Queensland Rail

[BrizCommuter]

A bit of sad reading for the ' fixing the trains ' mob ..



>> https://www.facebook.com/pg/QueenslandRail/reviews/

I see that Queensland Rail's Facebook page has descended into wide angle photos of dogs, as they completely suck at running a railway.

[ozbob]

Couriermail --> Queensland Rail CEO promises changes comin' round the bend

WHEN Nick Easy walked through the doors of Queensland Rail's headquarters on April 3, he may well have wondered what he was getting himself into.

The beleaguered rail operator had weathered six months of bad headlines, lost a transport minister, chief executive, two board members, a chief operating officer, three general managers and put 50,000 extra cars on the road in one month alone as people gave up on their trains running on time.

Its credibility shot, it had been slammed for a toxic culture, bloated bureaucracy, basket case train crewing practices and forced to finally admit its array of inadequacies through a scathing commission of inquiry by former Rio Tinto chief Phillip Strachan.

Since Easy formally took on the role of QR's "Mr Fix-It", the former chief executive of the Port of Melbourne and Victoria's Metropolitan Fire and Emergency Services Board has been on a steep learning curve.

Both Easy and Strachan – whose deep dive into the business set him up as QR's new chairman – admit to frequently comparing notes on issues they need to get to the bottom of.

"It's still early days but I think we're well and truly starting the change process and the transformation of the company," Easy says from QR's high-rise boardroom above Central Station.

It might sound like corporate babble, but the new head is described by others as no-nonsense, approachable, direct and unafraid of the facts.

He's brought in fresh blood around him and is unapologetic that things need to change. He's already started to overhaul driver training, which is taking 18 months when it should take nine.

There's a new $3.8 million training simulator, 50 new driver mentors who show trainees the ropes to free up precious tutors, tougher assessment and there's talk of kicking out trainees who can't prove themselves fast enough.

Twenty-six drivers have graduated since October, 100 are in schools and 28 Aurizon drivers are finally working their way through an admittedly long application process to crack through the previously in-house-only selection process. Easy says it's too bad half of those who applied failed psychometric testing but "it's important that we get the right people".

With a full review of the program still under way and with crewing shortfalls to last for years, there's more changes to come.

Easy has promised to be "robust" with unions, whose deals with management – like the now defunct 20-minute "comfort breaks" every 2.5 hours – mean drivers are spending less than a third of their shift behind the controls.

Despite being locked into the current enterprise bargaining agreement that contains many problematic conditions until 2019, Easy and Strachan are trying to tackle rules around rostering, driver routes and meal breaks.

Strachan says sectorisation, in which a driver is trained to drive a particular route, such as the Gold Coast line, before being trained in others, is an obvious place to start.

"That's a big efficiency for us to only train on a sector and it'll shorten down the training duration rather than having someone train on the whole of the network, which takes time," he says.

"So I think there's a willingness to explore that (from the unions)."

[ozbob]

^ all we have seen is worsening service reductions. 

They have enough crew to at least go to  a consistent Mon <> Fri timetable and fix the PM peak Cleveland problems particularly.

All words ... 

Sectorisation not till 2019?   Be surprised if the EB is even relevant then ... the way things are going probably will be a new operator.

[ozbob]

https://twitter.com/Robert_Dow/status/878291711725715457

[ozbob]

Couriermail --> Queensland Rail driver test stumps more than half of applicants

MORE than half of the experienced train drivers who have applied to work for Queensland Rail have been turned down after failing psychometric testing.

But as the troubled rail operator scrambles to address its crewing shortfalls, chief executive Nick Easy says he won't apologise for the difficult tests that have even stumped university maths students.

Only 28 of 58 people who have applied through external recruitment have passed the tests to move to the next stage of the interview process. That compares with 77 per cent of internal candidates passing psychometric testing.

Applicants from private freight operator Aurizon have told The Courier-Mail they believe unnecessarily difficult tests were being used to exclude them and questioned how so many of them could be deemed safety risks despite years of experience.

Mr Easy defended the rigorous recruitment process and said both internal and external applicants had to sit the tests.

"Those that are doing the driving task, they're responsible for up to 1000 people at any one time so it's really important we get the right people," he said.

"I would much rather have a higher success rate but ... we want the right people performing what are safety critical roles."

The results follow a move in which dozens of form rejection letters were sent to ­experienced external candidates in March with no explanation, an action Transport Minister Jackie Trad was forced to overturn and demand they be considered.

