Lumo

During Rail Safety Week, First Rail held focus sessions with the Lumo team. Session 1 explored near miss and adverse event reporting and the importance of doing so. Then for session 2, PCSO Dean from the British Transport Police team in Newcastle joined them to discuss policing strategies, reporting and feedback with the team. Plus a lunchtime safety conversation around the importance of having a safety culture which encourages ‘psychological safety’ for everyone to champion their open and honest approach.

David Hughes of First Rail took the baton at Lumo as they continued engaging with their teams on their new safety team structure and responsibilities, along with listening to safety improvement ideas from their workforce. Reflections from David: “A key take away so far from Rail Safety Week for me is that these listening and awareness sessions need to continue so our teams are regularly informed of what we are doing, but equally given an opportunity to feed into our plans for safety improvements.”

Martijn Gilbert, First Rail Managing Director – Open Access Operations, who leads Hull Trains and Lumo, travelled on a few of their services including one to London from Newcastle and had proactive safety conversations with their Customer Drivers during the crew change ahead of departure, and then worked the trolley onboard with their Customer Experience Ambassadors whilst talking to both them and their customers about service and safety matters as part of Rail Safety Week.

Martijn also participated in a safety tour of the facilities they use with partners Diamond Rail Services and Rail Gourmet, plus a proactive safety chat with Grand Central Rail who help look after their customer support.

In addition, teams received a Rail Safety Week specific newsletter. An external auditor also engaged with their colleagues around their safety management systems.