The tram industry is to set up a new body to implement the recommendations of the investigation into the Croydon tram crash.
Regulator the Office of Rail and Road (ORR) held a safety summit last month in response to the Rail Accident Investigation Branch’s (RAIB) report into the accident in November 2016.
Seven people died and 62 were injured when a tram overturned on a bend approaching a junction at Sandilands, Croydon.
The RAIB report, published in December 2017, included 15 recommendations aimed at improving safety for passengers and staff, including using technology, such as automatic braking and systems to monitor driver alertness, and a dedicated safety body for UK tramways
At the summit the ORR called on the industry to work together to ensure that the report’s cross-sector recommendations are implemented as efficiently and quickly as possible ‘and ensure that the right decisions are taken in the right order and at an appropriate pace’.
Industry representatives and the ORR are now setting up a steering group for a shadow board, which will start agreeing a timetable for putting the recommendations into action.
The ORR said that it and colleagues across the tram industry, ‘remain united in their determination to take action to ensure that the Croydon tragedy is never repeated’.
Separately, Transport for London (TfL) officials have said they would consider carrying out RAIB-style investigations into other fatal incidents on the TfL network.
TfL Board member Dr Lynn Sloman made the suggestion at a meeting last week after a report disclosed that 177 people died on the TfL network in 2016/17, including the tram crash fatalities and 116 deaths on the roads.
Officials, including commissioner Mike Brown, stated that they were considering a more forensic approach to investigating fatalities and had held discussions with the RAIB.
TfL has a ‘Vision Zero’ target of eliminating deaths and serious injuries from its road network by 2041.
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