Dr Lindsey Smith, HM Inspector of Railways at the Office of Road and Rail, has praised the light rail heritage sector for their willingness to engage with regulators on enhancing safety processes and risk management. Regular followers of heritage tramways in the UK will have noticed a renewed focus on heritage tramways in the past years and Dr Smith made her comments when attending a meeting of the UKTram Heritage Committee.
The ORR have recently launched a new Heritage Inspection Plan and Dr Smith said at the meeting that she was looking forward to a much closer working relationship with the Committee. She was also impressed with the willingness of the sector to drive further safety improvements.
Mike Crabtree, Chair of the Heritage Committee, said: “The safety and wellbeing of visitors, volunteers and employees has always been an overriding priority for operators, who are also custodians of our rich tramway heritage. The plan outlined by Dr Smith provides a significant boost for our renewed focus on safety as we strive to align our processes with the wider light rail sector.”