Collision between Freight Train 5BS7 and Track Vehicle, Greenbank, Queensland

Executive summary

At about 0947 on 25 August 2005 a freight train travelling from Acacia Ridge¹ to Sydney, numbered as 5BS7, collided with a stationary track vehicle² at the take-off point³ within the Greenbank⁴ station yard limits. The impact speed was 21.9 km/h and the track vehicle was pushed back 25 metres. There were no injuries as a result of this accident and damage was limited to the front end of the track vehicle.

The track vehicle, with three track workers on board, had arrived on the main line at Greenbank moments before the arrival of the Sydney bound train and was going to the take-off point to be removed from the rail track for road operation. The approaching train was seen and heard by the track workers however they thought they would reach the take-off point and remove the track vehicle before the train arrived. When they realised that they could not, they escaped from the vehicle before the collision.

The two-man train crew of the Sydney bound train were travelling on a proceed signal and had made a routine brake application in preparedness for the mandatory stop at the Greenbank staff hut⁵. As the Greenbank staff station yard came into view they saw the track vehicle and made an emergency application of the train brakes 246 metres from the point of impact.

The train had departed Acacia Ridge under Rail Vehicle Detection authority to travel to Greenbank where the safeworking system changed to electric staff⁶.

The track vehicle was travelling from Bromelton to Greenbank on a routine track inspection on the authority of a Track Occupancy Authority (TOA). This TOA consisted of an electric staff and implied verbal authority to proceed within the Greenbank staff station yard limits to the take-off point.

The potential for simultaneous arrival at Greenbank had not been detected by the QR south-west train controller when developing the train graph. Distractions attributed to teaching a trainee controller and ambiguous communication regarding the departure time of train 5BS7 contributed to this oversight. This ambiguous communication resulted in the train controller believing that the train would not depart before 0945. However, it was intended that 0945 would be the latest departure time.

The investigation also found that longstanding inadequate safeworking practices between Acacia Ridge and Glenapp⁷ allowed the train controller’s oversight to result in this accident. These practices pertain to the operation of track vehicles that are not detected by track-circuitry⁸. The same system of safeworking exists between Glenapp and Casino⁹ with two versions of rules and procedures.

Safety actions recommended as a result of this investigation pertain to QR, Interail and ARTC ensuring that blocking facilities are applied where necessary, rule and procedure conformity on the electric staff territory between Greenbank and Casino, trainee train controller training program structure and enforcement, verbal communication protocols, and locomotive data logger accessibility.

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1. Acacia Ridge – A southern suburb of Brisbane, site of a major rail freight terminal.
2. Track vehicle – A vehicle, usually self propelled, used mainly for inspecting and maintaining infrastructure. In this instance able to operate on rail or road.
3. Take-off point - Staging beside the track for removing track mounted maintenance vehicles or equipment clear of train movements.
4. Greenbank – 17 Kilometres ‘south’ of Acacia Ridge.
5. Staff hut – location where tokens are kept.
6. Electric staff – A metal rod of prescribed design used as a token to authorise train movements into or through a block in electric staff territory.
7. Glenapp – The electric staff station/crossing loop 12 kilometres on the Queensland side of the border.
8. Track-circuitry – An electrical current that uses the rails of a railway track as conductors such that a train electrically connects them by its axles. The absence or presence of this rail to rail connection indicate the absence or presence of a train or item of rollingstock.
9. Casino – A provincial city on the Brisbane to Sydney rail line, about 169 kilometres from Acacia Ridge. Casino is an interface between electric staff working and rail vehicle detection (RVD) safeworking systems.