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Legislative CouncilSelect Committee on Train Services

Alan OsborneDirector, Public Transport Safety

Chris McKeownGeneral Manager Safety Systems

Rail safety regulation

› Operators required to comply with the Victorian Rail Safety Act 2006

› Essentially requires the safety accreditation of rail operators and monitoring ongoing performance

› Key priority is the prevention of catastrophic train accidents

Rail accidents – Australian focus

› A 10 year chronology of significant accidents….

Glenbrook, NSW – December 1999

Source: Emergency Management NSW – downloaded on 2/09/09 from:http://www.emergency.nsw.gov.au/content.php/646.html

Holmesglen, Vic. – July 2000

Source: Department of Transport

Footscray, Vic. – June 2001

Source: Australian Transport Safety Bureau

Epping, Vic. – June 2002


Epping – Additional view


Waterfall, NSW – January 2003

Source: The Age

Broadmeadows, Vic. - February 2003


Trawalla, Vic. - April 2006

Source: Railpage.com.au

Kerang, Vic. - June 2007

Source: Daily Telegraph

Reduction in system type events over the last 3 years

› Rail Safety Act 2006 (Vic) represented an incremental improvement in rail system safety

› Kerang accident has been the most serious accident since the Act came into operation - a road accident which seriously impacted on the rail system

We must remain vigilant

› Management of issues which could lead to serious events eg:› broken rails (derailment risk)› track buckling (derailment risk)› tri-colour signals (collision risk)› train braking (collision risk)

Broken rail performance over 3 years

Track & civil infrastructure irregularity - broken rail

57

3

9 10

18 1816

0

5

10

15

20

25

Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec

2007200820092007 Trend2008 Trend2009 Trend

Heavy rail Victoria 2007 - 2009

Trend: M oving average 3mthSource: PTSV Occurrence Database. Data as reported to PTSV from Accredited Operator.

Buckled track performance over 3 years

Track & civil infrastructure irregularity - buckled track

29

5

1 0 1 03

00

5

10

15

20

25

30

35





Derailment performance over 3 years

Derailments - running line

3

0 0

2

0

2

0 00

1

2

3

4

5

6





SPAD performance over 3 years

Signals passed at danger - human error

7

1

2

7

6

3 3

9

0

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

8

9

10





Human error SPADs include driver misjudged, completely missed while running and starting against signal. Excludes other.

Management of rail safety

› Maintaining good engineering inspection regimes to monitor event precursors

› Putting safety ahead of operational performance› Using speed restrictions to manage safety with

identified problems› Recent international accidents provide examples

of where this has not occurred….

Chatsworth, LA – September 2008

Source: Los Angeles Times ‘Federal inquiry into Chatworth finds rail oversight woefully inadequate’

Washington – June 2009

Source: The Telegraph

Dublin - August 2009

Source: Irish Independent‘Calls for major investigation into rail safety’

Importance of safety culture

› We have a good operational safety culture in the rail network in Victoria

› This means safety performance must come ahead of operational performance

› It is very important that this continues

Summary

› PTSV is proactively monitoring the safety performance of Victoria’s railways

› We have seen a reduction of system type accidents in Victoria over the last 3 years

› We must though continue to be vigilant› This has required the rail network to slow

down or stop on occasions

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