The Rail Safety and Standards Board (RSSB) has published its Annual Business Plan for 2025-26, outlining a clear strategy supporting the rail industry in tackling its most pressing challenges. A key focus of the plan is a significant drive towards digital transformation, both within RSSB and in empowering the wider industry to safely adopt innovative technologies.
The business plan details RSSB’s commitment to its ambitious goal: that by 2030, every rail employee will rely onan RSSB tool or service daily, delivering essential value to the industry. To achieve this, RSSB is focusing on internal digital transformation, to enhance members’ experience, and committing to initiatives that will help industry embrace new technologies, including Artificial Intelligence (AI) and robotics.
“Digital transformation is no longer a future aspiration, it’s a present necessity for a high-performing and efficient railway,’ said Mark Phillips, RSSB’s Chief Executive.
“Our 2025-26 Business Plan places a strong emphasis on harnessing the power of technology, both within RSSB to better serve our members, and across the industry to unlock efficiencies, improve safety and drive innovation.”
The business plan also addresses other critical industry challenges identified by RSSB members, including reducing costs, safe and satisfied passengers, improving system reliability and resilience, freight safety and growth, and value to society and sustainability.
Key initiatives and benefits for the rail industry:
- Driving down costs: by improving data sharing and insights on safety incidents and workforce health, updated guidance on National Technical Specification Notices and new cost-benefit tools for safety investment decisions.
- Enhancing passenger safety and satisfaction:focusing on trespass, station risks, train over-speeding, standardising signage, risk frameworks, new standards and tools.
- Boosting system reliability and resilience:helping reduce disruptions and prevent collisions by researching new working methods, providing better tools to manage train wheel adhesion, piloting train driver alertness monitoring and improving data insights for a more reliable railway.
- Accelerating the adoption of new technology:enhance tools like PRIMA (the rain and wind risk tool), create frameworks and guidance for the application of AI and robotics in the rail sector, setting data standards to optimise the ability to share insights across the sector, encourage greater research uptake, and deliver data platforms for workforce health reporting, and sustainable infrastructure by design.
- Supporting freight safety and growth: create the conditions for freight growth by identifying opportunities for faster operations, improving network access with new gauging, enhancing driver welfare arrangements and tackling wagon wheel defects with predictive tools.
- Delivering value to society and sustainability: research dynamic battery charging and novel technologies, contributing to rail’s environmental leadership.
The 2025-26 Business Plan marks the second year of RSSB’s five-year strategy and demonstrates a clear commitment to driving progress and innovation in the rail industry.
Mark Phillips, Chief Executive of RSSB, commented: “Our collective focus must be on delivering an innovative railway that is punctual, reliable, safe, driving economic growth and serving the needs of fare payers.
“This Business Plan outlines RSSB’s clear commitment to support our members achieving these vital objectives. By focusing on data-driven improvements, embracing new technology, and fostering industry-wide collaboration we are confident that we can help build a thriving and sustainable rail network for the future.”
The RSSB Annual Business Plan 2025-26 is now available for download on the RSSB website at https://publications.rssb.co.uk/story/rssb-annual-business-plan-2025-26/page/1
0113 2082620