7 Aug 2009: Queensland: Time for action. Stop does mean stop!

[ozbob]

Media Release 7 August 2009

Queensland:  Time for action. Stop does mean stop!

RAIL Back On Track (http://backontrack.org) a web based community support group for rail and public transport and an advocate for public transport commuters has said that the continuing pandering to road users concerning level crossings has now reached crisis point.  Road vehicle drivers are still regularly breaking road rules at level crossings. They don't care! Automatic licence suspension for level crossing breaches together with full cost recovery for the damage, death, injury and disruption should also be mandatory.

Robert Dow, Spokesman for RAIL Back On Track said:

"Train crew, train passengers and road vehicle drivers and their passengers, cyclists and pedestrians need immediate protection."

"This week there have been more level crossing incidents, one of these involved a bus.  This is of major concern, more incidents in the ongoing saga of high risk behaviours by motorists and other road users and their apparent disregard for their own and others welfare."

"Why is there a reluctance of Queensland Transport and Government to take immediate decisive action?  Will it take another Kerang type incident before substantial penalties are put in place for irresponsible behaviour by motorists, cyclists and pedestrians?

"A report of a school bus failing to stop as directed at a rail crossing (1) just further highlights the ongoing inaction. Recommendations that arose out of the investigation in 2008 of a fatal school bus level crossing collision between Dalby and Chinchilla on the 5th June 2008 have not been implemented (2)."

Listed immediately below are a number of recent statements from RAIL Back On Track concerning level crossing safety and enforcement:

29 May 2009 Queensland:  Bridge strikes, level crossing incidents continue unabated - action demanded today.
http://backontrack.org/mbs/index.php?topic=2327.0

9 May 2009: Queensland: It is time - call for automatic licence suspension ...
http://backontrack.org/mbs/index.php?topic=2246.0

16 Apr 2009: Queensland: Time for level crossing action
http://backontrack.org/mbs/index.php?topic=2140.0

1 Jan 2009: Queensland: Passengers want action concerning railway crossing ...
http://backontrack.org/mbs/index.php?topic=1718.0

"Time Queensland Transport and the Government took decisive action."

"Enough is enough.  Will it take another level crossing disaster before the authorities decisively act?"

References:

1.  http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2009/05/15/2572088.htm
2.  http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2008/10/16/2393501.htm?site=southqld

Contact:

Robert Dow
Administration
admin@backontrack.org

[ozbob]

3 August 2009

Locomotive crew emotionally vulnerable

Footplate Padre Mark Tronson, an author of sixteen railway books, has a pastoral concern for the many unsung heroes of the iron road who drive their locomotives day in and day out, sometimes with their hearts in their mouths.

Across Australia the crews who climb into their locomotive cabins each shift have a piece of machinery weighing over one hundred tons, plus the train they pull behind them. The kinetic energy of this monster, when moving, is impossible to stop in any short distance.

When I was a locomotive engineman on fast express passenger trains, I knew where to apply the brakes so as to slow the entire train and then bring it to a halt at a platform,? M V Tronson recalled.

To bring a fast moving passenger train to a halt speed of 110 kilometres an hour, and smoothly glide it up beside a platform on a perfectly flat rail head, requires at least one kilometre to steady the train.

?A super-freighter at these same high speeds was something else again, as the crews would begin to steady the train down well before the 'Distant Signal' which was the first of three static signals an engineman would come across when entering a platform zone,? M V Tronson explained.

Enginemen need to have their wits about them as it is never known what might appear on a railway line when the train comes around a blind curve such as cuttings.

In the days of steam and the early diesel era, it was not uncommon to find sheep, cattle or horses on a railway line.
Numerous stories in my sixteen railway books tells the stories of such encounters,? said Mark Tronson. ?Moreover, some explained in detail how difficult it proved to be to release the carcasses of animals that had become caught between the cow catcher and the locomotive.?

There are also, sadly, several ways in which people have lost their lives on the railways. Everyone has read of accidents as level crossings; but there also have been suicides, falls onto the tracks, the occasional heart attack of a passenger or driver and shunting accidents (for example, when uncoupling the carriages).

Locomotive crews who have the very unfortunate experience of a human death when at the controls have had to come to terms with this. In the vast majority of cases, the accident has not occurred because of something the engineman has done wrong, so the pastoral and counselling issues extend beyond the engineman to include his family and close friends.

?An accidental death also affects the locomotive crews in the depot,? M V Tronson explained sadly. ?When I was a young railwayman, I can recall an engineman being burnt to death when two locomotives crashed into each other, and I still have strong memories of how that affected all of us in the depot.?

Now as the Footplate Padre, Mark Tronson has identified the concerns that a locomotive engineman has, in relation to the constant pressures of accidental death when at the controls.

First, the locomotive engineman is often worried that his concern about problems with a particular section of line, or platform, or problems with civilian protection, is not taken seriously or seen as having professional input.
There is nothing more frustrating than seeing a potential problem, knowing from experience that it poses real danger, repeatedly making mention of it, yet having the advice ignored.

Second, when an accident does occur, one of the very first official things that is checked is the tape (black box equivalent) and the engineman is automatically deemed at fault until the he can prove himself to be innocent.
There is nothing more humiliating to an engineman, generally with many years of experience and with a very solid record, to encounter such treatment, often meted out by people many years his junior, and quite often without any person-to-person sensitivity.

These two factors are just as prevalent today as they were when I was a locomotive engineman for many years,? M V Tronson noted. ?For these reasons, pastoral care is a necessity, and an enormous responsibility.?

Mark Tronson, a Baptist minister for 32 years, is an associate member of the Australasian Religious Press Association (ARPA) and is the author of 24 books. He was The Australian newspaper "field hockey" writer for 24 years to 1994; the Cricket Chaplain (1984-2000 Australian team, from 2001 Life After Cricket.) He is Chairman of Well-Being Australia since 2000, which provides respite facilities for elite athletes and also a painter of fine art. E-mail PSI or Mark: Mark at PSI Web site is www.bushorchestra.com.