Re: guard/driver training (was: "Olympic Sprint Platform - Lidcombe")

["C. Dewick" <craigd@lios.apana.org.au>]

Hi Bob,

> Just in:
> 
> Guards now learn the roads in one day out of a book saving 2 weeks.
> The 2 week period of working with a selected guard is now going to be
> 1 day.

This is silly, because you cannot learn roads out of a book and be
expected to know a particular location after 1 day with a trainer guard.

We had a perfect example of this at Cronulla a couple of years ago when
the guard on the last train in one weeknight belled the driver back
through a set of open catchpoints towards the mainline when he mistook the
wrong signal as being the right one by assuming the actual correct signal
had failed, so the other one must have been pulled off instead.... Doh!

He'd obviously never really learnt Cronulla yard properly... 8-)

> This has come from the guy "designing" this new training platform. The
> ultimate plan is to have the guards do no safe working in rediness for
> D.O.O

I figured as much. However not teaching guards safeworking is not a good
approach since that means that once they become roving PTA (Passenger
Train Attendents) *without* safeworking qualifications they can't assist
the driver in any situation requiring safeworking knowledge.

Which means that, in a situation where passenger safety requires
passengers to be evacuated, the guard *cannot* leave the train since he'll
have no safeworking accreditation.

I'll have to raise this issue with my good friend in Safeworking Standards
next time I see him. 8-)

Regards,

Craig.

BTW, an interesting side issue. The Manager, Safeworking, with State Rail
has lost the authority to sign off new safeworking ammendments, etc. and
this authority has gone to someone at RSA since they have assumed
responsibility for safeworking development and management. RSA now 'owns'
the safeworking manuals and is apparently under 'contract' to the DoT to
enforce the regulations.

This has got to be the most ludicrous move I have ever heard of, since the
person at RSA has no current safeworking accreditation (according to what
a certain person has told me) and is only has management qualifications,
so how can someone without safeworking accreditation be in charge of
safeworking standards? Interesting question, isn't it?

I wonder if Eddie Oliver can add some comments about this?