WAFarmers calls on CBH to ‘lead the way’ by fitting flashing lights on locomotives and LED strips on wagons

WAFarmers has joined a growing chorus of voices calling for rail operators to make trains more visible and improve safety at level crossings, urging CBH Group to “lead the way” by fitting flashing lights on its 28 locomotives and LED strips on its 574 wagons. The advocacy group’s grains section president Mic Fels has also made the extraordinary pledge to put his hand in his own pocket to help CBH fund the lights if the co-operative was “so hard up it couldn’t afford” the lights, despite posting a $133 million profit last year. Mr Fels raised the issue with WA’s main grain handler at its annual general meeting in Perth on Friday, calling on CBH to fit rotating beacons “as standard equipment on all of the locomotives in their fleet” and “trial the installation of solar powered LED lane markers on one set of carriages for a 12-month period, starting this financial year”. CBH splashed out $175m to buy its own trains for the first time in 2011, buying 28 locomotives and 574 wagons to cart grain from its upcountry grain receival sites to the Geraldton, Kwinana, and Albany grain terminals. Mr Fels said he would continue to push for CBH to improve lighting on its trains. “I would really like to see CBH lead the way by putting rotating, flashing lights on front of all of their locomotives. That is the starting point we are working from, and it is a simple proposition,” Mr Fels said. “If they (the trains) had two solar powered, LED lights on the side of every car plus flashing lights on the locomotives ... it would be like an Elon Musk satellite stream ... you would need to be someone that needs to go to Specsavers to miss it.” CBH has pledged to upgrade the headlights and ditch lights on its locomotives and to “look at pulse lighting on locomotives to understand if this will improve visibility and ensuring they work in parallel with road systems”. “Utilising the engineering support within Aurizon, over the coming months CBH will develop the framework for a trial involving a lighting solution to be attached to wagons,” a CBH spokeswoman said. “It is important that we build the parameters for this process so that they consider the longevity, power and angle of the light, the way the light is installed and how the light can be cleaned and maintained. “CBH has committed to working with our other partners such as the Public Transport Authority, Arc Infrastructure and Main Roads to pursue a risk-based approach on improving the overall safety of the WA rail network. “CBH is also carefully considering the recently released Australasian Centre for Rail Innovation report and the potential controls which it recommends trialling”. The CBH spokeswoman told Countryman the co-operative had made a number of modifications to rolling stock to improve visibility, including installation of reflective strips along the sides of wagons. “In addition, we have worked with our rail provider to ensure their drivers receive detailed training and implement safety processes, such as train drivers sounding their horn on approach at all crossings,” she said. Mr Fels has come out in support of a group of four WA families — the Jensen, Broad, Smith and Dempster families — involved in a 12-family national campaign calling for bolstered train visibility after losing loved ones in fatal train accidents across Australia. The campaign has repeatedly called for three major changes: the installation of flashing amber lights across the front of train roofs and LED lights on the side of carriages to increase visibility; providing ultra-high frequency radio communication on channel 40 to trains so drivers can alert truck drivers of their arrival or other potential dangers; and solar-powered, flashing red lights on top of level crossing warning posts, to automatically flash when a train is within 1km of a passive crossing. Mr Fels said he felt a deep shame that “basic safety improvements” had not been put in place at level crossings.