July 23, 2025
Freight Safe Programme’s ‘Horizon Scanning Service’ to be launched
The Freight Safe Programme, which was established in 2024 to ensure forthright and continuous innovations in rail freight for the benefit of the industry and its customers, has produced a process to identify emerging and future risks to the sector.
‘Horizon Scanning’, a structured process for considering potential problems, threats, opportunities and likely future developments, such as extreme weather conditions or cyber-attacks, has been identified as a key consideration for the rail freight industry in harnessing opportunities and mitigating challenges. Over 10 months, a development project to provide tools to aid freight companies in planning for future risks was put into place, overseen by the Freight Safe Programme (FSP) and in partnership with the Foresight and Horizon Scanning Team at the Rail Safety Standards Board (RSSB).
Geoff Spencer, Chair of the Freight Safe Programme Steering Group, said:
“The Freight Safe Programme was put into place to provide opportunities to propel the rail freight sector into the future as leaders in safety for the benefit of all customers in the supply chain. Rail freight plays a vital role in the country’s economy in keeping goods moving efficiently and in an environmentally friendly way, with every freight train, on average, taking 76 lorry movements from our congested roads.
“Projects such as the Horizon Scanning Service put rail freight companies on the front foot so that they are better prepared to foresee challenges they may face in the future and to create strategies to lessen the impact on customers if they do occur.”
The ‘Horizon Scanning Service’ will deliver quarterly reports on emerging risks, alongside support for organisations to assist them in using the information.
Guy Yeomans, Principal – Horizon Scanning at RSSB, said:
“The primary motivation for the scanning service is to address a recognised gap in that the sector, previously, had no shared evidence and risk-based understanding of future risks and emerging safety hazards. This service gives the industry a quarterly ‘Horizon Scanning Brief’, which presents research and analysis on possible emerging risks, a tool to evaluate the risks and follow-on tracking and monitoring options.”
The first edition of the ‘Freight Emerging Risks Horizon Scanning Brief’ is due to be released in September 2025.
About the Freight Safe Programme
The FSP was launched in early 2024 and brings together key stakeholders to build on rail freight’s strong safety performance. It leads on key safety projects to give expertise across the industry on any potential challenges and risks. It is led by a steering group of senior and experienced professionals from across rail freight. The programme is a collaborative rail freight industry undertaking, which is partly funded by Network Rail’s Freight Safety Improvement Portfolio (FSIP) as well as funding coming from freight operating companies and other key stakeholders.