Mr Easy also defended the lengthy recruitment process, which he said could not be done faster as training schools were full until September.

"We do link our recruitments to the filling of our schools so we're now considering the next formal recruitment and when that will be and how we do that so we're now having the conversations around how we implement recommendations of the (Strachan) inquiry, which is about full external recruitment," he said.

[ozbob]

Does anyone know what the failure rates are for other operators in Oz land?

Is it a Queensland thing?   

[BrizCommuter]

... and what is the Citytrain Response Unit doing?
Where is the June report? Last quarterly report was March 8th!

[ozbob]

... and what is the Citytrain Response Unit doing?
Where is the June report? Last quarterly report was March 8th!

Yo >  https://www.cru.qld.gov.au/reports.html  nothing since 8 March 2017.

Despite the ' fixing the trains ' rhetoric, there seems to be a slowdown of reports and data.  Q3 TransLink Tracker ? March snapshot data ? 

Really is shambles in many respects .. somewhere, some day ..

[BrizCommuter]

QR deletes negative Facebook reviews!
http://brizcommuter.blogspot.com.au/2017/06/qr-deletes-negative-facebook-reviews.html

[ozbob]

 https://twitter.com/7NewsQueensland/status/878525812361711617

[ozbob]

QR deletes negative Facebook reviews!
http://brizcommuter.blogspot.com.au/2017/06/qr-deletes-negative-facebook-reviews.html

https://twitter.com/Robert_Dow/status/878769338924154880

[ozbob]

Queensland Times --> Nicholls promises to fix the rail chaos

TIM Nicholls has declared that he will be a Premier with a focus on making the trains run on time if the LNP should win office at the next election.

The QT spoke to Mr Nicholls before Wednesday night's rail debacle that left thousands of passengers stranded on south-east Queensland lines.

The QT told Mr Nicholls Ipswich people were sick of the failures of the public transport system and rail in particular and asked whether he would be focussed on getting it right.

"Absolutely," he said. "Getting the trains to run on time and to be reliable and to provide the services people need is absolutely our focus. When we were in government we got the train reliability up to 96%. When we came to government it was sitting at around 88%.

"So we got the trains running, had enough drivers and delivered the services... and in a growing area like Ipswich, which is going to see population continue to increase, you need to have the facilities to give those public transport users the opportunity to travel."

Bundamba MP Jo-Ann Miller said recently in her budget reply speech she would like to see funds spent on extending the railway line from Springfield to Redbank Plains.

Mr Nicholls said he was not opposed to the idea, but added the entire rail network needed fixing and he would ensure that occurred.

"I know Jo-Ann Miller has made that call in relation to that and it is something we will certainly look at and investigate as to whether it stacks up in the sense of the number of passengers that are going to use it on a regular basis ," he said.

"But the greater priority is to make sure the trains are running on time and that we have enough drivers running on time.

"At the moment we don't have that. We have a Labor Party that is very much inner Brisbane centric with a (plan to allocate ) $4.5 million to $ 5 million for a 10 kilometre cross-city rail system that...we are not sure really stacks up."

There are numerous infrastructure projects that will require joint funding in the years ahead in the Ipswich region.

These include projects such as the $350 million Yamanto to Ebenezer/Amberley upgrade of the Cunningham Hwy involving 4.75km of work between Warwick Rd, Amberley and Ebenezer Creek, a notorious stretch of road known as an accident hotspot.

The upgrade includes the Amberley Interchange and an upgrade of the intersection of the Ipswich-Rosewood Rd which is a car park in peak times in the morning and afternoons.

Preliminary modelling suggests the congestion is costing the economy $45 million each year.

Mr Nicholls said Ipswich people and those in the region deserved suitable infrastructure and that he would be a champion for ensuring it was delivered.

"I think the things that are going to be important for people in Ipswich are jobs and making sure there is investment in the roads that are necessary so that people can travel ," he said.

"We know that commerce and business all needs good connections between our regional cities and we need to make sure that Ipswich remains connected to Brisbane, to the Gold Coast and Sunshine Coast so that people don't spend time sitting in their cars waiting to get home, waiting to get to work and waiting to get to holidays."

Mr Nicholls said "making sure Ipswich has a strong and vibrant education sector" was important to him.

"We want our kids in all of our schools to have the best education to give them the best opportunities possible," he said.

He said he was determined to work with local government to also deliver on the services that were needed in regional centres.

He said that would include "working with local councils like the Scenic Rim council and Ipswich council, in whatever form that may take in the near future, to deliver the services on the ground that people want".

