Helen Barnes

Said the following about Nigel Woolford:

“Nigel works diligently to not only improve safety through his own behaviours, but relentlessly encourages those around him to not accept mediocrity.

Nigel photographs and records lineside hazards, which he has always discussed with his customer to agree removal to improve the safety of the trackside and depot environment.

Nigel not only records he hazards as part of his working timetable, but then will close call the hazards if they have been removed and when it is safe he removes them himself.

Nigel will then follow up on his close calls, making sure they have been sufficiently dealt with to reduce risks to himself and others.

He is always helpful, with a positive behaviour to engage others into improving safety from a holistic perspective.

The email below was sent to the Head of Track Safety and Sustainability and embodies what I have just said below, with regards to an issue at Ashstead in the Wessex Route

'I have been identifying, flagging up and working with the Teams on site and in the office to resolve and attempt to eradicate these issues for some time now. I have mentioned before the Domino effect, the smaller constant issues that often lead to an event. I have to say that seeing the conductor rail shoes striking a guard board and me taking an emergency line block on an open line with live 750v conductor rail is as close as I would like it to get to another incident.

I have a catalogue of photos of various sites I intend to put together entitled the Good, the bad and the ugly, I have discussed this on PDR as another attempt to get the right people in the room to eradicate the constant trend of poor house keeping and addressing the failure to follow the Trackback procedure which would assist with this.

Even when we complete a good job the mostly dangerous issues left behind tend to take away any glory and subsequent praise, there needs to be an awareness of the dangers of what we are leaving behind.

I have suggested that from my many site visits am under the impression that the solution is in some cases with stronger/more experienced site management and trackback managers.

My biggest concern in most of my reports at present is not when we are out there on site, but rather when we are not. Ashtead site visit this week has all but reaffirmed this for me as I was on holiday when the renewal and a week later a follow up weekend took place, I turn up on site over a week later and find these issues. Not only have they gone unnoticed for all this time, but the Trackback process that would have identified them before possession was given up has failed not once but twice.

I am sure the Babcock Team will certainly welcome the additional resource that has been much needed for some time, over a period of time some experienced staff have left and never really been replaced. This has just overloaded the guys currently working to put track in the ground, I can see it is a struggle and look forward to working with the additional resource to enable us to put all these issues behind us and move on.'“