Lanes achieves top marks for RISQS rail accreditation audit

Drainage specialist Lanes Group plc has passed an audit to review RISQS accreditation for working on UK rail infrastructure with flying colours.

The company has achieved five stars for its latest RISQS audit, something it has done for four consecutive years.

RISQS accreditation is needed for all suppliers that wants to deliver services to the rail industry, including Network Rail and the London Underground.

The accreditation covers the Lanes Rail Division, which carries out work for Transport for London (TfL) and Network Rail, and for the depot network which provides services for Network Rail across the UK.

Poornima Ekanayake, Rail Systems Manager for the Lanes Group Network Rail Division, said: “Lanes demonstrated full compliance against all criteria in the RISQS audit.

“This included providing comprehensive documentation to show rail-related systems, policies and procedures, detailed evidence of recent projects, financial information and business continuity plans.

“Lanes has held RISQS accreditation, previously known as Link Up, for 14 years. We now have 303 operatives, registered under the Sentinel Scheme, ready to work on rail infrastructure projects across the UK.”

Lanes carried out a wide range of maintenance and installation work on behalf of Network Rail, including CCTV track drainage surveys, track drainage cleaning through water jetting, and new drainage installation.

The company’s Sewer Rehabilitation and Lining Division carries out projects that include lining track drainage systems and rail culverts, using advanced techniques such as ultraviolet cured in place pipeline (CIPP) installation.

The Lanes Rail Division holds major contracts with TfL to prove a much broader range of maintenance services on London Underground, including structure maintenance and refurbishment, vegetation control and tunnel grouting.

Lanes rail maintenance teams also work in partnership with the rail division of sister company UKDN Waterflow (LG) Ltd, which holds a Network Rail Principal Contractor Licence.

In a nine-month programme completed in February 2019, Lanes deployed jet vac tanker and CCTV survey teams to support UKDN Waterflow (LG) colleagues in cleaning and surveying 70 culverts along the Great Western Railway between Truro in Cornwall and Reading in Berkshire.