Remote control equipment commissioning process

TasRail commissioned the manufacture of, and continued to use, redesigned safety-critical remote control equipment for operating a locomotive without systematic assurance of its safety, leading to excessive reliance on the manufacturer. This was because TasRail did not:

• fully engage with the development process from initial design through to commissioning, or understand the extent of design changes associated with the introduction of the generation 3 RCE (which reduced the capability to prevent, identify and resolve design and integration problems)
• explicitly identify and impose safety requirements
• verify that the overall system met a specified level of safety.

TasRail advised that it had withdrawn all remote-control technology. The withdrawal of all remote-control technology negates the need for safety action to directly address each aspect of the safety issue as the system in question is no longer in use.