Re: Big train wreck in England! - 70 Dead?

["Andrew" <ahonan@zipworld.com.au>]

I am not confident that we can rely on the Sydney system to be safe. Many of
the practices and procedures in operations and maintenance are in a time
warp. The demands on the system are increasing and  these procedures are
being dragged out of the 19th century.
Track condition is monitored by the RVX vehicle but this happens every 3
months. In between this there are only track walks.

In operations, the people in Train control (in Sydney) are using very old
systems to manage movement of trains.
There was a close call this year in the Hunter valley where two trains were
on the same line in a head-on situation (one of them was an XPT). An
accident did not occur as train control in Broadmeadows alerted the trains
of the situation.

Andrew

David Ready <ds_ready@usa.net> wrote in message
eZYK3.850$e6.309752@amsnews02.chello.com">news:eZYK3.850$e6.309752@amsnews02.chello.com...
>
> James Brook <ajmbrook@ozemail.com.au> wrote in message
> 37FC4629.BB945056@ozemail.com.au">news:37FC4629.BB945056@ozemail.com.au...
> >     A radio report said that the death toll has risen to 70. I'm not
sure
> if
> > this is correct, so don't blame me if its wrong!
>
> Unfortunatley we may never know the final figure because of the totally
> burnt out 1st Class front carriage on the HST. The Sun newspaper this
> morning has a huge "100 Dead" headline. So 70 won't be too far off. We
have
> been following the BBC news here very closely as we get BBC1 on cable here
> in The Netherlands and the coverage has been quite horrifying and scary.
And
> very little comment from the government I might add.
>
> Thank goodness our railway system is much much safer in Sydney. Correct me
> if I am wrong but I am sure that Sydney Central Station has more train
> movements than Paddington and Waterloo put together and the very fact that
> the Sydney rail system is so safe is a credit to the early planners and
the
> current managers of it.
>
> We were in London for business last Friday. We drove from The Netherlands
to
> Maidstone. I was considering leaving the car at Maidstone and catching the
> train to London but instead we decided to drive in. The cost of the
parking
> station behind Harrod's was £23 for 8 hours but I made the comment to my
> partner, "that would still be cheaper than two return tickets to
Maidstone".
> Now instead of cost being the consideration it will be the question of
> safety. The BBC is right in saying that confidence has been shattered and
> "this will be the turning point in British rail safety". We can't wait to
> come back home to Sydney once our contract is finished here.
>
> David
>
>