"The issues around transport and public transport are key issues and providing more and better health services in the West Moreton area are also important issues," he said.

"We know there is a new Mater Hospital going up in the new seat of Jordan in Springfield. As population grows and we see growth in places like Flagstone and Yarrabilba we are going to need to do things to fix Mt Lindesay Hwy, so they are all projects we are going to have to look very closely at."

[ozbob]

Couriermail --> Queensland Rail: Union official back in driver's seat

A RAIL union official who stepped back into a coveted train driver job at Queensland Rail after a decade-long break has denied favouritism accusations, arguing he never technically left.

Rail Tram and Bus Union organiser Shayne Kummerfeld took unpaid leave from QR for a paid union job back in 2006, but says he is now returning to train driving so he can "relax a bit".

Mr Kummerfeld left his full-time union organiser job on Friday after announcing in May it was "time to return to the footplate" to "enjoy some of the conditions I have helped negotiate for Traincrew, as well as some quality time with my wife and daughter".

His return to the tools more than a decade on has triggered accusations of union favouritism by some ex-QR drivers working for rail freight operator Aurizon after they were refused QR jobs.

Multiple Aurizon drivers in March applied to fill QR driver vacancies, but many were rejected after failing to pass QR's tough psychometric and psychomotor screening tests.

The State Opposition seized on Mr Kummerfeld's return to the job as an example of union control at QR, accusing it of being "one rule for union bosses and another for everyone else".

"My office has been inundated with contact from experienced train drivers from Aurizon and other operators who can't get in the front door at QR," LNP transport spokesman Andrew Powell said.

"Letting a union boss walk back into the driver's seat after being away from QR for more than a decade is a kick in the guts to these drivers who want to work to get QR back on track."

Mr Kummerfeld, a qualified driver, rejected "queue jumping", saying he was entitled to return to his job.

"I'm not starting back at QR – I'm still at QR," Mr Kummerfeld told The Sunday Mail. "I've been on leave without pay for quite a while," he said.

"If you asked me for my employment history, I've been a driver with Queensland Rail since 1992, so I don't think I'm going back, I'm just going back to what I used to do."

An inquiry into the QR rail meltdown this year partly blamed falling driver productivity on inflexible union work rules and linked soaring overtime to a "structural shortfall of train crew".

It also recommended dumping controversial "closed shop" job rules favouring internal recruitment.

QR chief executive officer Nick Easy said Mr Kummerfeld was required to undergo re-training due to the length of absence but existing QR drivers did not need to do retrospective psychometric testing.

[ozbob]

Sent to all outlets:

28th April 2017

Queensland's train timetables will soon return to normal (sic)

Good Morning,

And what wonderful news we wake to this morning:

" ... THE State Government has announced southeast Queensland's train timetables will soon return to normal following the unveiling of a new training program. ... "

Couriermail --> Queensland Rail fail: New $4m train simulator to boost driver training

Does the acquisition of a new train simulator render all the previous spin and bluster, inquiries redundant?  Or this just a little bit of journalistic optimism.

We do live in hope of Queensland Rail delivering the October 2016 timetable, certainly by late January 2018.

As previously advised this is what needs to occur in our opinion in terms of timetable fixing:

Step 1:  Convert the abysmal Friday timetable to the same as the present Monday to Thursday timetable.

Step 2:  Starting plugging some of the service gaps in the present Monday to Thursday timetable, eg. the PM peak problems on the Cleveland line.

Step 3:  Convert peak 3 car services to 6 car services - this should be done as the new NGR trains are progressively introduced.

Step 4.  As train crew become available re-introduce the October 2016 timetable (with some modifications as necessary) by late January 2018.

Oh the joy!

Best wishes,
Robert

Robert Dow
Administration
admin@backontrack.org
RAIL Back On Track https://backontrack.org

[ozbob]

If this mess is not sorted by January 2018, I am thinking we need a new Government and a new rail operator!

Hopeless crisis management.

[STB]

If this mess is not sorted by January 2018, I am thinking we need a new Government and a new rail operator!

Hopeless crisis management.

I highly doubt the LNP are going to be any better, they were the ones that got us into this mess in the first place!

As far as LNP ideology generally goes, anything to do with public services is against their beliefs, that you are meant to stand on your own with minimal Government interference.

[ozbob]

Who said anything about the LNP?

A new Government could be many things ...   

