgrades and maintenance of SCE&CS at the start of your project, e.g. SCE&CS is often a small part of a larger civil or infrastructure project.
  • Account for the scarcity of signalling resources available.
  • Ensure the scope of works, safety management plans and documentation associated with the work is:
    • disseminated, in a timely manner, to all the parties associated with the work
    • identified in applicable interface agreements for their review.
  • Provide sufficient time and ensure resources are available during the project to safely undertake the work.
  • Ensure interface agreements and/or contracts clearly identify all parties associated with the systems and infrastructure where the work is to take place.

2. Risk assessments

  • Ensure all necessary consultation obligations (for example with all relevant workers and/or unions) have been met and that all supporting documentation associated with the consultation process has been provided to all appropriate parties.
  • Ensure all parties associated with or potentially impacted by the works participate in pre-work planning risk assessments. This ensures all safety and engineering risks associated with the work are captured, assessed and appropriately mitigated or eliminated.
  • Prioritise elimination, substitution or engineering controls over administrative controls. As an example, implement engineering solutions to eliminate the need to install temporary jumpers/bridges when implementing isolations of signalling apparatus.

3. Supervision and checking

  • Design of signalling systems and infrastructure, together with isolation or temporary circuit alteration, is appropriately checked and independently verified.
  • Ensure all parties associated with signalling works use appropriately qualified and competent workers.
  • Qualified, competent workers undertake a detailed review of the safety management plans and engineering documentation, for all scope of works with a signalling input, prior to issuing approvals to engage them.
  • Appropriate verification and validation testing is undertaken to maintain the integrity of the signalling system at all stages of the work. For example, appropriate verification and validation testing following:
    • installation of the isolation and / or temporary jumpers or bridges; and
    • removal of isolation and / or temporary jumpers or bridges prior to the resumption of normal rail operations, or on completion of works.
  • All signalling works, including isolations and temporary circuit alterations, are independently verified and validated. This should be done by appropriately qualified workers who are competent to undertake the task on the apparatus affected.
  • Testing is performed to confirm signalling systems are working correctly before implementation on operational lines.

4. Competencies and good practices

  • Ensure people performing testing, commissioning, installation, upgrades and maintenance of SCE&CS are competent and sufficiently supervised.
  • Appropriate identification of the work being performed. This includes tagging of isolations and circuit modifications in location boxes, interlocking enclosures, wayside equipment, etc.
  • Ensure appropriate records are kept in interlocking enclosures.
  • Ensure appropriate safeworking methods are implemented to enable the safe passage of trains on operational lines during any partial isolation and / or circuit alteration of the affected signalling apparatus.

5. Documentation and configuration management

  • Keep records up-to-date e.g. ensuring all standard operating procedures, work instructions, signalling diagrams and installation arrangements are current, easily accessible and updated following altered works. Due to the numerous legacy signalling installations and the demand on signalling resources, maintaining this corporate knowledge in up-to-date documentation ensures signalling issues are not missed, minimising the potential for errors.
  • Update records and provide them to the relevant party following works. It is critical to not only update SCE&CS documentation, but also to provide them to the RIM. As a RIM, you should also ensure their SCE&CS contractors provides this documentation so that the newly installed or updated SCE&CS can be adequately checked, maintained and repaired.
  • Maintain a single source of truth e.g. during the design stage, there are often multiple versions of a given diagram, design or implementation plan. It is important that all parties can access the latest version so there is no confusion as to where, when and how SCE&CS will be upgraded or installed.

Key documents and actions

The good practices provided above should be documented in your Safety Management System (SMS). You are encouraged to review your SMS to ensure your management of change, external consultation processes and procedures, and / or type approval processes, procedures and templates take this safety message into account. Guidance material that can assist you review your systems and procedures include:

Last updated: Feb 25, 2025, 1:22:25 PM