Re: Independent Review of Rail Safety Arrangements in Australia

["Dave Proctor" <daproc@sd5.mailbank.com>]

Exnarc wrote in message <83l66e$bgd$1@otis.netspace.net.au>...

>DOO is a safeworking issue as rules must provide for Driver Only Operation
>as the minimum basic criteria, however minimum and maximum shifts for
>drivers is more an Occ Health and Safety issue.

I disagree. DOO is a rail safety issue more than an OH&S issue. Whilst DOO
can be operated safely, the lack of another person in the cab to provide
backup or override services ("services" being used in its loosest sense) is
an issue on the railways.

Take a staff and ticket stretch of line, where a train can be sent out after
a certain period has elapsed after the previous train. If the driver of the
first train karks it en route, there is no one to protect the rear of the
train, so the following train would go right up the rear (unless I am
missing something here).

There are other issues that impact on rail safety - whilst most of these,
mainly related to driver fatigue, etc. - are certainly OH&S issues, they
certainly have a direct bearing on rail safety.

>What we need in this country (IMO) is a US type FRA to regulate the
carriers
>to prevent things like 32 hour shifts, one of our US owned roads was
>documented on one occasion of being guilty of this in Australia, (there is
>no dead hog 12 hour law here).
>
>I've worked long shifts many times in the past, being rostered 11 hour
>shifts is one thing, but do half a dozen back to back and you start to know
>what a Zombie feels like.
>
>Fatigue is the the most dangerous problem on Australia's railways at the
>moment, this coupled by corporate policies that see profit before safety
and
>you have a lethal combination.

So how would you feel about the relay style system of operation? I *believe*
(although open to correction) that ASR operate this across the Nullabor. I
think the safest way of doing this would be to have 5 crew members - drive
for 8 hours, have 12 hours off in the crew car - thus, at any one time,
there would be two drivers in the cab and three in the crew car. This would
not gel well with current ideas regarding operational efficiency, but it
would sit well with me regards fatigue. Where it would come unstuck is with
regard to road knowledge.

What do ASR do now? Do they have crews qualified for the whole length of the
TAR, from ADL to PER? Whilst the Nullabor would not be too taxing as far as
route knowledge goes (I mean that in a general sense, in terms of what
happens at what loop), KGI to PER could be a problem.

Any thoughts on this?

Dave