[Stillwater]

Let's be clear, all that the LNP has put on the table is that they will ensure that the trains and crew used to deliver the reduced and deficient timetable will 'run on time'.  Wow, so bad has the train service become that it is a big deal for someone to promise the trains meet the timetable schedule.  In his recent pronouncements, Mr Nicholls again reached for the political club, beating his political opponents about on-time running performance.  That's not where the focus lies.  The premise is that there be a race to the bottom, where train services are reduced, and reduced again, to the point where the number of functional and mechanically-fit train sets and the number of drivers match -- and that is the service that is rolled out to the unimpressed travelling public.

So, you see, the ALP and the LNP are arguing exactly the same line.   

Disaster. 

[Cazza]

Who said anything about the LNP?

A new Government could be many things ...   

One Nation by any chance??? 

[ozbob]

Well, that is certainly a possibility in banana-land, but I think there are better options for a new Government.

For example a Labor/Independent minority government, with the independents committed to, say, public transport reform.

A Labor/Greens coalition Government.  The Greens do have good transport policies.

I still remained unconvinced by LNP and PHON.  Their transport utterings so far have been nonsensical. But should the LNP be successful I will certainly push them to bring back the " Cleveland Solution " ...  trams in the river would be neat-o !      

[#Metro]

I highly doubt the LNP are going to be any better, they were the ones that got us into this mess in the first place!

As far as LNP ideology generally goes, anything to do with public services is against their beliefs, that you are meant to stand on your own with minimal Government interference.

Problem with Blue Team is that they don't do public consultation and they don't like criticism. They don't grasp the concept that constructive criticism flushes out the weaknesses in any proposal and in the end ultimately strengthens a proposal. Deputy Lord Mayor Adrian Schrinner and Brisbane City Council have seen the light in this regard, after the maths on their ' Brisbane Metro ' project forced them to see that they were in the wrong.

Unfortunately, a similar realisation has not come to the Blue Team at State Government level. Again, this feeds into the need for a State Senate. There are so many botched things and reviews/inquiries going on it justifies the creation of a specialised and dedicated house of review for that purpose IMO. Had the technical drawings and designs been made public or had come under Senate scrutiny, perhaps someone would have picked up on the fact that the trains were not DDA compliant. Again, constructive criticism isn't pleasant. But it does flush out the problems.

Red Team are going to have a very difficult time solving the issues because they - and frankly a lot of people on this forum - have a major ideological problem terminating a contract of a failing operator if the operator is public. They cannot bring themselves to give the regulator (TransLink) the powers to fine, hire, and fire if it means chucking out Queensland Rail. And yet, that is exactly what strong regulation is and should be. They don't want to connect the dots to see the big picture because they might see something they don't like. No, just extend the contract...

They cannot even do it in the face of hard evidence that the operator is failing and has (as Jackie Trad describes) "bad culture" - awarding themselves big bonuses, poor public communications (Stirling Hinchliffe was in the dark about shortages for quite a while), poor customer ratings and reviews (to the point of censoring that on Facebook), diabolical "broken connection" timetabling, people going on 10 years unpaid leave- it is just a huge mess.

Transport Minister Jackie Trad seems incredibly reluctant to remove the people on the QR board and Executive Leadership Team that delivered this fiasco. She's in control, but she's not in control. And this goes even deeper - this same situation presented itself in another guise when Brisbane City Council refused to implement the 2013 bus review. Blue Team was in office and Scott Emerson spectacularly lost control of the Transport Porfolio to the operator (sound familiar??). BCC didn't want to change, had not met bus on time statistics for years, blatantly refused to send staff to review meetings -  and there was no mechanism to remove BCC as an operator.

It's the same story of standards non-enforcement, a toothless regulator, and the regulator being walked all over by the operator (yes, I expect TransLink signed off on the timetable to break bus connections across the entire SEQ network) and ultimately the minister. It is the tail wagging the dog, all because there is an unstated belief out there that firing a public operator for non-performance is "too scary" to think about let alone follow through with.

[ozbob]

From another thread > https://railbotforum.org/mbs/index.php?topic=12341.msg194846#msg194846

Worth going back to the Strachan Report, and how they forecast supply (pages 21-22)

From this analysis, Queensland Rail has concluded that it will have train crew to deliver the full timetabled
services by:

 Late 2018, assuming 10 per cent overtime
 Mid- to late 2019, assuming no overtime.

Until such time, Queensland Rail will continue to operate with reduced services and high levels of overtime.
The Commission notes that Queensland Rail's forecasts appear to contain overly optimistic assumptions,
particularly pertaining to overtime, attrition, planned leave, training durations and impacts of the new
enterprise agreement.

