A railroad’s men and women are one of the greatest resources an operator can have to improve operator safety. Their institutional knowledge cannot be taught in a class and only comes with years of experience working on the system. Keolis values this knowledge and holds it as one of our greatest assets in improving safety.
One such way we have utilized this is through Confidential Close-Call Reporting System (C3RS). In Boston, we teamed with our labor partners, the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority and the Federal Railroad Administration to become part of the Confidential Close-Call Reporting System (C3RS), a voluntary program that allows Keolis employees to anonymously report a safety problem or close call event to a third party, in this case, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA). This program would not have been possible without the support from our labor partners. It allows us to focus on the problem rather than the people. Our focus is on proactively addressing any and all safety issues before they become incidents. The FRA’s C3RS Pilot Program Midterm Report concluded that C3RS improves labor-management relationships and employee engagement – an important key to safety.
C3RS is used as a complement to our existing safety programs. Keolis has also created joint Labor-Management Safety Committees in all Departments. These Committees focus on safety issues brought forward by the men and women in the field. In addition to the Safety Committees, Working Groups are also established to address issues that remain unresolved after 90 days at the Committee Level. The Working Groups are organized to utilize whatever resources are needed at a higher level to assist the Committees in addressing the unresolved issues. Should funding or resources become an impediment to eliminating a safety concern, the matter is pushed up to a Safety and Security Steering Committee made up of senior managers including financial officers which meets on a quarterly basis.
At each step along the way, it is the worker in the field who is key to addressing the issues. Safety is everyone’s responsibility and working together as a team is most important to our success.
Justin Vonashek is the chief safety, security, emergency preparedness & regulatory compliance officer at Keolis Commuter Services in Boston, Massachusetts.
