Derailment report

[Sylvia Else]

http://www.atsb.gov.au/media/4065135/ro-2011-008_final.pdf

What I find astonishing is that initially a 30km/h, later reduced to
20km/h, temporary speed restriction can be left in place for 10 months.
I shudder to think what the cumulative cost to train operators is when
trains have to be slowed and then accelerated again.

In this instance, the cost of repairing the track is not carried by the
same entities that suffer the costs of the speed reduction. I suspect
that an economic inefficiency results.

Sylvia.

[Chris Diesel]

"Sylvia Else" <syl...@not.at.this.address> wrote in message
news:am428a...@mid.individual.net...

Sylvia, that's just the tip of the iceberg. I've been a train driver for 20
years and have never seen the routes I drive covered by TSR's since ARTC
took over the main interstate rail network. As for you concerns about the
massive cost that these restrictions create, your 100% correct. The wear and
tear to rail operators rolling stock, the damage to customer goods, the
delays to running times and the cost in extra fuel consumption must be
massive. Just think of the energy lost when you have to slow your 3000 t,
1500m freight train for one of the many dozens of these TSR's, then drag
itself back to normal speed, only to slow again for the next TSR. The train
crews just can't believe what a mess ARTC have made of there network and in
particular, the supposed 1 Billion Dollar upgrade of the main north/south
east coast main line.

Chris

[john...@nospam.com.au]

If the repair was funded ultimately by the Federal government, then it seems
they see rail freight as less important than fast passenger trains and fast
movie downloads.

[Sylvia Else]

I think your second sentence may have suffered from the dreaded editing
induced garble (I know many of mine have). So, to clarify, you're saying
that it's gone bad since ARTC took over, and by implication, was better
before that.

Sylvia.

[Chris Diesel]

"Sylvia Else" <syl...@not.at.this.address> wrote in message

news:ame4tj...@mid.individual.net...

Yes, I see my post was a little ordinary. Let me try that again.

When ARTC took over the interstate network, most train crew thought we would
see an improvement in track conditions, as ARTC had a good reputation in the
industry at the time and also because in the years prior to the 2000
Olympics, RailCorp appeared to have concentrated its track maintenance on
the Sydney metro network and had neglected the country network. RC also
appeared to have been reluctant to spend much money on the network after the
Olympics, presumably knowing that ARTC would soon be taking over soon, a
hospital pass you might say.

Then after a few years came the Billion dollar federal investment in the
east coast corridor which was intended to replace all the old timber
sleepers with the heavier cement sleepers. RailCorp had already done this in
large parts of the Sydney metro and interurban areas and while the cement
was a slightly harder ride that timber, it worked well and was far more
stable. But as it turned out, there was one major difference between the way
RailCorp and ARTC did the job. While RailCorp not only replaced the
sleepers, they also dug deep down into the rail bed and cleaned or replaced
the old ballast. But for reasons unknown to me, ARTC decided to only replace
the sleepers. They also didn't use the standard heavy machinery for this job
(which can be seen in action in the links I've provided below) and used what
they call a side insertion method. This basically means, they pulled out the
old sleeper using light machinery and shoved in the new sleeper, leaving the
old ballast bed more or less as it was.

The Plasser RM 900-HD ballast cleaning machine

http://www.plasser.com.au/en/p_ballast_cleaning/rm900hd.htm



Track laying and ballast cleaning in action

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qFE8nmKpmXY


For a while, the track was ok. But it wasn't long before we started to
notice the track bed was developing numerous mud holes and other problems.
Soon the line between Sydney and Melbourne was just a long stretch of TSR's
(Track Speed Restrictions). On top of that, as the track became rougher, we
were also started to see a lot more train separations and broken rails. It
one stage, there were train separations on a daily basis. Naturally, these
incidents create a serious risk for derailment. A little like what occurred
in SA in that ATSB report. In fact, it got so bad that the NSW Rail
Regulator forced ARTC to place a 80 km/h blanked speed limit on a large
parts of the line due to so many rail faults. On top of that, some rail
operators also placed there own speed restrictions on large sections of the
network. All I can say is that we were lucky not to have suffered a major
derailment and lives lost.

The ABC 7:30 Report ran a few stories on this subject. I can't find the
first one. Here's the second one. the ABC did a great job reporting the
problems.
http://www.abc.net.au/7.30/content/2011/s3250945.htm

Regards....Chris

[Sylvia Else]

Thanks for the update.

Sylvia.