From Paper to Protection: How Digital Transformation Is Saving Lives in Rail
Every year, thousands of incidents in the rail sector highlight one painful truth: knowing about a hazard too late can cost lives.
According to the Rail Safety and Standards Board (RSSB), there were over 6,200 workforce injuries and 157 near misses involving track workers in the UK during the last reporting year. Tragically, multiple fatalities continue to occur due to avoidable issues like missed briefings, incomplete documentation or poor visibility into real-time site conditions. These statistics drive home the need for smarter, more responsive safety systems.
According to the Rail Safety and Standards Board (RSSB), there were over 6,200 workforce injuries and 157 near misses involving track workers in the UK during the last reporting year. Tragically, multiple fatalities continue to occur due to avoidable issues like missed briefings, incomplete documentation or poor visibility into real-time site conditions. These statistics drive home the need for smarter, more responsive safety systems.
The Problem with Paper
Despite growing safety demands, many rail operators still rely on outdated, manual and paper-based systems for incident reporting and compliance tracking. These legacy processes introduce unnecessary risk: data arrives too late to act on, records are inconsistent or lost and teams are left guessing instead of knowing.
Paper-based systems slow everything down. From reporting near misses to verifying workforce competency, critical moments are missed in the shuffle of physical forms and siloed spreadsheets. This not only hampers decision-making, it puts lives at risk.
Ultimately, these processes make teams reactive, not proactive, discovering issues only once the opportunity to prevent them has passed.
Paper-based operations deliver delays, uncertainty and blind spots, as well as:
Paper-based systems slow everything down. From reporting near misses to verifying workforce competency, critical moments are missed in the shuffle of physical forms and siloed spreadsheets. This not only hampers decision-making, it puts lives at risk.
Ultimately, these processes make teams reactive, not proactive, discovering issues only once the opportunity to prevent them has passed.
Paper-based operations deliver delays, uncertainty and blind spots, as well as:
The Digital Difference
At eviFile, we believe the future of rail safety is evidence-based, proactive and fully digital. Our platform transforms how safety-critical data is captured, shared and acted on. GPS-tagged images, timestamped records and real-time dashboards allow stakeholders at all levels to see what’s happening - as it happens.
Digital tools like eviFile give:
Digital tools like eviFile give:
Don’t just take our word for it, see what our rail partners are saying. SPL Powerlines, like many of our clients across the sector, shared this about their digital transformation experience with eviFile:
"One of their biggest USPs is that they present themselves as helping businesses like ours to develop digitalisation"
Simon Skinner, Head of Engineering at SPL Powerlines
What Digital Assurance Delivers
Digital assurance means more than going paperless. It’s about putting live, trustworthy data at the heart of rail safety and compliance. By eliminating paperwork delays and uncertainty, teams can act faster and with greater confidence.
Whether it's through alert-based escalation, remote site verification or automated task tracking, eviFile enables safer ways of working, backed by proof you can trust.
By digitally transforming your assurance processes, you'll benefit from:
Whether it's through alert-based escalation, remote site verification or automated task tracking, eviFile enables safer ways of working, backed by proof you can trust.
By digitally transforming your assurance processes, you'll benefit from:
eviFile in Action
eviFile helps the UK’s leading rail organisations, including SPL Powerlines, Volker Rail, Alstom and Transpennine Route Upgrade (TRU) to name a few, build a safer, more compliant future for rail infrastructure.
By putting trusted, real-time data at the heart of operations, eviFile allows these teams to focus less on administration and more on action, and here's just a few of the reasons why rail leaders choose eviFile:
By putting trusted, real-time data at the heart of operations, eviFile allows these teams to focus less on administration and more on action, and here's just a few of the reasons why rail leaders choose eviFile:
Let’s build a rail industry where evidence saves lives, not just explains what went wrong.
Want to see how it works? Book a demo and explore how eviFile can support safer, smarter rail delivery.
Want to see how it works? Book a demo and explore how eviFile can support safer, smarter rail delivery.
