Kevin Gedge - **HAS LEFT**

Said the following about Robert Jones:

“Having only joined Network Rail at the beginning of the year, Rob has demonstrated his authority, leadership and commitment to improving system safety within the delivery of capital projects. Rob has been unphased by needing to establish himself within a new organisation and has truly committed to doing the best for Network Rail and the wider rail industry on the subjects of System Safety, Common Safety Method for Risk Evaluation and Acceptance (CSM-RA) and Technical Specifications for Interoperability while also working tirelessly to promote an improved understanding of the differences between the needs of occupational health and safety, construction safety (CDM regulations), the safe operation and maintenance of railway infrastructure and the need to demonstrate how projects safely integrate with the existing railway. Rob has been the lynchpin in the delivery of an efficient and effective System Safety Management process within Network Rail infrastructure projects, working alongside Network Rail Acceptance Panel (NRAP) and the ORR to improve the way Network Rail complies with the CSM-RA legislation. His work to date has included direct liaison and advising on the system safety processes on some of the most complex and novel infrastructure projects (such as Transpennine Route Upgrade, Kings Cross Improvement project and the East Kilbride Infrastructure project) as well as directing, guiding, supporting and gaining acceptance of these System Safety Management processes by both regulators (ORR and RSSB), NRAP, the Network Rail Regional Businesses and the supply chain (who deliver much of the expertise in this arena to infrastructure project teams).

The work Rob has completed over 2019 required him to demonstrate his knowledge and expertise on the subject of System Safety Management, and Rob has worked as a subject matter expert within the Network Rail standard working group for the update of the Network Rail processes with respect to CSM-RA. This has required Rob to personally lead on the level 3 ‘how to’ standard with respect to the application of the CSM-RA legislation across capital delivery infrastructure projects. With the strategy now established, alongside Rob producing products, guidance and templates as to how to produce system safety deliverables on projects, the expectation, and the benefits demonstrated to date demonstrate, show that this work will provide consistency across the country, realise cost efficiencies and ultimately provide a safer railway through the application of a risk based approach to system safety on projects, concentrating resource and effort on our most novel and most complex projects. Amongst other things, Rob has delivered a standardised Hazard Record for use across regions providing consistency in application and with that a common method of capturing a hazard action sequence from cause through to consequence allowing projects to relate identified hazards to a listing of approximately 25 core hazards which means that the work involved in managing a hazard record is dramatically reduced with a project typically managing the core hazards and not hundreds (and in some case thousands!) of lines of entry in some hazard records. This has really allowed project teams to demonstrate that they are truly managing, mitigating and reducing risk on the project to an acceptable level in the most efficient manner and ultimately bringing the ability to capture one projects information for reuse as a reference system on projects further down the line.

In addition to the effort he has put into the above, Rob has also found time to develop System Safety Training, and setting a group of Network Rail apprentices a technical challenge and mentoring them through the challenge. This resulted in the apprentices both learning about system safety and reporting their findings back to Network Rail Engineering Directors.

Finally, even though this work has been very difficult at times with the need not only to change process but also behaviours of people and a legacy of little/no/misunderstandings Rob has always managed to do this with a smile on his face, an appropriate joke or two and somehow found the time to explain these concepts in a variety of methods to aid the understanding of both experts in the field as well as sponsors and project managers who are ultimately the accountable and responsible individuals on the projects.“