OREANDA-NEWS. The roll out of a new set of minimum standards for all organisations working with Network Rail and representing it on the railway has been announced today. The new ‘code of conduct’ has been launched to ensure that the 250,000 people who are working towards delivering the Railway Upgrade Plan on Britain’s railway infrastructure meet minimum standards on safety, and treat customers and communities with politeness and respect.

The new standards highlight Network Rail’s commitment to customers, passengers, lineside neighbours and wider communities affected by work on the railway. Britain’s railway is more popular than ever – every day four million people use the network and today it carries 50 per cent more passengers than it did 10 years ago. Launching this new code of conduct will ensure all Network Rail’s contractors and subcontractors share the same set of values and will set out what companies working with them can expect in return. By implementing this new code across their supply chain Network Rail hope to improve the reputation of the rail industry as a whole.

The code sets out standards of behaviour for all suppliers, including being safe, polite, respectful and helpful when working in the community. Safe behaviours are a minimum requirement for everyone who works with the organisation and suppliers must sign up to the organisation’s ‘ten lifesaving rules’ to ensure everyone is home safe every day. The code also highlights the expected standards of training for all staff working on behalf of the rail operator and promotes health and wellbeing of the entire workforce.

Mark Carne, chief executive of Network Rail explains: “The railway depends on the people who work on it. Ensuring that these people behave in a professional and appropriate way is therefore of critical importance to us and to the customers and communities we serve.

“We want to work together with those who share our determination to continuously improve this area. We want to provide clarity on what we expect from our people and the support they can expect from us. This code of conduct will help us do that.”   

In order to ensure all suppliers are upholding this new code of conduct Network Rail will:

  • Ask for inappropriate behaviour to be reported
  • Follow up all complaints from lineside neighbours and fully investigate all reported incidents
  • Encourage workers to hold each other to account when there is inappropriate behaviour.

Network Rail has already begun to roll out this new code to existing suppliers and has provided materials to ensure expectations on community behaviours are cascaded throughout the supply chain. Suppliers are now also expected to provide full staff training on community behaviours before they start any job on the railway. 

About Network Rail

Network Rail owns, manages and develops Britain's railway - the 20,000 miles of track, 40,000 bridges and viaducts, and the thousands of signals, level crossings and stations (the largest of which we also run). In partnership with train operators we help people take more than 1.6bn journeys by rail every year - double the number of 1996 - and move hundreds of millions of tonnes of freight, saving almost 8m lorry journeys. We're investing £40bn in the railway by 2019 through our Railway Upgrade Plan to deliver more frequent, more reliable, safer services and brighter and better stations.