‘It’s time’: Rail safety campaigners wait for results of national lighting trials intended to save lives

A report into how to improve train lighting — including on those carting grain in the Wheatbelt — is still being prepared more than six months after trials were due to wrap up but the nation’s rail safety regulator says the “world-first research” will be revealed soon. Two of Australia’s biggest rail companies, Aurizon and Pacific National, agreed in March last year to trial new lighting on their trains in response to a nationwide campaign aimed at reducing the number of people killed at level crossings. The campaign is spearheaded by a group of 12 families who have lost loved ones in rail crossing accidents, including four from WA. The trials were overseen by the Office of the National Rail Safety Regulator, which appointed the Monash Institute of Rail Technology to “independently assess” the trials spruiked by the regulator as “world-first” in terms of approach and hardware. The ONRSR used a luminance camera imported from overseas to assess the trials on CBH Group and Pacific National trains between August and October, marking the first time the technology had been used in the Southern Hemisphere. They were originally expected to be complete at the end of June but did not finish until the end of the year. An ONSR spokesman said there had been unexpected delays, including difficulty sourcing components from overseas and the ongoing impact of the COVID-19 pandemic. He said the Monash Institute of Railway Technology was in the final throes of preparing its report, and results would be shared with rail safety stakeholders “as soon as possible” after spending the past year in communication with the families affected. The trials assessed the “impact of additional locomotive lighting on the overall visibility of trains”, measuring the ambient background and luminance of the front of a locomotive when fitted with additional lighting. The lighting used was predominantly LED and halogen beacon lighting. “Both the approach and hardware underpinning the independent evaluation represent world-first research into train conspicuity that has never been done to this level of detail,” the ONRSR spokesman said. “The major measurement tool used throughout the trials was a luminance camera brought to Australia specifically for use in this project. This was the first time this technology had ever been used in the southern hemisphere. “The work will help with assessments of the effectiveness of new lighting solutions in relation to Australian Standard 7531.” Aurizon trialled the lighting on CBH trains in the Wheatbelt, while Pacific National fitted a freight train in Victoria with LED lights. The trials considered a range of variables, including weather conditions, time of day and vegetation within and around the rail corridor. It also considered train cleanliness, distance from the viewer, the angle of the train, the arrangement and type of lighting on the trains, train colour and the speed and distance of trains relative to level crossings. CBH chief operating officer Mick Daw said the trials on the co-operative’s trains were “progressing well”. A handful of WA’s rail safety campaigners and WAFarmers president John Hassell were expected to view the trials this week. “CBH is committed to improving safety in regional communities and lighting options to enhance the visibility of rail stock lighting,” Mr Daw said. “CBH is proud to be working with Aurizon and utilising their expertise to trial a number of improvements to the visibility of our rollingstock. “Aurizon will use the outcomes of the work on the CBH wagons to compare with the work of other operators to provide a position to CBH at the end of the trial.” An Aurizon spokesman said the potential use of reflective paint was also being given “detailed consideration”. The trials were launched two months after the Australasian Centre for Rail Innovation released a 134-page report investigating how train visibility could be improved, identifying about 30 potential controls for improving train visibility at level crossings. A Pacific National spokeswoman said the company and other members of the Freight on Rail Group of Australia had been working closely with the ONRSR and Monash Institute of Railway Technology to develop and implement the “extensive trials”. “In Victoria last year, Pacific National fitted a freight train with LED lights to assist Monash University’s independent study in the measurement of luminance contrast between a locomotive and its background,” she said. “Safety at passive level crossings involves a number of complex factors, including driver behaviour and line of sight issues associated with historical road and track geometry like bends on the network and vegetation management.” Transport Minister Rita Saffioti said the State Government was spending a record amoun in upgrading passive rail crossings and were supporting the CBH project. “There’s a number of different components, there’s both the roadworks that need to be upgraded plus the technology on the tracks. We will continue to support those upgrades, some already through the Australind crossings and others throughout the regions,” she said. “We continue to work to both remove where we can that road and rail interface.” Ms Saffioti said removing crossings with a lot of interaction between trains and cars, upgrading passive to active crossings and the trial were all components they would continue working with the Commonwealth to improve. for example, through Port Hedland, where a lot of investment has been made to remove the crossings where you have a lot of interaction between trains, and cars, and then across the state, improving the passive to make them active with new light new lights, new bells. And also there’s been a trial undertaken as well, by CBH, in relation to lighting trains as well. So there’s a lot of different There are more than 23,000 level crossings in Australia, including 509 passive level crossings in WA. Of these, 417 are controlled by stop signs while the remaining 92 — many in the Wheatbelt — are fitted only with give way signs. Information on the ONRSR website reveals that in recent years, the number of collisions and near-misses at level crossings has largely unchanged, despite a COVID-19 related reduction in road and pedestrian movements at crossings nationwide. WA-based Wondinong station pastoralist Lara Jensen started advocating for safety upgrades at level crossings after her brother, Christian Jensen, and his two friends, Jess Broad and Hilary Smith, were killed by a wheat train near Jennacubbine in 2000. An inquest found no one in the car had seen the train approach due to the absence of lighting and warning signs. The campaign has the public support of the National Farmers’ Federation, the WA Nationals, the Country Women’s Association of WA and NSW, WAFarmers, Western Roads Federation, and the Pastoralists and Graziers Association of WA. The WA Government late last year launched a review into signage at all main line level railway crossings across the State, with Main Roads’ observations being used to create a risk score for each crossing. While the report is still being finalised, Main Roads had deemed that “the minimum level of control” would be upgraded to a stop sign where sight line requirements for give way signs were not met on an operational rail line. Separately, the Federal Government recently engaged professional services firm RPS to develop a new National Level Crossing Safety Strategy to build on the prior rendition that ran from 2010-2020. A draft was recently circulated to various rail stakeholders for consideration, with a final document expected to be released within the next six months. The document sets the strategic direction to improve level crossing safety through a nationally co-ordinated approach.