RAIL Back On Track New Generation Rollingstock Public Inquiry - discussion

[ozbob]

https://twitter.com/9NewsQueensland/status/1021668593333809152

9 News --> Former judge to lead inquiry into flawed Queensland train fleet

Retired district court judge Michael Forde will lead the inquiry into Queensland's $4.4 billion bungled New Generation Rollingstock trains, which have been plagued with problems.

One of the biggest issues is that the bathrooms are not wide enough for wheelchairs.

Disability advocate Geoff Trappett said Jackie Trad was made aware of the issue in 2015 but the rollout could not be halted, and the bungled trains hit the tracks in December 2017.

"We've got trains which are non-compliant with federal disability standards which have been around since the mid-2000s and that's just unforgivable," Mr Trappett from Inclusion Moves said.

In a shock interview, former Premier Campbell Newman, whose government ordered the trains be built in India, admits he cannot recall the details of the designs he signed off on.

"Honestly, it's so long ago. I cannot remember. But that's again, why I'm happy to have an inquiry" he told ABC radio this morning.

He went on to say, "the submission that was brought to us would've said that the trains had to comply, for example, with the disability law. I wouldn't have signed off on something that didn't say that, so why don't they comply?"

The company hired to make these trains has issued a statement saying: "Bombardier maintains its original position that the NGR trains have been built to the specifications provided at the time."

"The trains were designed in Queensland by a very dedicated team of industry professionals, and they've been built especially for Queensland commuters."

A spokesperson also said the company looks forward to finding out how deep the inquiry will go.

Taxpayers will be keen to know how the government ended up spending billions on bungled trains.

[Stillwater]

If Mr Newman is correct, then a public servant, or servants, misled Cabinet.  That is a sackable offence.

[ozbob]

We break for a nice song ... 

[ozbob]

https://twitter.com/Robert_Dow/status/1022224246506844161

[PoliticalFootball]

If Mr Newman is correct, then a public servant, or servants, misled Cabinet.  That is a sackable offence.

The trains were designed with virtually no involvement from QR. You can also certainly guarantee the original design brief from the Newman Govt would've included DOO. The entire design stems around this. He needs to man up and accept some blame for this fiasco #fatchance

[mufreight]

Obviously from the terms of reference the government inquiry is nothing more than a snow job, no public hearings being the key issue here, time for Mr Bailey to resign and for a full public inquiry, Scales should obviously be sacked and as should Mr Easy, neither has accomplished anything other than to prove their incompetence and spend from the public purse without providing the services to the public.

[James]

The trains were designed with virtually no involvement from QR. You can also certainly guarantee the original design brief from the Newman Govt would've included DOO. The entire design stems around this. He needs to man up and accept some blame for this fiasco #fatchance

I highly doubt the former Premier would have signed off on a faulty design. Let's see what the inquiry does... not appointing the Auditor-General is a mistake though IMO, the A-G's job is to conduct government audits.

Mr Bailey must go if the inquiry just turns out to be a hatchet job which blames Scott Emerson & the Indians, especially if it admonishes TMR. Someone along the line signed off on a non-compliant design. In engineering practice, you can get sent to jail for things of that sort.

[ozbob]

Sent to all outlets:

28th July 2018

RAIL Back On Track Next Generation Rollingstock Public Inquiry Resumed

Good Morning,

The Terms of Reference for the Forde Commission of Inquiry into the New Generation Rollingstock (NGR) have now been gazetted.
( https://publications.qld.gov.au/dataset/284f312c-b1f5-4bd2-814a-02a7ab9d0ddf/resource/e3927489-8506-4bc0-b78b-64b957bbd6f6/download/27.07.18---combined-new.pdf  page 672 )

As we previously indicated (below) we suspended our own NGR Public Inquiry pending details of the terms of reference.

The Forde Commission of Inquiry is a welcome move.  A Commission of Inquiry is what we have always wanted.  The Inquiry has legal status and resources and is able to access information we cannot ever achieve.  For that reason it is welcome it as it does explore a critical part of the NGR project.

However, there are some problems with the terms of reference in our view.   We intend to continue to explore the issues of roll out of non-compliant (DDA & DSAPT) NGRs, and why the State took near on two years to apply for an exemption to the AHRC.  We also make a request for the Forde Inquiry Report to be tabled in Parliament.

There is a fair bit of information on the NGR project in the public domain and we are able to try to get more via RTI processes.

Our inquiry is now resumed, and we will continue with a narrowed focus, and we will use any information we are able to piece together to form our report.

The reasoning behind this is as follows:

Key Questions for the RBoT NGR Public Inquiry ( https://railbotforum.org/mbs/index.php?topic=13112.0 ):

         1. Why were non DDA non DSAPT compliant trains ordered? It has been a requirement since 2002 for new passenger rollingstock to be compliant.

        2. Why was the order reduced from 100 to 75 six car trains?

        3. Who signed off on the design?

        4. Was Queensland Rail consulted on design of the new trains?

        5. When did the ' State of Queensland ' first know they had acquired non compliant trains?

        6. Why did it take till September 2017 for an application for a temporary exemption be made to AHRC when Disability Advocates and others had been warning of accessibility issues since 2015?

        7. Who decided that new non compliant trains could be used on the network without the protection of an exemption? Did the Queensland Rail Board approve of this action?

Questions 1, 3, 4, 5  and possibly 2 will be examined by the Forde Inquiry.

That leaves key questions 6 & 7.  That is our focus from here.  We will also see if we can find out why the number of trains was reduced from 100 six car equivalents (originally 200 three car sets) to 75 six car trains.

We will make a submission to the Forde NGR Inquiry.  Our final report will be made publicly available.

Best wishes,
Robert

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

Sent to all outlets:

23rd July 2018

Next Generation Rollingstock inquiry

Greetings,

RAIL Back On Track welcomes the Premier's announcement today of an inquiry into the Next Generation Rollingstock.
( http://statements.qld.gov.au/Statement/2018/7/23/next-generation-rollingstock-inquiry ).

Accordingly, RAIL Back On Track will now suspend our own inquiry ( https://railbotforum.org/mbs/index.php?board=88.0 )
pending details of the full terms of reference being released.

We have full confidence in Retired District Court Judge Michael Forde. We also note that Judge Forde also recently conducted the Inquiry into the Tow Truck Industry, which lead to numerous recommendations and, fixing the problems with unscrupulous operators.

The key question for us is why were non DDA non DSAPT compliant NGR trains ordered? It has been a requirement since 2002 for new passenger rollingstock to be compliant.  It is important that future procurements of rollingstock be compliant.

Best wishes,
Robert

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

[ozbob]

https://twitter.com/Robert_Dow/status/1022950616077950977