RISSB Connect Edition 17, May 2023

PRODUCTS

Public Consultation Closes on Two More Projects

Since publishing the last RISSB Connect, a further two projects have come through public consultation, and in the coming weeks, the project teams will come together to update those documents in light of comments received.

AS 7635 Track Geometry
AS 7635 provides a harmonised and consistent approach to managing track geometry across jurisdictions. This update includes additional design parameters for broad gauge and revised geometry defects thresholds and responses for plain line track.

AS 7702 Rail Equipment type approval
AS 7702 seeks to unlock the cost savings identified in recent RISSB/ARA work which estimated that the cost of railway type approvals is in the order of $230M/year. It links to the national effort to create a harmonised type approval framework.

Post Public Consultation Projects Progress

In last week’s e-newsletter, we alerted you to the fact that three projects had come back from public consultation bringing in valuable feedback from you, the users of these Standards:

AS 7518 Rolling Stock Suspension
This important ‘National Rail Action Plan’ (NRAP) project is seeking to support domestic manufacturing, creating local jobs, helping customers meet local content policies and securing supply chains.

AS 7520.4 Body Structural requirements Part 4 
This document is critical to achieving the required structural integrity level of rail vehicle bodies to ensure safe performance under normal, and extreme operating conditions.

AS 1085.18 Railway track material Part 18: Screw spikes and threaded inserts
This document covers important infrastructure components that are essential underpinnings to our networks.

All three project teams have met to consider the comments received and have begun the process of updating those drafts.

Thank you for your valuable contributions which are an essential part of the RISSB process.

GENERAL NEWS

RISSB at Queensland Transport Infrastructure Conference

RISSB attended Queensland Transport Infrastructure Conference this week to develop key relationships and discover what it can do to support the $29.7 billion in road and transport infrastructure projects in Queensland, including Cross River Rail and the Coomera Connector project.

The high calibre of speakers and sessions made this a stand out event. 

TRAINING AND EVENTS

June 6 Victorian Rail Advocate MasterClass Webinar

Victorian Rail Advocate, Jill Walsh, is our next MasterClass webinar presenter. 

Coming from a strong manufacturing background, Jill was appointed to the position of Victorian Rail Advocate in August 2019 and will be sharing her learnings from her past three plus years in the role.

Among other things, Jill will be discussing the Women on Track project, industry/supply chain engagement to support the delivery of current Victorian rail rolling stock projects, and national rail rolling stock projects that involve the Victorian supply chain.

Jill's webinar will be held on Tuesday, 6 June 2023 at 12PM (AEST).

If you'd like to attend, please click on the blue 'Register Now' link below this story.

TRAINING AND EVENTS CONT.

Protection Officer Safety Critical Communications Course Relaunch and Special

Our online Protection Officer Safety Critical Communications course has been upgraded and we're celebrating with a special for the month of June.

Book and pay for the course from 1 June and you will receive 25% off the regular course price.

Non Members normally $288 will go down to $216

Members normally $230 will go down to $172.50!!

What does the course cover?
This course will give participants an understanding of:

* The application of the Australian Network Rules and Procedures (ANRP)
* Duties of a Protection Officer
* Safety critical communications (SCC) within safe working
* How to resolve safety critical communications issues
* Human Factors in safety critical communications.

Enrol directly online by going to  www.rissb.com.au/training-courses/learning-express/

Or by emailing training@rissb.com.au.

Get in quick while the offer lasts!

Horizons Program Heads to Brisbane 

This week, RISSB's professional development program for young rail professionals, Horizons, headed to  Brisbane for a two day forum hosted at  the Queensland University of Technology.

Around 70 handpicked participants from all around Australia came together to hear from industry leaders, including Sally Stannard, Deputy Director-General (TransLink) at the Department of Transport and Main Roads.

Day one discussions and events included a panel discussion on sustainability in rail with insights shared by Mia Barnard, Transport Market Leader, GHD and Caroline Moss, Group Senior Manager, Environment and Sustainability, Queensland Rail.  This was followed by concurrent sessions on Digital Twins from Jordan Haimes, Cross River Rail; Automated Monitoring within the Rail Industry by Lee Helen, CEO, Kurloo; Cyber Security with independent consultant Wade Alcorn, and Data and Risk Analysis using the Australian Rail Risk Management tool delivered by our very own Jesse Baker.

Jasmine Rose from Empowered Perspective closed out the formal proceedings of the day with an interactive session on winning at all costs. We had attendees stealing and lieing to win before a plot twist and participants realising they were part of a larger picture. 

Finally, RISSB sends its sincere gratitude to Ray Johnson from QUT for providing excellent support at the venues to give the best possible experience to our participants.

A report from Day 2 of the forum will be presented in next week’s RISSB Connect

Q What is your name?
Vikki Ducrow

Q What is your position? 
Safety Manager

Q Who is your employer?
Puffing Billy Railway

Q What does your job entail?
Overseeing safety across the whole organisation to ensure workers and those that visit Puffing Billy Railway remain safe.

Q  Why am I passionate about rail safety?
Everyone has the right to go home safety every day.

Q  What's a fun safety fact that you'd like to share?
People have been sitting on the sills at Puffing Billy Railway since 1919

Award winning safety achievements
In 2018 Emerald Tourist Railway Board, the operators of Puffing Billy Railway (PBR) made a difficult decision to suspend the practice of sitting on the sills whilst a review was undertaken. I was tasked with undertaking the significant cultural, safety and operational review.

PBR undertook a thorough and extensive assessment of risks, practices and procedures in consultation with industry experts, ONRSR, the Emerald Tourist Railway Board and all of PBR staff and volunteers. Working with passenger operations staff, modified procedures to introduce age and supervision requirements, ergonomic assessments that resulted in every Puffing Billy Railway carriage being updated to address ergonomics assessments, installation of additional boom barriers to level crossings as well as retraining of all PBR crew.

The finial stage was the 'test run' phase of the project that resulted in refinements to the final procedures and passengers supervision expectations from all parts of the passenger journey, so that after almost four years of work, "sitting on the sills" was reintroduced in February 2022.