Re: A Current Afair Report on Rail Saftey
David Bennetts (davibenn@pcug.org.au)
28 Apr 98 23:57:10 GMT
Craig Haber <albatross@harnessnet.com.au> wrote in article
<3546BE75.6016@harnessnet.com.au>...
> DJ NightShade wrote:
> > Did any one see the report on rail saftey on ACA Tonight? (28/4)
>
> No, so could someone who did please summarise what was shown/said?
>
> Thanks,
> CH.
> --
> Craig Haber
> albatross@harnessnet.com.au
> Manufacturing Systems Engineer (almost)
> Web Page Designer, Harness Racing, Railways, and Essendon Football Club
> fanatic
> http://www.harnessnet.com.au/
> The report was a bit too long to summarize in detail, but basically it
underlined the poor standard of maintenance of track. It showed track
workers who are being paid to come to work and do nothing, supposedly Rail
Access don't have the funds to operate the machinery to repair the tracks.
One part of the report seemed to be centred on Goulburn. The piece of the
main south shown looked to be around Medway/Marulan area. Several rotten
sleepers were shown, with only about one in four being sound. The dog
spikes (or whatever you call them) were lifted out of three consecutive
sleepers to demonstrate how easy it would be for the track to spread.
An XPT travelling over this length of track showed the track lifting as the
train passed over it. Another section of single track (somewhere out west
toward Dubbo) showed the running rails to be severely vertically
misaligned, an 81 class was shown bucking over this section at fairly low
speed.
The footage was shown to John Brew, former CEO of State Rail. His comments
on what it showed were quite unfavourable, as were those of Michael
Photios, shadow Transport Minister. Both Rail Access and Transport
Minister Scully declined to comment, although the invitation is still there
from them to reply.
David Bennetts
Canberra