2.3 Trackside Personal Protective Equipment Standards

PPE, the Law and Your Sponsor

Personal protective equipment (PPE) is the last line of defence in the hierarchy of control. On the railway the higher controls come first: keeping people away from trains (line blockages and possessions), physical separation (fences and barriers), and then warning systems. PPE cannot stop a train, but it protects you from everyday injuries and makes you conspicuous to drivers and machine operators.

The Personal Protective Equipment at Work Regulations 1992 require employers to provide suitable PPE and workers to use it properly. On the Sentinel scheme, your Primary Sponsor must provide PPE at no cost to you, marked to identify who you are working for, with training in how to use it and a process to replace it when it is lost or damaged (Sentinel Scheme Rules 3.2.3). You in turn must report for duty with the right PPE for your duties.

The PTS handbook (RT3170, section 4.2) puts it simply: your employer gives you the PPE and shows you how to use it; you must keep it clean, check it for damage, report any defects, and wear it properly, because PPE only protects you if you wear it correctly.

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The "All-Orange" Minimum

When you are on or near the line or on the lineside, you are required to follow the all-orange commitment. The PTS handbook lists the minimum mandatory items:

Depending on your work or the site rules, you might also have to wear other items such as hearing, hand, eye or respiratory protection, coveralls or task-specific safety footwear. Your briefing will tell you.

High-Visibility Clothing

Railway high-visibility clothing on Network Rail infrastructure is orange, as specified in the rail industry standard RIS-3279-TOM (which replaced GO/RT3279) and Network Rail's PPE standard NR/L2/OHS/021. The garments are made to EN ISO 20471, which grades high-visibility clothing into classes by the area of fluorescent and retroreflective material. Training providers, for example, ask PTS candidates to bring orange HV upper-body clothing of at least class 2 and HV lower-body clothing of at least class 1 for the practical session. Yellow road-style garments do not meet the railway requirement.

Wear HV clothing fastened, clean and undamaged: dirt reduces its visibility, and loose clothing can snag on equipment or be caught by the air from a passing train.

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Safety Helmets

Head protection is made to EN 397. On Network Rail infrastructure only white and blue safety helmets are used:

The PTS handbook explains that a newly qualified PTS holder is inexperienced in the rules and must wear a blue safety helmet until they and their sponsor agree that they are sufficiently experienced. The blue helmet lets the COSS and colleagues see at a glance who may need extra support.

Good helmet practice:

• use the chin strap where there is a risk of the helmet falling off;
• do not paint the shell or apply stickers that the manufacturer has not approved, because some adhesives and solvents can weaken the plastic; your sponsor's name or logo may be applied in the approved way;
• replace a helmet after any significant impact or at the end of the service life set by the manufacturer.

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Safety Footwear

Walking on ballast means shifting stones, slopes and uneven ground. Training providers specify Network Rail-approved lace-up safety boots with a steel toecap and midsole. Safety footwear to EN ISO 20345 has a toecap tested against a 200-joule impact and a 15 kN compression load, and a penetration-resistant midsole tested to 1,100 newtons.

• Lace-up boots hold your foot and support your ankle on loose ballast. Pull-on rigger boots, trainers and slip-on shoes do not meet the lace-up requirement.
• Safety boots do not insulate you from electricity, which is why the electrical rules in chapters 4 and 5 rely on distance and isolation, not footwear.

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Workwear, Glasses and Other PPE

• Workwear is the clothing you wear to work. Comply with your employer's policy and wear clothing suitable for the work, location and conditions. Full-length trousers are compulsory to protect you from lineside vegetation and from slips, trips and falls.
• Sunglasses are allowed in bright conditions, but do not use tinted glasses if your job requires you to see colours. Take care with lenses that react to changes in light: they do not always react quickly if it suddenly gets dark, for example when you enter a tunnel or cutting.
• Eye protection to EN 166 is needed for tasks such as cutting, grinding or handling chemicals.
• Gloves must suit the task; training providers specify cut-resistant gloves (EN 388 cut level 5 or the newer level E) on Network Rail Infrastructure Projects worksites.
• Hearing protection (EN 352) can stop you hearing a warning. If you think you might not hear a site warden or lookout warning, move to a position of safety and tell the COSS. When a group is wearing ear protection, a lookout may give the warning by touch.