Article: New $500m railway line 'unsafe'

[ozbob]

From the Melbourne Age click here!

New $500m railway line 'unsafe'

New $500m railway line 'unsafe'
THOMAS HUNTER
July 22, 2010

LARGE sections of the newly upgraded Melbourne-Albury rail line have been declared unsafe, forcing trains to slow down and prompting claims that the $500 million project has been bungled.

The train drivers union says speed restrictions have had to be enforced along 58 kilometres of the line where hundreds of large, mud-filled potholes have formed under the newly installed sleepers and rails.

The union says the holes under the tracks have caused carriages to separate and train drivers to almost bounce out of their seats. And it says resulting speed restrictions are adding an hour to the supposedly high-speed Melbourne-Sydney XPT passenger service.

''There's a possibility of derailment for a train which hits these holes,'' said Brian Hill, secretary of the locomotive division of the Rail, Tram and Bus Union.

One driver called the work an ''engineering blunder the ARTC [Australian Rail Track Corporation] was advised against''. He said there were more than 700 mud holes between Melbourne and Albury, ranging from three metres to 500 metres long.

He said the lateral and horizontal movement caused by the holes forced drivers ''to hold on to something'' so they weren't bounced out of their seats.

V/Line services have been suspended between Melbourne and Albury while the Rail Track Corporation completes the upgrades, which involve replacing wooden sleepers with concrete ones and converting rail lines from broad gauge to national standard gauge.

Mr Hill said last week there were four instances of trains coming apart when carriages dipped over mud holes, causing couplings to fail.

The Age has seen an email from one CountryLink train engineer who claimed testers from the ARTC were shocked by the state of the tracks.

Two observers were ''very astounded'' by the track conditions and experienced ''extreme difficulty keeping their equipment secured throughout the journey at line speed'', he wrote.

The Age has also obtained a memo by Greg McLeod, general manager of CountryLink, operator of the Melbourne-Sydney XPT service, sent to drivers on July 16 warning them of sections of track where ''mud is almost continuous''.

''Although ballast fouling is the principal cause, inadequate drainage alongside the track is a major contributory factor,'' he wrote. Ballast in this case refers to rocks between rail sleepers.

ARTC spokesman Brian Dale agreed that poor drainage was a problem on the line. There were no figures on how many trains had broken apart as a result of the mud holes, but ''it was not an everyday occurrence''.

''In fixing the track you fix one problem, but you can create another problem,'' he said. ''At times it can be the track and at times it can be the train itself.''

Mr Dale said the mud holes were caused by dust settling after sleepers were installed. Rain had turned them into mud and the holes had grown as trains passed over them.

The ARTC has begun work on fixing the mud holes.

[Golliwog]

If the tracks were designed properly in the first place, even if the dust and water did make mud, it should drain away not sit under the tracks!

[ozbob]

From the Melbourne Age click here!

Twisted rail lines left 'untouched' for years

Twisted rail lines left 'untouched' for years
THOMAS HUNTER
July 23, 2010

TRAIN drivers fearing a catastrophe from sections of country rail line buckled by mud holes say some affected areas have been ''in an untouched state for over two years''.

In emails obtained by The Age, drivers expressed serious concerns about the condition of rail lines between Melbourne and Albury that have been upgraded recently by the Australian Rail Track Corporation (ARTC) but suffer serious defects that cause trains to drop carriages and risk the safety of drivers.

One driver said a section of track affected by mud holes had been ''untouched'' for two years and now had plants growing out of the mud.

He also claimed the ARTC repaired some areas ''without cleaning the fouled ballast or without improving drainage just to get the TSR [temporary speed restrictions] removed''.

In a separate email, another driver wrote: ''ARTC are ... appeasing the rail operators by lifting TSRs and speeding up the corridor because of the intense pressure placed on them by the operators due to the massive delays, damaged rolling stock ... and lost revenue.''

But the ARTC's Brian Dale strongly denied the claim, saying he would ''not be going down that rabbit hole''.

''What we do is get the track up and running and we have allocated significant resources the get the track fixed,'' he told The Age.

''Since we took over this track in 2007, there has been a lot of upgrades, a lot of maintenance and a lot of capital investment. Over a billion dollars will be going into it.''

The Age believes V/Line has not been told when rail services between Seymour and Albury will resume.

A spokesman for Transport Minister Martin Pakula said: ''The expectation is that V/Line passenger services will return between Seymour and Albury before the end of the year.'' He could not be more specific.

The Age believes buses travelling between Seymour and Albury during the track works are being shunned by commuters.

It is believed patronage has fallen significantly from the numbers who would have used the train. The sticking point is that the bus trip takes 20 to 30 minutes more than the rail journey did and many travellers are opting for other transport, usually a car.

[ozbob]

From the Melbourne Age click here!

Victoria-NSW train travel suspended: CountryLink

Victoria-NSW train travel suspended: CountryLink
August 9, 2010 - 2:57PM

Train travel from NSW to Victoria has been suspended because of safety concerns.

The decision was made yesterday afternoon after the NSW-based CountryLink transport service became worried about safety on rail lines between Albury and Melbourne.

Regional centres such as Albury-Wodonga and Wagga Wagga along with smaller towns including Wangaratta, Cootamundra and Yass will be affected by the decision.

Speed limits on the lines, normally above 100km/h, have been reduced to 80km/h.

"This arrangement will continue until further notice," CountryLink said in a statement.

Safety has been jeopardised by the decision to lay concrete sleepers during a time of drought and not allow for rains, sources familiar with the issue told AAP.

One person said the safety worries would soon affect NSW tracks from Macarthur, on the southern outskirts of Sydney, through to Albury.

AAP

[Jonno]

Could you imagine the media circus if this was a major highway that was shut down due to safety.  My bet that this will hardly raise a mention hidden next to an advertisement of some sort.  Vested interests at play I suspect.