FoFNL's convener appointed to Rail Industry Advisory Committee

The Office of Rail Regulation has appointed Mike Lunan to be a member of its Rail Industry Advisory Committee. In his RPC days Mike sat on this Committee (part of HSE, as the then safety regulator) as one of the two RPC-appointed members. Following the Ladbroke Grove crash Lord Cullen's Report included as one of its recommendations that, in addition to these two members, RIAC ought to have two "public interest" appointees. Mike is now one of these.

RIAC is concerned with safety matters, and is a genuinely cross-industry body with significant clout. If RIAC doesn't agree about a new proposal it won't happen. Its main input naturally comes from the Rail Safety and Standards Board (RSSB) and from Network Rail and the Association of Train Operating Companies (ATOC). However the rail unions and the RPC also play a substantial role in articulating the "people" side of safety as distinct from the "metal" side.

RIAC meets three times a year in London and Mike tells me he intends to travel there and back in as many different ways as possible, to compare long-distance travel modes. One of his first tasks is to discover, as a public interest member, quite how he reports back (and to whom). Maybe the FoFNL Newsletter will acquire greater importance as the only source of his reports. Get your order in now.