Re: [NSW] Kingsgrove, East Hills Line - Accident, Carriages Lying on Side

["Hubert Lam" <hubert@imap4.com>]

according to a reliable source, East Hills was never intended to be heavily
utilised as it is today, with up to 10-16 trains an hour running during peak
hours.

The problem with the East Hills line, according to the source, is that the
track itself was laid so that only perhaps light "traffic" would run on it.
However when the Glenfield-Holsworthy-East Hills section opened in the late
80s, the track between East Hills and Sydenham was left untouched and today
its still the same. As we all know, the East Hills line is one of the
busiest lines, perhaps second only to West. However West has very good track
as it has always had a mix of trains running on it--namely much of the
freight and XPTs. East Hills has only started to carry long-distance
passenger trains in the past few years. During the Olympics, XPTs and
Canberra Xplorers were even allowed to run on the East Hills line to avoid
blocking other trains at Strathfield, and we should be grateful that this
didn't happen 4 days ago, otherwise the consequences would be unthinkable.

According to that source, the track needs to be upgraded immediately, as
he/she has told me around 3 months ago that if the track was not stable
enough, derailments will occur even on straight sections of track, and i
think that prediction has come to be true yesterday, with 3 cars
derailing--not at points, but on a perfectly straight section of track.



"Magilla Gorilla" <choochoo@spin.net.au> wrote in message
39DE35F2.F01CA34E@spin.net.au">news:39DE35F2.F01CA34E@spin.net.au...
| Anyone have any ideas what caused it? To me it would be either a track
| failure, mechanical failure or excess speed.
|
| carrington wrote:
|
| > News reports on ABC radio 15354hrs Fri 6/10/2000 - train delrailment
| > at Kingsgrove (City-Airport-East Hills-Campbelltown line) - last 2
| > carriages are lying on their side. Passengers involved.
| >
| > I live neaby and there's been a cacophony of all tones of sirens; now
| > there are helicopters galore over the Kingsgrove area.
| >
| > Carrington
| > --------------------------------------------
| > A computer used to take up a whole building
| >  - now they just take up your whole life
| > --------------------------------------------
|