Drivers and guards will progressively graduate from this program. The provided dates are for the last expected graduate.

200 Drivers - All recruited 30 April 2018

200 Drivers - All training commenced - 30 June 2018

200 Drivers - All qualified 30 June 2019

It's really not so obvious how this can be accelerated any faster. Given that the Commonwealth Games are in April, the full recruitment won't be complete until the games are over.

I wonder what progress has been made since the Strachan report came out, and where the CRU has benchmarked QR's progress now.

Also if the NGR trains are introduced, then people need to be trained specifically on that model (?) where are they going to get the time to do that, and how can they do that given that the trains are not in service (and the bulk of them are not even manufactured yet and shipped??)

^ they simply have to expedite their training times.  Those assumptions are based on the old training models.

They have since shortened the training times apparently and are pushing through more, quicker. 

Other operators can do it within a 6-9 month time frame.

NGR crew training is well advanced.

We simply cannot wait until sometime in 2019 for an acceptable rail frequency.  Queensland Rail is doing serious damage to public transport and they must be held to account. They have put it back decades, and have probably managed to torpedo Cross River Rail as well through their failure.

If there is not a full timetable in place by January 2018, they are finished IMHO.  That is the ' red '  line in the sand for me.  This the view the Government should take.  But they lack the balls to sort it by the look of things.  So be it, it will be bye to them as well.

Even the Chairman of the Board accepts failure when he comments we cannot introduce  ' sectorisation ' till after 2019 and the next EB.  How about breaking out of the unionisation straight jacket and get an EB variation?  This is a damn crisis not an exercise in pontification and maybes.  The rail network service is an utter shambles!

Failure at that point (January 2018) will see me campaign relentlessly for a new competent operator.  At that point they would have had 14 months.  Enough of the bullsh%t and incompetence.

...

[ozbob]

Ponder this for a moment.

If we go to state election in November ( latest rumour ) and the rail fail continues apparently till 2019, how is that going to go?



It is in the critical interest of the Government and Queensland Rail to expedite return to normal services a lot sooner than 2019 !

[Gazza]

We don't need all 200 to get back to the original timetable though do we?

[ozbob]

We don't need all 200 to get back to the original timetable though do we?

Indeed.  I don't think we do.  That is why I think January 2018 is a realistic deadline.

[ozbob]

https://twitter.com/seathholswich/status/881671724353241088

[PollyWouldLikeASeat]

The bingo is missing the best one "We strongly advise you find alternative transport"

[ozbob]

https://twitter.com/Robert_Dow/status/882291231832788992

[ozbob]

Couriermail --> Queensland Rail slammed by driver applicants

QUEENSLAND Rail has reacted to fresh criticism over its hunt for experienced driver recruits after initially leaving rejected applicants clueless as to why they failed.

The Australian Federated Union of Locomotive Employees has confirmed taking up the applicants' complaints with QR on behalf of angry members.

It comes after an unknown number of former QR drivers, now driving for freight operator Aurizon, were told last month they had failed QR's tough psychometric or psychomotor testing.

The tests first came to attention in April when The Courier-Mail revealed applicants were being asked to solve university-level maths problems as part of psychometric testing, triggering concerns it could further delay QR fixing its serious driver shortage.

Those who pass the test must complete a computer program testing motor skills.

Complaints reached the union when some drivers were told they had failed the tests, despite continuing to drive freight trains on the state's rail network. AFULE organiser Mick McKitrich said the drivers were initially given a "stock standard" reply that they did not meet the safety benchmark, but QR later agreed to provide more feedback.

"Some of the gentlemen are very good drivers and they would have made very good Citytrain drivers but I guess there's a standard in place they have to pass," he said.

"At least they are getting some feedback now."

Some drivers have questioned whether QR is reluctant to hire Aurizon workers after blanket rejection emails earlier this year forced the Government to intervene. But Mr McKitrich hosed down the concerns, saying "there's nothing really that I'm aware of to say it was tilted in anyone's direction or anyone's favour".

QR chief executive officer Nick Easy said QR would provide future successful and unsuccessful candidates with a summary of their result against each assessment area.

He said previous candidates seeking results had also been contacted to give an overview.

"To ensure we do not compromise the overall purpose of the testing, we are unable to provide the answers for each individual question," he said.

An inquiry in January criticised "restrictions on the ability to recruit train crew externally, which increased the burden of recruitment and depleted guard ranks".

