RUNAWAY TRAIN – PART 2
By Gareth van Onselen
Introduction
In this, the second part of a two-part series, I will analyse the findings (set out in part one) of the ‘State of Railway Safety Report 2005/06’, the first such report compiled by the Railway Safety Regulator and tabled at the beginning of August this year.
Briefly, the Railway Safety Regulator focused its report on the two main railway operators in country – Spoornet (South Africa’s primary freight service) and Metrorail (South Africa’s primary passenger service) – it then identified 12 different categories of “railway occurrences” and set out the nature and extent of these incidents on South Africa’s railways.
It found that, in 2005/06, there had been a substantial increase - across all 12 categories and both operators - in the number of incidents recorded: from 6 023 occurrences in 2004/05 to 8 802 in 2005/06 - an increase of 46%.
The vast majority of those incidents (65% or 5 797 out of a total of 8 802 occurrences), however, fell into just two categories: category A (collisions and derailments - 2 950 occurrences) and category J (security-related crimes - 2 847 occurrences). The increases in categories D (persons struck by trains – 737 occurrences) and E (accidents involving people and trains – 801 occurrences) were also highlighted as significant.
From 2004/05 to 2005/06 the increase in the number of incidents in category A (up from 1 560 to 2 950 or by 96%) was far more dramatic compared to that in category J (up from 2 735 to 2 847 or by 4%).
Finally, the report found that all of this has come at great cost to both Spoornet and Metrorail and, in turn, South African tax-payers who have to absorb both companies’ losses.
The cost of incidents on Metrorail has increased by 457% over the last four years - from R28 million in 2002/03 to R156 million in 2005/06 (and by 262% from 2004/05 to 2005/06). With regard to Spoornet, the cost of incidents has increased by 96% over the last five years – from R356 million in 2001/02 to R700 million in 2005/06 (but only by one percent from 2004/05 to 2005/06).
Why the incidents occur
The report does not try to quantify the reasons for the incidents and its conclusion merely states that:
“It has been established that one of the major contributory factors in accidents has been human error, which points to poor human factor management practices, with particular reference to safety-critical positions, and overall lack of safety culture within the operators.”
It also mentions the condition of the country’s railway infrastructure as problematic:
“The state of railway infrastructure in the country is in an unacceptably bad state of repair as well as outdated technology [sic]. It has been determined that some of the major accidents can be directly attributed to the poor state of rail infrastructure.”
The report itself, however, does not explore the reasons behind the accidents in any detail or attempt to explain the dramatic increases – particularly, with regard to security-related crime.
One can therefore deduce these two conclusions are based on the information contained in one of the report’s appendices - Appendix F - which comprises a summary of the six investigations carried out by the Railway Safety Regulator into major railway accidents that occurred in 2005/06.
Briefly, those six major accidents and findings were:
• Merafe Halt (Occurred on 13 July 2005) - train 9 484 collided with the rear of stationary train 9 524 during an overhead traction power failure. Four commuters were seriously injured. REASONS: Equipment failure (radios and train degradation); poor management and poor institutional arrangements.
• Deelfontein Interloop (26 October 2005) - two<
| Posted on 20/8/2007
 |  | |