The RSS Safety Barrier gains efficiency for the Energlyn project

The Energlyn project in Caerphilly South Wales is a joint venture between Morgan Sindall and Colas Rail. Having seen a demonstration of the RSS Magnetically attached Safety Barrier by Innovative Railway Safety Ltd of Swansea, it was decided that this innovative solution to workforce protection, together with the obvious time and cost saving implications, should be trialled for the benefit of the railway infrastructure in Wales and the Western Region.

Tim Thorne, Project Manager for Morgan Sindall decided following a brief training session by IRS to replace the existing conventional barrier with the Network Rail approved RSS Safety Barrier. His comments are as follows: “We placed one operative, on one midweek line block shift, with the task of taking down the 100m of Vortok fencing that we had in place, and replacing it with the same length of magnetic safety fence. Taking down the Vortok and reinstating the ballast took several hours (considerably less, it should be noted, than installation would have taken one man). Installing the magnetic safety fence took 20 minutes. And with no disruption to the ballast under the rails. The efficiency gain is there to see and all operatives have been comfortable working and walking behind the fence line.”