ROGS: The Railways and Other Guided Transport Systems (Safety) Regulations 2006

ORR has commissioned Noble Denton Associates to undertake a three-year monitoring and evaluation exercise of the performance and impact of the Railways and Other Guided Transport Systems (Safety) Regulations 2006 (ROGS). Findings from the monitoring and evaluation exercise can be found on The impact of ROGS on the rail industry page.

ROGS came into force in 2006. They put in place some of the main requirements of the Safety Directive on mainline railways in Great Britain. The regulations require most railway operators to maintain a safety management system (SMS) and hold a safety certificate or authorisation indicating the SMS has been accepted by the Office of Rail Regulation.

We have taken the opportunity to introduce a common framework for safety across other methods of guided transport, such as metros, tramways and heritage railways, and have updated the law on safety critical work.

On this page

What has ROGS changed?

ROGS replaced several sets of railway safety regulations:

Who must comply with ROGS?

  • Transport undertakings - Any person or organisation that operates a vehicle in relation to any infrastructure. People or organisations that only carry out work in ‘engineering possessions’ (meaning sections of track closed to normal traffic for maintenance work) are not included. Only some of the duties in ROGS apply to them.
  • Infrastructure managers - Any person or organisation responsible for developing and maintaining infrastructure or for managing and operating a station and manages or uses that infrastructure or station or allows it to be used for the operation of a vehicle.

What must I do to meet the requirements of ROGS?

The most important parts of ROGS are as follows:

Safety management systems

ROGS places a duty on operators to develop safety management systems that are capable of ensuring their transport system runs safely.
The safety management system should be adapted to fit the size and nature of the business – for a smaller organisation a simpler safety management system should be more appropriate.

Safety verification

Operators must show that they have procedures in place to introduce new or altered vehicles or infrastructure safely. Operators are now responsible for this. Where a new or significantly increased risk is involved, they must appoint an independent competent person (either an internal person from the organisation, or someone externally) to help them make sure they go through the right processes.

Safety certificates and authorisations

Under ROGS, no one is allowed to operate vehicles or manage infrastructure on GB railways unless they have obtained the appropriate safety certificate or authorisation from us. Applicants need to show how their safety management system allows them to run their transport system safely.

We will now focus on checking that safety management systems are effective and fit for the purpose they are being used for. Lower-risk sectors (tramways and transport systems that do not run at speeds above 40 kilometres per hour) do not need safety certificates, but must still have a written safety management system in place.

Risk assessments

ROGS place a specific duty to carry out risk assessments and put in place the measures they have identified as necessary to make sure the transport system is run safely.

Transport operators' annual safety reports

Any transport operator who holds a safety certificate or authorisation must send us an annual report on their safety performance. More information can be found in annual safety reports.

Duty of cooperation/dispute resolution

ROGS also gives operators a duty to work together to make sure the transport system is run safely.

Safety critical work

Operators and their contractors have clear duties under ROGS to make sure their employees who carry out safety critical tasks are suitably competent and fit to do so. This also includes making sure these employees are not affected by fatigue.

Last updated: 25 March 2010

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