[ozbob]

https://twitter.com/Robert_Dow/status/884453203168772096

https://twitter.com/Robert_Dow/status/884453555578445825

My own view is that there is something seriously amiss if train drivers presently driving freight trains are rejected. 

Smells very much like a ' closed shop ' operation, despite the weasel words.

This rail fail just gets worse as the days roll on by ...

[ozbob]

https://twitter.com/Robert_Dow/status/884459791455666176

[ozbob]

https://twitter.com/Robert_Dow/status/884488878945476609

[ozbob]

Letter to the Editor Queensland Times 11th July 2017 page 19

Rollingstock going off the rails

[ozbob]

QR deletes negative Facebook reviews!
http://brizcommuter.blogspot.com.au/2017/06/qr-deletes-negative-facebook-reviews.html

https://twitter.com/BNE4METRO/status/884484701397950464

[ozbob]

https://twitter.com/AndrewPowellMP/status/884541997570076672

[ozbob]

https://twitter.com/MattCNS/status/884619810528796673

[#Metro]

"Time to say Goodbye"

[#Metro]

I really doubt that the psychometric stuff really adds anything. Happy to be disproven, but would like to see what effect it has on the safety

of the operations and actual real world evidence of that.


Trains are a safer mode of travel - safer than car.* http://www.cityam.com/215834/one-chart-showing-safest-ways-travel

That is because everything is monitored and because trains run on set tracks, and those tracks are generally separated from all other

traffic. The exception here are level crossings.


Trains are large and heavy, so they take a long time to stop. Even if someone has a quick reaction, chances are the train will plow

through whatever is in its way a few hundred meters.


We are told that the testing is about "safety" - as if that is something one cannot argue against - but just how much safer does this

make the network overall? And here is the thing: current train crew are exempt  from the testing. As we have seen with the staff

member that went on unpaid leave for 10 years (!!) didn't have to sit the test.


If it really was that critical, surely all traincrew staff should be made to sit the test, not just new recruits. You know, for SAFETY reasons.


I don't think one should have a PhD in complex mathematics to get a position. Government should really look at automating the trains - it will

be a strange contrast when we have buses and cars driving themselves and at the same time trains needing 2 staff to move.


The current way the test is behaving is to act as a barrier to entry and a mechanism to cut the field right down.

Transportation safety over time: Cars, planes, trains, walking, cycling
https://journalistsresource.org/studies/environment/transportation/comparing-fatality-risks-united-states-transportation-across-modes-time

* There is probably a methodological discussion to be had here, as safety is expressed in passenger-km.
From the perspective of a passenger, this is valid, but from the perspective of a driver or guard it may be different as they don't experience
journeys in "passenger km" but "km". How many people are on board the vehicle doesn't seem relevant from their perspective.

[Gazza]

I think there is an argument for some degree of rigour, but possibly not as harsh as they are being if experienced train drivers are failing.

Unless of course the pool of applicants was too big anyway and they needed to cull.

Its not just about safety, its about memorizing the network in a way you just don't have to on the roads (You can drive a place you've never been before and be fine, but you can't do that in a train.
There's also a level of precision needed in the job...If you drive a little too fast or slow then you muck up merges with other lines, or miss getting through a single track or passing route correctly, and cause knock on delays.

Imagine if you went on a 50km car drive, and had to not just reach your destination within a 4min tolerance, but you have to hit every point on the way at that precision too.

That's mentally demanding.

[#Metro]

Its not just about safety, its about memorizing the network in a way you just don't have to on the roads (You can drive a place you've never been before and be fine, but you can't do that in a train.
There's also a level of precision needed in the job...If you drive a little too fast or slow then you muck up merges with other lines, or miss getting through a single track or passing route correctly, and cause knock on delays.

Imagine if you went on a 50km car drive, and had to not just reach your destination within a 4min tolerance, but you have to hit every point on the way at that precision too.

That's mentally demanding.

Yes, this is the Japanese sort of system.




On the other hand, there are places where you just press a button and the train drives itself between stations.

The route and optimal speeds are programmed in. The operator is only required to work the doors and maybe glide into stations.

And if it was that important, current staff are exempt why? <--- Something Trad et al needs to explain.

Queensland Rail generally had very good on time statistics before this test came in, everyone seemed to manage just fine,

so it is looking a lot like "if it wasn't broken, why are you fixing it?".


1963: Train drives itself (50+ years ago)
"The first automatic train on the London underground could be hurtling into stations in three weeks, the government has revealed."
http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/march/21/newsid_2546000/2546071.stm