Congratulations to IP Track on winning the British Safety Council Sword of Honour.

IP Track has gained the British Safety Council's 'Five Star Occupational Health and Safety Grading' on its first attempt.

The five-star grading is an international accolade that is used worldwide to benchmark safety management systems against best practice and promote continuous improvement.

The achievement was made all the more special as IP Track also received not one, but four swords of honour - an elite 'best of the best' accolade on top of the five-star grading.

Team effort

The four swords were awarded to the delivery teams: Plain Line Track, High Output, Switches and Crossings North and Switches and Crossings South, with support from central functions integral to the award along with the work of the Track Safety Alliance (TSA), which brings together Network Rail, principal contractors, the supply chain and the trade unions to work collaboratively to improve track worker safety.

Francis Paonessa, managing director, Infrastructure Projects, said: "It's a real team effort to deliver safety results of this standard and I would like to personally thank Steve Featherstone and his programme for the sheer determination to achieve this high status in just over a year.

"There will be many people positively impacted by the steps they have introduced, increasing our workforce safety and our delivery performance, as we have seen their correlation time and time again."

Magnificent achievement

"Being the first to achieve this grading in Network Rail, it is important that we share the lessons learnt across the business, with the hope that this is the start of many more honours."

Mark Carne, chief executive, also recognised the importance of this achievement, commenting: "This is a really magnificent achievement, let's remember our colleagues, unknown and with no names, that will go home safely because of what you are doing. On their behalf, thank you."

The team were formally recognised and awarded the honours at the official British Safety Council Swords of Honour lunch on the 25th November.

Above are the knights, together with their respective swords.  And, yes, they are real swords!

L-R Adrian Fricker, Said Lahssioui, Bill Cooke, Neil Johnson, Steve Featherstone, Brian Paynter,Graham Hopkins, Ben Brooks, Steve Gibbins and Nick Millington

Commenting after the event, our programme director, Steve Featherstone was justifiably proud of our efforts:
"I am so proud of all the teams in IP Track that won this prestigious award, let's use this and keep our focus on making sure everyone gets home safe every day. The real value is the journey, holding the mirror up and reflecting on what we need to do next. This is what will drive our continuous improvement not just in safety but in everything we do"