Rail Safety Week: Safety Starts Before Someone Reaches Site
3rd June 2026
Network Rail’s safety vision is simple: “Everyone Home Safe Every Day.” This message reflects something we strongly believe in at Advance TRS. In safety-critical environments, every person working across the railway deserves to go home safely at the end of every shift.
Rail Safety Week is an important opportunity to recognise the role everyone plays in maintaining safe working environments across the industry, both on site and behind the scenes.
Safety Starts Before Site
When people think about rail safety, they often think about what happens trackside: PPE, possessions, site briefings and safe systems of work. But in reality, a lot of the work starts before somebody even reaches the site.
At Advance TRS, we support rail contractors working across the UK rail network, helping ensure workers are compliant, competent, medically fit and prepared before work begins.
As a Sentinel sponsor, we are responsible for helping ensure contractors hold the correct competencies and certifications required for their role. We also support occupational health processes and compliance requirements.
We work closely with clients to ensure workers meet both rail industry standards and individual client requirements, including CDM Regulations.
Keeping Contractors Informed
Ongoing communication plays an important role in supporting contractor safety. Every month, we send safety briefings to our sponsored rail workers covering updates to legislation, rail standards, handbook changes and wider health and safety guidance.
A lot of this information comes from https://www.raas.co.uk/RAAS, our health and safety consultants, who provide quarterly updates on changes across the industry, including environmental guidance, rail standards and legislation updates.
We also share safety communications issued through Network Rail and Sentinel, including lessons learned from incidents and important operational reminders.
Where additional industry briefings are required, such as the 019 webinar briefing relating to safe work planning, we ensure workers complete the briefing, and that attendance is correctly logged on Sentinel.
These updates help keep safety front of mind and ensure workers remain informed about changes that may affect safe working practices.
Supporting Safe Working Environments
Before work begins, contractors receive site-specific inductions from clients covering areas such as safe access and egress routes, welfare facilities, emergency procedures, local risks and site safety arrangements.
Workers are also briefed on the line access arrangements, planned possessions and any local safety requirements relevant to the work being undertaken.
Our role is to support that process by helping ensure workers are fit to work, correctly equipped and prepared before deployment.
That includes checking competencies, reviewing medical declarations and helping ensure PPE is suitable and up to standard.
We also issue health surveillance forms and safety questionnaires covering areas such as fatigue, PPE, occupational wellbeing and training requirements.
Health surveillance processes help identify any concerns relating to hearing, vibration exposure, respiratory conditions or wider occupational health risks before they become larger issues.
Creating a Culture Where People Speak Up
A strong safety culture relies on people feeling comfortable raising concerns. If somebody feels unsafe while working, they must report it immediately, either through their line manager, consultant or directly to us. Where necessary, we will pull workers off-site while concerns are investigated.
Within Advance TRS, we have two key people looking after health and safety, risk and compliance across the business. They are:
Lauren Hawkins is the Safety Manager at Advance TRS, and oversees health, safety, risk and compliance across the business. With 10 years at Advance TRS and previous experience within rail recruitment, Lauren supports the company’s safety-first approach across highly regulated rail environments, including Sentinel sponsorship, occupational health processes, contractor compliance and industry accreditations such as RISQS and ISO 45001
Sam Jennings acts as our Safety Representative and supports employees and contractors who may need additional guidance or support around safety concerns.
Network Rail also reinforces the importance of speaking up and challenging unsafe conditions when identified. Creating a strong reporting culture is a key part of improving safety across the railway.
Supporting Wellbeing and Occupational Health
Safety is not only about physical risks. The rail industry can be demanding, and well-being plays an important role in helping people work safely and confidently.
At Advance TRS, we support occupational health referrals as required and help ensure that workers receive appropriate support when health concerns may affect their ability to work safely.
This can include referrals relating to medication, mental wellbeing or wider occupational health concerns. Where appropriate, contractors are referred to occupational health specialists for further assessment and support.
We also have two trained Mental Health First Aiders within the business, supporting both employees and contractors where needed.
Maintaining High Standards
Over the years, Advance TRS has continued to maintain high standards across health, safety, quality and compliance, successfully achieving:
- 12 RISQS audits
- 10 ISO audits
The business also maintains internationally recognised accreditations, including:
- ISO 9001 – Quality Management
- ISO 27001 – Information Security
- ISO 45001 – Occupational Health & Safety
Advance TRS is also proud to be a member of the Rail Forum, supporting collaboration, best practice and ongoing engagement across the wider UK rail industry.
These accreditations help demonstrate our commitment to compliance, continuous improvement and maintaining safe, healthy working environments across the business and wider rail industry, particularly through our ISO 45001 Occupational Health & Safety Management accreditation.
Advance TRS is proud to have a 0 Incident Frequency Rate (IFR) and Accident Frequency Rate (AFR) across 2024, 2025 and 2026 to date.
Building a Safe and Supportive Environment
We are proud of the safe and supportive environment we continue to build across the business. There is a genuine sense of teamwork and support at Advance TRS, and people genuinely care about doing things the right way. That shared commitment to safety, professionalism and continuous improvement helps create a culture where people feel supported, listened to and responsible for maintaining high standards across the business and the wider rail industry.
Rail Safety Week
Network Rail supports more than 200,000 people working across the rail industry, and maintaining a strong safety culture relies on everyone playing their part.
Whether you are working on site, managing projects, sponsoring workers or supporting operations behind the scenes, every role contributes to helping people get home safe every day.
Because safety starts before someone reaches the site.