Re: John Brew (a blast from the past)

[Michael Edge <medge@sia.net.au>]

Bob wrote:
> 
> Tonight i saw John Brew the former Cheif Executive of State Rail
> (Liberal appointment) that was sacked by the Labour Government on the
> news. He was wearing his Engineers hat and telling us how bad the
> Western line is from Granville to Lithgow. Could this be a bit of sour
> grapes or even a bit of political revenge? It is well known of Mr Brews
> connections with the Liberals. If I recall correctly he was appointed as
> a consultant by the federal Liberal Government to give them a report to
> justify the sale of A.N. and we know the results of that. It would seem
> that with a state election less than a year away the Libs have drawn out
> someone with an ounce of credibility to tell us what we heard on A
> Current Affair some weeks back. I wonder if the Western line is any
> worse now to when Mr Brew was in charge? Also why did they specifically
> say Granville and not say Penrith? Could there be some scare tactic
> being used by reminding us of the Granville disaster? If Mr brew no
> longer works for SRA what is the source of his information? Maybe he
> just watches A Current Affair like the rest of us and wants to be seen
> on TV again?
> Bob

While his commentery is probably politically motivated, the origin of
his sudden appearance is a report by Speno Rail Maintanace (contraced by
the Rail Access Corporation to do regular reports on NSW metals). This
was reported on p3 of todays (18/5/98) Sydney Morning Herald.

Maybe the faults in question don't affect ride quality much, since in my
experience (west of Clyde at least) the Western line is one of the
better ones in Sydney (Clyde to Flemington is shocking).

Without wanting to reproduce the entire SMH story, the Speno report
detailed 62 locations that were Laser Spot Checked and found every one
of those locations had one or more of the following faults: excessive
curve wear, gauge corner damage and corrugation.

Can anyone with experience in rail maintainance comment on the relative
significance of these faults.  The story semms to be trying to suggest
that a derailment is imminant and we all know how readily politicians
and the media beat up stories for their own gain.

Someone from the Rail Access Corporation was actually playing UP the
significance of the report.  I suppose the state budget is just around
the corner...

======================
Michael Edge
Sydney, Australia

email: medge@sia.net.au