National Rail Safety Investigationsin Australia

International Rail Safety Conference

Vancouver – 2013

6-11 Oct 2013

Tony SimesManager - Rail Coordinator

ATSB

Introduction

• Significant reform to rail safety regulation and investigation in Australia.

• From 20 January 2013

– A new national rail safety regulator

– A national rail safety investigator – expanded role for the ATSB

– The ATSB has also taken on the role as the lead agency receiving notifications for the more serious incidents involving derailment, collision, death and serious injury.

Railways in Australia

• Railways in Australia date back to Australia’s early colonial days.

• 1831 - first railway in Australia

– Newcastle (New South Wales) - privately owned

• 1854 - first government owned railway

– South Australia

1831

1854

Railways in Australia

• Federation of Australia - 1 January 1901

– six colonies along with two federal territories collectively became part the Commonwealth of Australia

– Each colony kept their systems of government but a federal government was developed to take responsibility for matters concerning the whole nation.

– Individual colonies were very cautious about delegating power to a national government, a condition that exists in Australia to this day.

• The vote on federal control of railways was narrowly lost, so the railways remained a State responsibility.

• Railways continued to expand, but;

– each State adopted different track standards

– different track gauges required a change of train for journeys between capital cities.

Railways in Australia

• Narrow gauge

– (1067 mm or 3 ft. 6 in.)

• Standard gauge

– (1435 mm or 4 ft. 8 ½ in.)

• Broad gauge

– (1600 mm or 5 ft. 3 in.)

• 1995 - a continuous standard gauge railway was available between all five mainland capital cities

• 2004 - to Darwin

Rail Safety Regulation in Australia

• 1995 – State based rail safety regulators

– Seven different rail safety regulators, each administering different State based laws and processes to regulate safety for Australia’s rail system.

• About a third of Australia’s rail industry had operations across multiple States, requiring them to deal with two or more regulators

• 2009 - States agree to the establishment of a national regulator

• 20 January 2013 - Office of the National Rail Safety Regulator

Rail Safety Investigation in Australia

• The Australian Transport Safety Bureau (ATSB)• Independent from transport regulators, policy makers and service providers

• 2003 – National operations over interstate rail network

• 20 January 2013 – expanded role to also incorporate metropolitan and intrastate railway lines

• Accident Investigations

– Aviation

– Marine

– Rail

• Research

Incident notification

• 2003 – Rail operators notify one of seven different rail safety regulators

– dependent which state the incident occurred

– The regulators would on-report the more serious incidents to the ATSB for consideration to investigate

• 20 January 2013 – Rail operators notify the more serious incidents directly to the ATSB

– Single notification agency nation wide

– The ATSB on-reports to the national regulator

– More consistent national incident data

– Opportunity for better analysis and identification of safety trends and patterns

– Opportunity to discover and prevent broader, systemic safety problems

SafetyWatch

• In late 2012, the ATSB introduced its SafetyWatch initiative

• SafetyWatch highlights the broad safety concerns that have come out of investigation findings and analysis of incident data.

• There are a series of nine identified safety concerns across the aviation, rail and maritime modes of transport in Australia.

• Safe work on rail

– The ATSB has investigated several accidents that have occurred when maintenance work was being carried out on or near railway tracks

Safeworking incident – Newbridge, NSW• May 2010

• A passenger train had just departed Bathurst and was travelling towards Newbridge, a track distance of about 31 km

• About 2 minutes later, a work crew was granted authority to work on track about 2 km from Newbridge

• After a further 25 minutes, the train approached the work site

• An excavator was on track, but due to a curve in the track was not visible to the train driver until about 95 metres away

• The train collided with the excavator and a worker was fatally injured

XWorksite

Train direction

What the ATSB found

• The rules and procedures were generally OK, but in this case;

– Neither the Protection Officer nor the Network Control Officer positively identified the location and type of worksite.

– Both incorrectly concluded that the train had already passed beyond the limits of the worksite.

– The workers accessed the danger zone before additional site protection measures (detonators and flags) had been put in place

• The authority form was deficient

• Ineffective communication

• The workers were relatively inexperienced

• Their training had not specifically discuss the relevant hazards and protections

What has been done

• Reinforcement of the rules, procedures and training

• Revised form that provides for the recording of critical information regarding the location and type of worksite

• Safety message

– It is essential that information critical to the safe implementation of a work authority be clearly communicated between the Protection Officer and the Network Control Officer.

– It is also essential that workers do not access the track until all levels of worksite protection have been fully implemented.

SafetyWatch – Safe work on rail

• SafetyWatch provides information and strategies to help manage risk areas along with links to safety resources.

– Safe working on track requires a high level of preparation and organisation

– Coordination and clear communication are essential

– Adequate briefing to the track workers

– Ensure that all levels of worksite protection have been fully implemented before commencing work on or near the track

• The ATSB will add or remove topics to reflect current information on safety trends and occurrences.

Conclusion

• The Australian system of rail safety regulation and investigation has undergone significant reform over recent years.

– A national rail safety regulator

– ATSB recognized as the national rail safety investigator

• A more national focus on rail safety

– Rail transport a major role to play in Australia’s national economy

– Logical that the safety of a system having such national importance be managed with a national focus

• A single point of call for incident notifications

– Ability to improve assessment and analysis of incident data

– Prevention of broader, systemic safety problems

• ATSB has initiated SafetyWatch

Thankyou