It was held in Nth Geelong till this morning where it ran Via Ballarat.

Hi All,

Looking at the photos on Vicsig, it looks as if 3x2 Sets VLocity cars are damaged from the impact of the Sudden stop, with the Drivers Compartment of each set running into each other.

Stuart

When is the Geelong broad gauge line expected to be clear ?

Are both lines blocked as that section from memory is bi-directional.

I see Nathpine and Mulder's response statement to this coming soon. Here's what I think it will be: "This is why we needed the RRL opened earlier but the former Labor government stuffed up the costing for the project and has resulted in this collision that almost killed someone."

Received a call from a friend on-site. The accident is close to Galvin/Altona.

Speculation the Metro Train stopped account the track being blocked.

Its the 21st century and in the suburban area of a major Australian capital city we still have trains running up the back of one another on a main line because the first one was forced to stop for other reasons. WTF?

A) Has mechanical failure been ruled out? I tend to wait for a report before casting judgement. However, this is Railpage so let ROTSI continue on. In foam we trust.

B) I am yet to see a system developed that is 100% foolproof. Machines fail, humans make errors. http://usatoday30.usatoday.com/news/nation/2009-06-23-metro-crash-tuesday_N.htm

C)The train in question would have had safety measures such as the vigilance system, the dead mans' device. I fail to see the logic behind your insinuation that somehow that this train was running with inferior technology. I guess the flintstones method of stopping wasn't working in this case?

I don't even know why we bother funding ATSB, ONRSR, (The regulators), when we have the might of ROTSI and its armchair ability to find cause without even needing to visit the incident scene!

Yes you are right that we need to see the report and I was not indicating any sort of outcome.

But your comments are not quite what I was getting at. Yes systems fail, humans make errors, but I still say but multiple safety systems shouldn't have the capacity of single mode of failure... the outcome will be interesting.

On any rail line (including a future RRL one), hasn't it always been that a train should stop before it runs into a train upfront

Correct

The VLocity stopped at the red signal behind the Comeng and as is normal safe-working practice the VLocity proceeded at a speed not exceeding 25KPH.

From what I've heard...(reliable source) the driver of the disabled Comeng was required to walk to the rear of the train, climb up to the drivers cab, break a lead seal and turn on the rear red marker lights.

However and there is some conjecture here... the driver appeared to be unwilling to walk back along the tracks as on one side is the SG and the other side is the down line, an unsafe work environment to enter due to the tracks.

My source has spoken to the V/Line driver and the driver is certain he was NOT exceeding 25KPH.
He did NOT see the rear of the Comeng until it was too late to stop.

Mike.

Great post Mike.

The question still remains from above and with regard to the above post from mike why was the train stopped in the section ?

Did the driver receive authorisation to proceed through the stop signal and into the section ?

A couple of points..............

Complex systems are __VERY__ difficult (read __VERY__ __VERY__ expensive) to test all facilities completely, so while on installation signalling is tested well, plenty of assumptions have still been made. After all railways are not that well resourced.

Multiple safety systems though probably still had a hand here Bombardier state the emergency braking distance of VLocity from 100kph is around 300 metres. This is less then double the length of a 7 car set.

Safety boards exist in almost all countries so accidents like this are very rare. the modern term "failsafe" is of railway origin. Modern managment need to take care when cutting existing "safety systems" to save money. It would not be to impossible to get a list of people that died because a currently existing safety "feature" was not present.

woodford