High level solution

The Lanes Group has developed a simple safety device that, it believes, has the potential to transform working at height across the rail industry, improving safety, productivity and staff satisfaction.

The rail safety strop is attached to the rail, acting as a restraint point, to stop staff working at height from entering unsafe areas and preventing falls. It has been developed by the Lanes Group's Rail Division at Rainham, working in partnership with London Underground (LUL).

It has been approved for use on LUL's network, but Scott Tracey, the division's health and safety manager, who led development of the device, says it has applications across the rail industry: "The rail safety strop takes a quarter of the time to set up, compared with the system it replaces.

It can be operated by one or two operators, rather than four, is one tenth of the cost and virtually eliminates trip hazards." The device replaces a conventional weighted man-anchor system, which has 10 components, together weighing 250kg, and which must be partially dismantled and reassembled 24 times to complete work on an average platform. The rail safety strop has one component and weighs just 4kg.