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Coyle Rail Shortlisted for Safety Achievement of the Year at the National Rail Awards 2026

Coyle Rail has been shortlisted for the Safety Achievement of the Year award at the National Rail Awards 2026, in recognition of the Behavioural Safety Programme (BSP) developed and delivered in partnership with Network Rail's Anglia and Western routes. The full shortlist will be announced shortly in RAIL magazine, with the winners revealed at a ceremony on Thursday 17th September at the Grosvenor House Hotel on Park Lane, London.

The nomination reflects the scale of Coyle Rail's operations as much as the strength of the programme itself. As Core Labour Supplier and Managed Service Provider to Network Rail across the Anglia and Western routes, Coyle Personnel delivers close to 940,000 hours of labour a year, supporting over 800 safety-critical shifts a week. A programme built to change behaviour at that scale had to work for every team, on every shift, not just in a training room.

Why implement a Behavioural Safety Programme?

The BSP was born out of necessity. Over a six-month period, Coyle Rail saw a run of avoidable accidents involving experienced, competent staff. Investigation pointed not to a lack of skill or training, but to behavioural factors such as complacency, a reluctance to challenge unsafe acts, inconsistent leadership, and gaps in briefing and communication.

Coyle Rail's leadership team engaged with behavioural safety consultants and specialists, but none of the established programmes on the market fitted the way Coyle Rail works. The decision was taken to build one from scratch, designed specifically for the workforce it would serve rather than adapted from somewhere else.

Listening to our workers

Before a single session was designed, 100 members of the Coyle Rail workforce were surveyed to understand what they genuinely thought about safety on site. The results were clear. Workers wanted greater engagement, more interaction with managers, better leadership standards, more development opportunities and more consistent communication. Those findings became the backbone of the entire programme, ensuring it was shaped by the workforce rather than imposed on it.

Delivering the programme

The BSP was delivered through four workforce engagement modules, each run as a short session before a shift and followed up with an observational site visit:

Module 1: Setting Standards
Module 2: PPE, Tools and Equipment
Module 3: Challenging, Reporting and Escalation
Module 4: Safety Leadership

Every session ended with the team agreeing their own commitment actions, covering areas such as timekeeping, briefing, equipment checks and PPE compliance. The format has been rolled out consistently across sites, from the Exeter CS Team's sessions on sleeper changing and access and egress, to the Gloucester Core P-way Team's work on plant checks and complacency. In every case, safety conversations were led by the people doing the work, not instructions handed down to them.

To sustain that culture beyond the sessions themselves, 20 Safety Leaders have been appointed from within the workforce. Their role is to liaise with management, reinforce standards, monitor commitments, identify further training needs and act as visible role models on site, supported by dedicated Safety Leadership Workshops for both Safety Leaders and Team Leaders.

Achieving measurable results

Since the programme launched in October 2025, 151 workers have completed Module 1 and 115 have completed Module 2, alongside the 20 Safety Leader volunteers. PPE requests and training requests have both increased, and compliance in safety inspections has improved.

The safety performance data tells the same story. Year on year across Anglia and Western routes frontline labour, hours worked increased by 12 percent while RIDDOR specified injuries fell by 100 percent, RIDDOR 7-day injuries fell by 33 percent, the Accident Frequency Rate fell by 64 percent, Lost Time Injuries fell by 50 percent and the Lost Time Injury Frequency Rate fell by 60 percent. Coyle Rail has recorded zero Lost Time Injuries in 2026 to date.

The impact is best summed up by the people delivering the work. Gary Austin, Works Delivery Operative in Exeter, said:

“The team are finding it positive to have nightly conversations about the commitments they made. It’s a good way to stay focused on safety and keep on top of the checks required.”

Jack Layzell, Team Leader in Stratford, said:

“The programme has helped the team improve communication with each other and with the client, with everyone listening and understanding more, both as individuals and as a team.”

Looking to the future

The programme continues to evolve based on ongoing workforce feedback. Further Safety Leadership Workshops are being rolled out, and a new Safety Critical module is in development, with a focus on shift preparation and safety-critical communications. What began as a response to a specific problem on Anglia and Western has grown into something Coyle Rail believes is simple, practical and transferable across the wider rail industry.

A huge congratulations to everyone across the Coyle Rail workforce, our Safety Leaders, and our colleagues at Network Rail Anglia and Western, whose partnership made this programme and this nomination possible. We'll be cheering the team on at the Grosvenor House Hotel on 17th September, and we'll share the result here on the Coyle Journal as soon as we have it.