Re: Sydney rail system sucks?!?!?!?

[craigd@lios.apana.org.au (C. Dewick)]

In <83sfo5$q4o$1@news1.mpx.com.au> "Erika" <torpan@torpan.com> writes:

>But we there must be something in trains runng into the back of
>others,leaving the rails,going the wrong lines,travelling at 100kph in
>suburban areas...you dont hear these things in other State capitals.

You want an answer? Well, as a train driver myself I know what is going on,
and it's called inadequate training of new staff, and insufficient
understanding of fatigue and re-certification issues for existing staff.

The Glenbrook incident probably has a fatigue component since the driver of
the colliding train has many years on the job and is very well regarded.
However the actual reasons are up to the inquiry to conclude on.

The Waverton derailment is clearly a lack of experience problem, and there
have now apparently been moves to can the 12 week 'zero to hero' (tm)
training programme as a result of the Waverton incident, as well as others.

> It is up to consumers to get off and ask why are these happening,why
>havent funds been directed to maintenance,

Maintenance has nothing to do with Waverton, and probably nothing to do
(directly) with Glenbrook. But it was the cause of the R set derailing at
Olympic park several months ago (sharp flanges) and it is also part (but not
all) of the cause for the NR's disappearing off the signaller's panel. The
disappearing loco incident is a full issue in itself, as there are a lot of
factors involved.

> why the bureaucrats havent drawn to the attention to the politicans,

They have. It's the politicians who are pushing our management to reduce
costs and training times to boost staff levels in the shortest possible
time. However, it's inexoribly clear that sound risk management principles
have been *ignored* in the push to flood the system with new drivers and
guards to cover for staffing requirements of y2k events.

As usual, the politicians (via the Department of Transport) are trying to
get us (operations staff) to shoulder all of the blame under the provisions
of the Rail Safety Act, etc. for any sort of incident which involves alleged
breaches of safeworking, or some other operational doctrine, despite
probably knowing full well what the flow-on from the training time cutbacks,
etc. could have been.

>why staff havent been doing there jobs in a safe way ...thats the issues
>which should be being debated.

They do, to the limits of their training. And this is one of the fundamental
issues....

There is *no substitute* for experience, but learning by experience cannot
be fully effective unless there is adequte prior training, not just from
books, but out there on the front line with other highly experienced and
well-regarded (amongst our peers - not management) drivers and guards.

However, politicians (and to a degree, management because they are told to
think the same way) believe new drivers and guards can learn everything
about being a competent 'real world' person from books, computer- and
paper-based multiple-choice quizes, and critically limited time with driver
or guard trainers (often a new one every two weeks), and that is utter
rubbish.

There have been cases (some alleged, some actually documented and true)
where driver or guard trainers have said that a student is not able to do
the tasks required, and management have simply assigned the student to a
different trainer who has 'ticked them off'. I hate to say it, but this
seems to happening more so with new female employees who are taking
advantage (unfair or otherwise) of the 3 year EEO exemption, although it
probably happening just as much with new male employees too...

Take it from me - as a person who has a very keen interest in the safety and
risk management side of train operations, I'm fully aware of the problems
which all of the recent incidents have glaringly highlighted. Many of my
fellow drivers and guards have pondered when, as a result of the stripped
back training programmes, and other funding cuts to equipment and
infrastructure maintenance, we would see another incident akin to Granville
in intensity, lives lost, etc.. To date the Glenbrook incident has been the
most frightenly close we've come to another Granville...

In hindsight, I sure hope that is the closest we get.

Regards,

Craig.

PS. Regarding your comment about 100 kph in suburban areas.. so what? A
number of mainline sections in the Sydney metropolitan area are rated for
even more than 100 kph (up to 115 kph in places), so what point are you
trying to make with your '100 kph in suburban areas' comment?

PPS. An interesting issue which I don't think has been raised yet relates to
the new signalling at Hornsby and Blacktown... No driver or guard (except
perhaps very new drivers or guards who have learnt the new arrangments as
part of their road knowledge training) has been actually accredited in the
new signalling, and all we are given are the big fold-out maps produced by
RSA which are totally useless from an operations point of view. 

This means that currently nobody is actually now qualified to operate trains
inside the areas controlled by Hornsby or Blacktown complexes, so what is
going to happen when there is some sort of signalling and track layout
mis-interpretation incident which results in a collision and/or a
derailment? The driver cannot be charged with anything, because he's working
almost under defacto legal duress in a section which he/she is not qualified
in, so if a driver is charged, then that means every other driver and guard
(not just CityRail, but any other operator running through those areas) also
has to be charged with working a train on a road for which he/she is not
qualified.... Nobody in CityRail management wants to talk about this issue,
for obvious reasons! But I will talk about it, since the safety implications
are very deep indeed.

I know of one driver who intends to pull up at Blacktown platform next time
he works a train out that way (he hasn't been out there since the old
signalling, etc. was de-commissioned, and neither have I for that matter),
get out the big foldout map (it's about the size of a small car's
windscreen!), and stand on the platform looking around trying to interpret
it... That would get a lot of publicity about the issue in double-quick time
if any number of us started to do it at both Hornsby and Blacktown.. Makes
you think doesn't it...
-- 
            Craig Ian Dewick            |       Stand clear - jaws closing
 Send email to craigd@lios.apana.org.au |  Visit my Australian rail transport
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