The PACTS Rail Safety Working Party (RSWP) brings together PACTS members from across the rail sector to explore current and emerging safety challenges and support evidence-based policy development.
The Working Party provides a forum for collaboration, evidence sharing and discussion between organisations including the Rail Safety and Standards Board (RSSB), Rail Accident Investigation Branch (RAIB), Office of Rail and Road (ORR), Department for Transport (DfT), Network Rail, train operating companies and universities linked to the UK Rail Research and Innovation Network (UKRRIN).
The RSWP considers how the rail industry can learn from incidents, manage emerging risks, support innovation and new technology, and maintain high standards of safety while responding to wider changes across the sector.
| 👥 Members | Representatives from government, regulators, infrastructure managers, operators, industry and academia |
| 📅 Meetings | Held three times a year (hybrid participation available) |
| 🎯 Focus | Rail safety, emerging risks, innovation, regulation and passenger and workforce safety |
| 📄 Outputs | Research, briefings, consultation responses, events and policy recommendations |
Recent discussions and areas of interest include:
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- Understanding emerging and changing safety risks across the rail industry
- Learning from incidents and improving how safety lessons are identified and applied
- Addressing SPADs, signaller error and overspeeding risks
- Improving safety at level crossings
- Passenger safety and changing patterns of passenger behaviour and demographics
- Personal safety, violence against staff, suicide and trespass
- Supporting innovation and the safe introduction of new technologies
- Considering the safety implications of automation and increased task automation
- Understanding driver attention and the impact of changing driver tasks
- Strengthening safety assurance for high-integrity software and cybersecurity
- Improving climate resilience and adaptation across the rail network
- Understanding barriers to regulatory and industry reform
- Supporting accessibility and safer rail travel for the widest possible range of passengers
Why join RSWP?
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Carolyn Griffiths OBE FREng FIMechE, Chair, RSWP
Carolyn Griffiths is a senior rail industry professional. She has worked in heavy rail, metro and light rail systems. Her roles have been in operations, manufacturing, and consultancy, establishing new rail systems, regulation and managing major projects both in the UK and overseas. She has worked in the private and public sectors. She founded UK’s Rail Accident Investigation Branch (RAIB) and was Chief Inspector during its first 10 years of operations. She actively promotes the engineering profession ; she is a Board member of Royal Academy of Engineering, a past President of the Institution of Mechanical Engineers and past Board member of the Engineering Council. She was awarded an Honorary Doctorates by Cranfield University and Hallam University in recognition of her contribution to the rail industry and engineering more generally.
She is a Board member of Scottish Rail Holdings Ltd, ScotRail Trains Ltd and Caledonian Sleeper Ltd.
David Packer FPWI, Vice-Chair, RSWP
David Packer is a railway professional with broad industry experience, covering heavy rail, light rail and metro. Most recently, David led the Permanent Way Institution as its first CEO, which he transformed into a sustainable business as a licensed professional engineering institution, widely supported by the industry. Currently, David is a Board member of the Romney, Hythe and Dymchurch Railway.
Recent highlights
Recent discussions have explored a range of emerging rail safety issues, including:
- Emerging rail safety risks: Monitoring changing risks across the rail industry, including overspeeding, SPADs, level crossings, passenger injuries, violence against staff, trespass and workforce health.
- Safety, innovation and regulation: Exploring the relationship between safety regulation, innovation and industry reform, including potential barriers to the introduction of new technologies and the review of rail standards and interoperability regulations.
- Climate resilience and rail safety: Considering the safety implications of climate change and extreme weather, including flooding, extreme rainfall, infrastructure resilience, asset management and risk intelligence.
- Personal safety and passenger experience: Considering the safety of women and girls, violence against staff, rail security and the effectiveness of incident reporting routes.
- Safe System principles in rail: Exploring how Safe System principles could be understood and applied within the rail sector, including through research into industry perspectives and opportunities for improvement.
Recent outputs
Upcoming meeting
PACTS Joint Working Party Meeting
📅 Wednesday 23 September 2026
💬 Morning plenary: Tackling anti-social behaviour on the transport network, including reducing harassment and harm to users and workers across road, rail and air transport.
👥 Afternoon: Rail Safety Working Party meeting, with discussions aligned to the Working Party’s current priorities and work programme.
