Asset Protection and Optimisation
Working near the railway? Stay Safe with ASPRO.
Asset Protection and Optimisation teams (ASPRO) provide expert railway assistance and support to those who are planning activities on or near the railway.
ASPRO provide you with rail safety assurance services such as; construction, engineering and infrastructure access.
Watch our video to find out what Asset Protection and Optimisation is.
Watch this video to see the size and scope of the work that our Asset Protection & Optimisation team support.
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Working by the railway? Why should I contact ASPRO?
If you are thinking about working on or near the railway, it is important to that you contact your local ASPRO team, to support you in delivering safety and in compliance with the relevant legislation and regulations.
The rail network is divided into a number of geographical routes and High Speed 1. If you are planning on doing any work near the railway please contact your local ASPRO team who are your gateway to supporting you in delivering your work safely.
Working near the railway can be a dangerous environment and we are in a position to help you navigate the risks. Network Rail is committed to safety so we want to help you deliver your works safely and securely.
To help you achieve your time frames please contact us as early as possible in your planning process, this will enable us to best support you in delivering successfully.
How to contact us about your work
The Network Rail Asset Protection & Optimisation team are continually focused on improving interactions with our customers, so to support this process we have introduced a new system for submitting new enquiries and tracking existing schemes, the Asset Protection Customer Experience (ACE).
If you prefer to use the manual process, please complete the questionnaire below and send to your local ASPRO team. Once we have received your questionnaire, we aim to provide an initial response within five working days.
Downloads
The ASPRO teams can help you with a multitude of works including:
- construction sites near the railway
- utility works (water, electric, gas, cabling etc.)
- radio transmitters
- bridge works
- domestic maintenance (e.g. roof, scaffolding, building repair and maintenance)
- new road schemes
- inspection and surveying
- works within the designated precautionary area of level crossings
- domestic related projects (e.g. house extension) under domestic maintenance (e.g. roof, scaffolding, building repair and maintenance)
Asset protection and optimisation management of third party works on Network Rail Infrastructure
To support the mitigation of potential risks to the railway when third party organisations work on or near the infrastructure, we have made the standard more readily available. You can download the standard ‘asset protection and optimisation management of third party works on Network Rail infrastructure’ from our downloads for third parties page.
This standard applies to third party works being undertaken where Network Rail is not the sole client, including the asset protection assurance of works being undertaken by a third party, to assets that will be taken over by Network Rail for operation and/or maintenance.
ASPRO do not deal with emergency works. For emergencies, contact:
- Network Rail emergencies
- HS1 emergencies 01233 739 450
There are other specialist teams within Network Rail that cover the areas listed below:
- town and country planning
- property sales
- complaints
- power outages
- buried services
- abnormal loads
- vegetation management
- graffiti and vandalism
Managing risk to the network
Working by the railway can be both a risk to your works and our infrastructure. We are keen to work in collaboration with all our customers and lineside neighbours to safeguard you and the railway.
We’ve looked at 41 separate categories of risk that could cause problems, delays or extra cost to a project on the railway and analysed where Network Rail can take ownership of that risk, or made it clear who will cover it. An ‘industry risk fund’ has been established to enable Network Rail to take the risk and fund liabilities when projects encounter certain unforeseen industry related problems. The default risk allocation table is available from our downloads for third parties page and details each potential risk and who is responsible for it – Network Rail, the industry risk fund, the sponsoring customer or the enhancement contractor.
Our ASPRO teams advise on the potential impact of different kinds of work including construction, maintenance and work near level crossings. They can visit you on site and give advice at meetings.
Open for Business
We are making it easier for other organisations to invest in and build on the railway. As we become more open for business, we are reviewing and amending our standards, practices and approach to risk management, streamlining processes to make it easier to work with us.
Reforms to our ASPRO organisation so far include: new leadership roles, a national framework, service level commitments, customer satisfaction surveys and risk clarification.
Give us feedback – customer satisfaction surveys
As Network Rail owns and operates Britain’s railway, our responsibility to run and maintain it safely can mean other organisations feel we are difficult to work with when delivering railway projects. Recognising this, we are implementing a number of reforms to break down barriers and make it easier to work with us.
To ensure we’re making the right changes, we’ve started conducting customer satisfaction surveys with third parties we work with and have committed to regularly reporting on the results.
If you’ve worked with Network Rail’s asset protection and optimisation teams and would like to give us feedback, please complete our customer satisfaction survey.
The results from our latest customer satisfaction survey can be found on our downloads for third parties page.