ASSIGN: Advisory System for SIGNallers for improved User Worked Crossing Resilience

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Thales and their partners are collaborating to develop the ASSIGN (Advisory System for SIGNallers) solution for improved User Worked Crossing (UWC) Resilience. John Halsall, South East route managing director at Network Rail has stated: “Level crossings remain the biggest source of risk on the rail network.” Currently around five people a year are killed at level crossings in Britain with hundreds of reported near misses. Of these, the 1700 UWC equipped with telephones contribute to 12.5% and 19% of pedestrian and vehicular related fatalities respectively [ORR2016-Strategy for regulation of health and safety risks - 4: Level crossings]. At these crossings, it is the responsibility of the signaller to determine if it is safe for the user to cross; with UWC in long block sections, the signallers often have to make this decision without knowing the current position of a train in relation to a UWC. The lack of exact train positioning often means that to the signaller has to deny permission to cross, and this increases risk taking behaviours by people faced with long waits. ASSIGN brings together novel robust positioning technology with existing rail cloud-based system to create a new first of a kind application to provide train time of arrival information at UWCs to signallers. This system aims to allow signallers to quickly validate the decisions that they make and thus giving greater resilience to the infrastructure they control. The ASSIGN system will be installed to monitor train movement along the Barnstaple Branch Line, which has over 25 UWCs in a 20-mile section and is specifically identified by the ORR as a key challenge to Network Rail that they must address to improve safety and operations. Signallers will be trialling and helping refine the ASSIGN user interface, and evidence from this trial will be used to inform ASSIGN roll-out across the UK.