David Johnson has become suicide prevention manager at the railtrack firm Network Rail for the London North Western (LNW) route.
He’s on secondment from Virgin Trains, where he had a similar role covering the southern end of the LNW route. His original appointment, and the extension of his role, is in response to recommendations within the final report of the West Coast South Reliability Programme (also known as the Gibb Report).
David’s expanded role will see him work with the Samaritans charity and British Transport Police, and rail passenger and freight train operators to help reduce such incidents across Network Rail’s LNW route.
David Johnson said: “Any fatality or attempt by someone to take their life on the railway not only hurts the family and friends of those involved, but can also have a devastating effect on train crew, station and track staff. The whole industry is working together to take ownership of this issue to reduce the impact on our people, the network and our passengers and I’m proud to take on this new role to be part of that. One message I want to get across is that the work we have done already has helped prevent fatalities, which are far from inevitable.”
Network Rail says that it and train operating company partners have been working together on a five year programme with Samaritans which has seen thousands of railway staff taking part in courses designed to reduce the risk of suicides. Support posters and signage from the Samaritans at stations and other locations is also aimed at reducing the impact that suicides have upon the railway and communities.
Network Rail adds that it continues to invest on active and passive suicide mitigation measures across the LNW and other routes. These include the installation of station and lineside fencing, improved CCTV and security lighting, and staff training.
Background
Virgin says that around 70 per cent of delays to its services are attributable to Network Rail – around 35pc of which are down to infrastructure faults and around 25pc to external factors such as cable theft, fatalities, trespass, vandalism and extreme weather. The remaining 10% are caused by operational issues.
In November 2012, following a six-month secondment to Network Rail, Chris Gibb, Gibb, Chief Operating Officer, Virgin Trains, published his recommendations for how Network Rail could improve the West Coast Main Line. Chris spent time with maintenance crews, mostly at night, and the recommendations were largely the ideas he heard from those staff.
