Article: Reason for train delays proves a bridge too far

[ozbob]

From the Sydney Morning Herald click here!

Reason for train delays proves a bridge too far

Reason for train delays proves a bridge too far
May 6, 2013 - 4:49PM Jacob Saulwick

Not even the transport minister can get a straight answer out of RailCorp about what is going wrong on Sydney's trains.

Thousands of commuters were delayed on multiple lines on Monday morning after work on a rail bridge went for too long, cutting into the start of the morning peak and disrupting trains through Sydney.

RailCorp had spent the weekend replacing steel spans on an 86-year old bridge at Subway Lane in Homebush. Crews should have been off the site by 2am on Monday, well in time for the morning's services to resume.

But they were unable to get off the site until about 6am. This resulted in lengthy delays for commuters on the Western line, and flow-on delays for thousands of others later in the morning and into the afternoon.

At 3.30pm, trains on all lines other than the Carlingford Line had returned to timetable. Buses are replacing trains between Carlingford and Clyde.

On Monday morning, commuters on the Bankstown, Airport & East Hills, Inner West, North Shore, South, Western and Blue Mountains lines were all affected, even though regular services started running again from about 6.30am.

A RailCorp spokeswoman has since explained the delays by saying: "Whilst engineering contingency plans were prepared, due to the age of the bridge, issues arose during the infrastructure works that were not apparent until the demolition works were underway."

Asked what these "issues" were, the spokeswoman was unable to provide any more detail.

It appears Transport Minister Gladys Berejiklian has not had any more luck.

In multiple morning radio interviews the minister said she was very disappointed in what had happened and had requested a full report into what went wrong.

"A few heads have been kicked," Ms Berejiklian said.

But by Monday afternoon, the minister was still unable to explain the chain of events.

"The advice to me from RailCorp this morning suggests the age of the bridge meant the infrastructure upgrades taking place took longer than scheduled," she said.

"That is not a satisfactory reason, and it is still not clear to me exactly what specifically caused the delays, so I have sought more information."

Monday morning's train delays continues a bad run for Sydney commuters, and for the O'Farrell government which is trying to simultaneously cut costs and improvement management practices at Sydney's train operator.

The state opposition homed in on the delays, saying they were the result of funding cuts.

"People are fed up with these system meltdowns – and they're becoming just as tired of the O'Farrell government's excuses," Opposition Leader John Robertson said.

Shadow Transport Minister Penny Sharpe said: "This is a Government addicted to cutting staff and cutting corners all over the rail network."

But Ms Berejiklian said the government was investing $60 million in eight new maintenance centres. These would replace smaller centres scattered around the network.

"We are decades behind best practice when it comes to maintenance and currently maintenance staff and inventory are spread around 130 locations, with some operating out of shipping containers," the minister said.

Read more: http://www.smh.com.au/nsw/reason-for-train-delays-proves-a-bridge-too-far-20130506-2j32p.html

[#Metro]

Wasn't it last week the PTUA was banging on a drum about how RRL works over a weekend on a viaduct/signalling etc had gone overtime and caused disruptions, and further, that was a reason why private operation of trains was a bad thing...

... Sydney is a public operator, and has had almost a mirror-image situation happen...

[ozbob]

Yes.  Stuff happens and sometimes things go over.  Was always impressed with Trackstar and their ability to get things done on major closures on time.

[Golliwog]

Bridge maintenance and repairs/replacements are tricky things. Remember when they closed the Riverside Expressway over a weekend last year to replace the deck bearings? It also nearly wasn't finished on time. Despite all the best foresight when planning, there's pretty much always something that they haven't thought of. And then there's Murphy's Law.

[ozbob]

Sydney Morning Herald --> Train chaos fix left out of loop