Re: Is this safe?

[Graham Fry <fryg@sydpcug.org.au>]

David Johnson wrote:
> 
> luis wrote:
> 
> > Northpower have intalled a new 180,000,000 volts electric line along the
> > railway line between Mullumbimby and Murwillumbah, the question is How
> > safe is  it , if there is an accident /derailment? How safe is it to the
> > railway workers doing maintanance?.
The line is a 132,000V single pole line which is very common in NSW. In
parts of Sydney they are actually constructed on roadsides as per usual
power lines. I would think would be much greater danger of one of those
lines hitting the ground near a road than adjacent to a railway line.
The old NSWGR built miles of high voltage (66,000V) power lines beside
railway lines eg. Hornsby - Newcastle-Taree, over the Blue Mountains,
etc. Furthermore, modern power lines have very fast protection systems
which would switch a line out of service in milliseconds of it touching
the ground. In railway systems the 1500V DC used in NSW and VIC for
traction is much more dangerous then high voltage AC power.

Graham Fry