>Chris Brownbill wrote:
>> It would seem to me that the sensible way to cope with the accreditation
>> of 'foreign' railways in NSW would be to do what the road transport
>> authorities have done ie establish an 'exchange' accreditation with
>> other States. You can register a car and get a drivers licence in any
>> State, and by virtue of this you can legally drive that car in all other
>> States - even though the criteria differ from State to State.
>Yes, but traffic lights are all the same colour. Railway Signals are not.
>--
>David Johnson - Rail Services Authority
>trainman@ozemail.com.au
>trainman@railpage.org.au
>http://www.ozemail.com.au/~trainman
In 1907, all Australasian railways were party to an agreement to adopt
a common rule book and a common set of operating procedures, the spur
being the warm inner glow induced by Federation. An Australasian
railway rule book was even produced. NSW, Vic, WA, CR, NZ, Tas & some
private railways (EBR, Wolgan Valley, Midland) adopted the rule book
and many of the associated procedures. SA and Qld, although agreeing
in principle never adopted the rules or procedures. Rule books in all
states were usually pieces of delegated legislation (By Laws, etc.)
and thus had the force of law. As far as I know, only the Westrail
rulebook still has this status- all the others have become merely
working manuals.
However, the warm inner glow didn't last long. and rules and practices
began to drift apart again after about 1910. An attempt was made to
revive the agreement in 1934 and again in 1985, but both attempts were
met with extreme parochialism on the part of individual
administrations ("an unwarranted interference in the affairs of one
state by another", someone huffed)
During the early 1990's, when several systems were dramatically
revising their rulebooks, there was a request by Federal Transport
Minister Morris for the adoption of a common set of rules. There was
even talk of a Federal version of NSW's Rail Safety Act, but these
proposals likewise seemd to have died in the bum.
At the time NSW was inrtroducing their new rule book (circ 1992),
there was talk of Qld copying it, but QLD were pretty coy about what
they were doing and I never heard the upshot of it. V/Line had an
abortive attempt at rewriting in 1997 and made a much better fist of
it in 1994- but the new NSW and Vic books are as different as chalk
and cheese.
>From my reading of the NSW Rail Safety Act when it was introduced,
there was little if anything specifying rulebooks. This seems to be a
grey area. The WA Mines Act is rather unusual in that it specifies
what has to be in a private railway's rulebook. As far as I know,
W.A. is the only place where there is government control over rules
and operating procedures, at the rule level.
Rule books are not the only place where operating procedures are laid
down, of course. Things like General Appendices (hardly ever a legal
document) were a favourite for signalling and safeworking rules. At
one stage they were to be systematised too, but this proposal never
got off the ground. Many other day-to-day procedures have a legally
dubiious status and it is unclear how they could be integrated and
codified.
Ever since about 1910, the principle impediment to standardisation has
been the old Australian bugbear of inter-State jealousies and
rivalries. There is little evidence that this will ever go away.
Which must be of relevance for operators like NR, who operate across
several systems..In terms of operating rules, what is the situation
with WCR, NR, etc.?- do they use the rulebook of the system over which
they are running? Do they have additions or modifications?
Geoff Lambert