Midlands Metro Safety Review

BWB has recently been working closely with Midlands Metro to review their current route between Birmingham and Wolverhampton to identify any safety concerns along the route. Light rail currently falls between the gaps in terms of a safety audit process as the on-street sections are covered by the RSA process but mainly from a motorists, cyclists and pedestrian point of view and the off-street sections whilst usually run along old railway lines or alongside heavy rail lines are not covered as part of the heavy rail safety review.

As a result, BWB joined forces with the rail specialist SNC-Lavalin to provide an independent safety review of the existing line, examining recorded collision and near-miss data to identify any potential issues or incident hot spots. The route was also examined from a driver's eye view, to identify any safety concerns related to the signage, procedures or locations where trams are interacting with vehicular traffic, cyclists and pedestrians. Areas of interest were then identified to examine in more detail where an additional site visit was undertaken to examine the issues and recommend potential solutions to each problem. The report produced followed a similar format to that of the RSAs, but a bespoke document tailored for light rail.