Plans to develop a sector-wide model for risk management is set to take another significant step forward with fresh research and software development.

The Light Rail Safety and Standards Board has already hosted a series of workshops to help operators familiarise themselves with the Risk Management Maturity Model (RM3), originally developed for heavy rail by the Office of Rail and Road.

Now, building on extensive work that’s already been done on sector risk models, the organisation responsible for further improving light rail safety is helping to take RM3 to the next level.

Mark Ashmore, LRSSB Safety and Assurance Manager, explained: “RM3 aims to provide an effective tool for assessing an organisation’s ability to successfully manage health and safety risks.

“It can also be used to identify areas for improvement, as well as providing a benchmark for year-on-year comparison, and the LRSSB is working closely with the ORR to ensure it meets the needs of our sector.”

To ensure its effectiveness in driving further safety improvements, the LRSSB is to undertaking research and development into a standardised software-based audit platform that incorporates the full range of RM3 criteria.

More specifically, this will include the integration of RM3 with the organisation’s own Risk Model and new Bowtie Risk analysis systems.

“In turn this integration of systems provides a continual development cycle that progressively drives down industry risk to ‘As Low as Reasonably Practicable’ levels, and identifies best practice by enabling operators to learn from each other,” Mark added.

Further information about RM3 can be found here.