The legislation they refer to will be the more general Health and Safety At work act and the associated regulations. These will require them to assess the safety implications of restoring electrification. The assesement may well be that they cannot economically come up with a plan to adequetly manage to the risks involved, especially on a volunteer run railway.
All railway operations, volunteer or professional, steam, diesel, electric, horse or whatever, need a "safety case": a full assessment of all risks and how to mitigate and manage those risks. It has to be done regardless of whether a 3rd rail exists or not. Likewise, volunteers and staff need to be trained, regardless of whether a 3rd rail exists or not.
A safety case for an electrified railway will be the same as for a steam/diesel railway, but with extra bits (extra risks identified, mitigated, extra training etc). Sure that takes extra work which takes extra time and possibly costs more, but those are time and cost issues, not legislation issues.
So if the EOR, as you suggest, meant that they weren't going to electrify based on costs, why have they mentioned legislation? Surely the "legislation" thing must come from somewhere??
You may need to get a better understanding of how H&S actually works in practice- the legislation itself prescribes and proscribes very little, the regulations are more detailed, buit the bulk is dealt with by applying principles.
I spent many years as a driver on the DC main line. I had to walk through electrified yards, cross electrified lines etc. We all had proper training (PTS etc).
We often had "foreign drivers" bring a loco down to the Southern. When they got out and started crossing the track, they were totally paranoid about the 3rd rail - they'd step over, lifting their legs as high as possible, even where kick-boards were installed - was so funny to see.
Fact is, if you brush against the side of the 3rd rail, you'll get a kick up the @r5e. It's unlikely to kill you just from that. If you fall flat on it then you're likely to fry. It will burn, it might kill, might not. Once you touch the live rail, you discharge the current to earth and trip the circuit breakers in the Electrical Control Centre - the current goes off. Electrocution is likely to be very short, hence likelihood of burns rather than instant death. ECC staff will reset the breakers, and if you're still in a position to discharge current (ie, lying face down on it and touching the ground), you'll get another jolt and the circuit breakers will trip again. It's been a while since I was employed on the Southern and I can't remember the exact process, but ECC staff will end up waiting one minute before resetting the breakers - this gives time for staff to put a short circuit bar down and/or put out an emergency call - when ECC staff reset the breaker again, if current stays on, they leave it on (line will be clear) - if it trips again, they'll wait 3 minutes (I think) - and if it trips again, it doesn't get reset until someone has checked things out properly (track walk etc) (a current railway employee might be able to confirm / correct this)
I now run a business and employ staff. We have to do risk assessments and build safety cases and ensure staff are properly trained to do their jobs safely. We have to do this regardless of the tasks involved. It's a pain, it's a hassle, but it's what we have to do.
