Invest in Technology to Improve EU Depot Safety
In 2022, the European Union Agency for Railways (EUA) reported that 24 EU railway workers died in work-related incidents and a further 41 were seriously injured.
The organisation’s ‘Report on Railway Safety and Inoperability 2024’ noted that although many operators have adopted a zero-tolerance policy and implemented measures to prevent fatalities, “no clear progress in reducing railway casualties has been observed in the last few years.”
Moving trains are one of the biggest causes of accidents investigated by the EUA and in 2021 to 2022, there was an increase in significant incidents of 12% across all categories, despite legislated safety targets.
It is evident from these statistics that more needs to be done to protect rail workers, especially depot personnel, as they are in many cases the most at risk.
Prioritising depot safety with DPPS and how it works
Our Depot Personnel Protection System (DPPS) is installed in some of the most advanced maintenance facilities around the world, protecting people from plant and vehicle movements.
Staff using the latest version of the system are issued with contactless RFID cards that can be programmed with various levels of authorisation, depending on the person’s position. When working in an area of risk, they log on to road end panels that prevent Network Rail-approved derailers from being lowered, providing physical protection by stopping trains entering the occupied road.
Supervisors can give permission to a train using the road end panel, which is situated at a convenient location within the maintenance building. Only after the derailer has been lowered will the shunt signal change to ‘proceed.’ Audible and visual warnings are then activated to alert staff to imminent vehicle movement.
The system has independent certification to prove its compliance with both the hardware and software integrity requirements of SIL 2 – a reliability assessment of the relative risk reduction provided by a safety system. In addition, the company’s RFID panel has been independently certified by Eurofins to be compliant with both the EN 300 330-V2.1.1 radio emissions standard and railway standard EN50128/50129.
Included with DPPS is Zonegreen’s advanced Depot Manager SCADA software, which offers an overview of the entire system and complete traceability. It displays the location of personnel and the status of plant and equipment, whilst providing key information to make operations easier and quicker to implement.
With significant rail accidents costing European rail operators around €4 billion, with fatalities accounting for 65% of this figure, it is more important than ever before for the rail industry across Europe to invest in rail technology to improve depot safety.