CPA Bulletin

44 CPA Bulletin > August 2023 www.cpa.uk.net rail plant association RAIL PLANT ASSOCIATION: 1 With a full room of owners and members from across the UK, a busy agenda line up started off with an update from Jordon Skey, NWR Technical Head of Plant. Jordan presented recent safety alerts, an overview of plant standards and the much-anticipated product acceptance update. Jordan explained that a plan was being devised to deal with the issue in the medium to long term and a process is planned for publication by the end of 2023. The likely course of action is to include: 1) A process for “PA Lite”. 2) Machines requiring full PA at the next ECC recertification. This will also address some of the issues, such as prioritisation, filling the response gap, CE marking for HPV’s and lack of OEM design risk assessment. Phil Bennett NWR gave an overview of the outlook for CP7. TomMale NWR, presented a summary of the scheduled work-bank for Christmas and New Year 2023, which is shaping up to be a busy festive period for the sector. Leigh Goble NWR shared the latest Rail PPS data. A valued comment from the audience suggested that some of this data would be valuable in the retrospective PAB application process. A full review of RPA conditions has been conducted by Steve Featherstone and the legal team at CPA. These have been circulated for members comments and we hope to publish the final document in September/October. These revised Terms & Conditions are crucial for the RPA community, as well as the clients. The RPA Board of Directors held a meeting prior to the RPA Leadership meeting, and agreed to extend Steve Featherstone’s contract as the RPA Consultant to enable him to continue his work for the RPA for a further 12 months. May I take this opportunity to thank Steve for all his endeavours and look forward to working alongside to achieve the all-important wins for the RPA membership as set out by the owners and Directors. A review of Rail Plant Fitter Guidance documents and assessment material is in its final stages of revamp. A team of dedicated RPA members have been working tirelessly and the first draft should be ready for consultation in the coming weeks. The layout of the guidance material will provide a valuable reference suite to all fitters, mature and new to industry. Covering a number of subjects including safety systems, maintenance, inspection and testing. A special thank you to Ian Morgan for leading on this work. Rail Live 2023 Another well attended and productive Rail Live show at Long Marston. Hopefully all the RPA members and wider exhibitors had a beneficial few days on site, the weather was outstanding, as usual. Although logistics were a tad challenging at times it was great to see a busy event after the darker days of Covid restrictions. Plant Haulage Amongst a wide array of visitors, a Highway’s Agency representative along with a police officer from the Central Motorway Police group came to discuss the transportation of rail plant, the importance of embargos, and the requirement of no movement of loads on certain public holidays. I explained that public holidays were key days within our industry for key deliveries. A wider discussion will need to be arranged with Network Rail and the Principal contractors on this subject to establish the full facts and explore possible dispensation in the event of emergency requirements. I have raised the matter at the RPA Management Committee and the Infrastructure Safety Leadership Group on the 11th of July. It is imperative that whilst compliance and legal requirements are met, plant deliveries and collections are key to work delivery. Any delay could have serious ramifications. RPA Standards Review The RPA standards review team lead by Bill Phenix and supported by Zak Allan and Florin Stanciu, have completed the June 23 review. A big thanks to these chaps for their collaborative efforts on behalf of the members. Standards, Regulations and Legislation as detailed in the RPA Standards and Legislation Register - are checked for any new issues, withdrawals, derogations etc. RGS can be found electronically at www.rssb.co.uk and Business Standards at www.ihs.co.uk . The new standard or changed standard are reviewed to determine its effect on RPA Members. The summary notes are used for this purpose before reading the complete standard to see if it is applicable to RPA Members. Below is a list of the changes to various Standard, Legislation/HS, Code of Practice, Rule Books and Posters that are new issue, have been amended since the last update or require compliance before the next standards review. Changes in line with Standards Review – June 23 Review Date 6th Jun 2023 1. NR-CAT-STP-001 - Catalogue of Network Rail Standards 03 June - 01 September 2023 - Issue 12 2. NR-L2-OHS-021 - Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) Issue 5 3. NR-L3-MTC-RCS0216 - Risk Control Manual Issue 26 RPA Leadership Meeting 4th July 2023 held at Hockley Heath