A Train Operating Liaison Officer (TOLO), is the person who attends an incident on the railway to represent the interests and discharge the responsibilities of the railway company in respect of managing that incident. Standards state that:
Railway undertakings shall appoint a Train Operators’ Liaison Officer (TOLO) when circumstances require or the infrastructure manager requests it, to represent the interests of all the involved railway undertakings.
The infrastructure manager shall liaise with railway undertakings involved in, or affected by, the incident, exchanging details of the incident, its location, site access, rendezvous points, and identities of the DLP/RIO and Train Operators’ Liaison Officer (TOLO).
Any Manager who holds the pre-requisites and key skills can attend this course and should be able to learn to confidently undertake the role of the TOLO.
Pre-requisites
Driver competence, Guard competence or managerial competence in Operations
Key Skills
The Course covers the following:
Understanding how an incident occurs
Understanding your company’s paperwork and standards
Identification of key personnel during an incident
Gathering and preserving evidence
Dealing with the media
Course Delivery
The TOLO course is delivered over one or two days of training, based in a classroom or remotely. It consists of a mixture of formal learning and practical exercises including walking through scenarios based on historical incidents.