29 Mar 2010: Queensland: Rail safety balance needed

[ozbob]

Media Release 29 March 2010

Queensland:  Rail safety balance needed

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 media reports of a potential closure of the Kuranda line are a knee-jerk and excessive response (1).  An obsession with rail safety is approaching absurdity.

Robert Dow, Spokesman for RAIL Back On Track said:

"The rail line up to Kuranda is an engineering masterpiece.  Landslides, avalanches, earthquakes and tidal waves are a fact of life on earth. The rail line is essential to the local economy and besides millions of tourists have safely made the trip.  A minor incident is not cause to close the rail line.  The provision of a pilot track vehicle running ahead of the tourist train would allow the identification of any recent landslips, a rare event in any case.  The obsession with rail safety is out of hand. Mayhem, injury death and destruction continues unabated on the nation's roads, as a community we should be maximising rail travel not reducing it."

"To often it seems we face shut-downs and loss of service due to claims of 'rail safety'.  For goodness sakes, rail travel is at least 40 times safer than road.  Any risk assessment soon identifies that replacing a rail service with a road service is dangerous to the extreme."

"Plans to close Traveston railway station again send the wrong signal (2).  It matters little that few people use the station, partly because of the very poor train frequency.  Rather than close the station, more trains and an upgrade would mean better utilisation by the community. Victoria has done this with their VLine country services and patronage is booming (3). Queensland is just interested it seems in rail cutbacks, which in turn increases the road trauma and damage debit list."

"It is time that a long hard look was taken at the so called rail 'safety policies' that are causing interference to perfectly safe workings. Constant disruption and loss of service for so called safety reasons is wearing thin."

References:

1. http://www.couriermail.com.au/news/queensland/safety-concerns-may-cause-kuranda-line-to-be-closed/story-e6freoof-1225846582527

2. http://www.gympietimes.com.au/story/2010/03/25/qr-sounds-death-knell-on-traveston-rail-stop/

3. http://www.vline.com.au/index.aspx?sid=0

Contact:

Robert Dow
Administration
admin@backontrack.org

[ozbob]

See thread here --> http://railbotforum.org/mbs/index.php?topic=3621.0