Railway Group members can now share good practice in SPAD management from their desktops with the launch of the SPAD Management Handbook.

Available on CD-ROM or company intranets (where licensed), the handbook aims to help the industry use a range of techniques and information to control SPADs. The tool was devised by the industry-wide National SPAD Focus Group and sponsored by Railway Safety.

NSFG hopes the SPAD handbook will prove a useful resource for staff to pick up the latest information on a host of SPAD-related issues, including safety data, tips on driver management, and other training aids.

It includes the latest in SPAD data and research documents, photographs, policies, guidance notes and best practice tips as well as visual communication aids, contributed by Railway Group members, that driver managers can adapt for driver briefings on signal viewing and multi-SPAD signals.

The handbook also includes Railtrack PLC's own Anti-SPAD Toolkit which contains a huge range of infrastructure problems which can be encountered and potential solutions which can be considered.

Railway Safety's SPAD Project Manager Paul Brand said: "This is a huge compendium of information on SPADs and, from the feedback from the industry so far on what it would like to see in the second issue, the potential for development is enormous.

"The real value of the handbook will only be realised by ensuring it is used regularly by the industry to share good practice, examples and ideas nationwide. The handbook is really only the vehicle for that sharing - it's there for the industry to use to get the message out about their own innovations in this important area."

The tool is designed mainly for staff at the level of driver/signalling/operating manager and those to whom they report, and operations and production directors. However other senior managers as well as frontline staff will hopefully also find it a useful tool.

A 10-page demonstration of the handbook is available here. It offers browsers a glimpse of how it works and the 160-plus documents contained within it.

To find out more about the handbook, how you can you can contribute to the second issue or to subscribe, please contact Paul Brand at Railway Safety on 020 7904 7711.

Ends

View a demonstration of the handbook

Contact Alison Flynn on 020 7904 7524 for further information.

Email: enquiries@railwaysafety.org.uk

Concerns about operational safety on the Railway should be reported to Railtrack's 24-hour helpline on 0845 711 4141.

Railnews Archive ::: 2001-02-12 RSA-002