Executive summary
On Wednesday, 4 October 2000, Train 225, an Auckland to Wellington express freight service, was permitted to depart from Te Kauwhata on the North Island Main Trunk and enter the down main line that was already occupied by an authorised hi-rail vehicle movement.
No collision resulted, as the four occupants of the hi-rail vehicle became aware of Train 225’s approach and were able to off-track before the train passed.
The safety issues identified included:
• a train controller not following procedures for handling track user inquiries
• a train controller not applying adequate safety measures to protect the hi-rail vehicle movement
• an unusually high number of incidents involving a train controller
• the inability of the operator to provide relief for the train controller for nearly 3 hours following the incident.
One safety recommendation was made to the operator to address these safety issues.
Related Recommendations
introduce a procedure to ensure train controllers who establish an abnormal history of serious operating incidents are removed from train control until the reasons for this are understood and addressed.