I was HSWA Rep for the RMT for a long time.
My driver rep and myself covered a large swathe of locations in Yorkshire and Humberside, in fact anywhere our members went on duty we could examine for safety.(EG The Workplace.)
As for the managers all they did was play Microsoft Excel Spreadsheet Madness.
We have gone in long tunnels where every drain was minus a cover, locations where ther were hypodermic syringes which our members could walk over. The list of defects to walking routes, shift patterns, methods of working etc were all endless.
You find that Senior Management talked safety but if it came to spending money the above problem kicked in.
You cannot run a railway without safety, and Union Safety Reps play a vital role in keeping the railway safe for thier members, and this knocks on for the rail users.
There is a maxim on the railway which is
' If its not safe do not do it.'