GENERAL NEWS

MasterClass webinars continue to draw large numbers

The RISSB MasterClass webinar series began in April 2020 when Howard Collins presented the very first webinar. Since then, RISSB has offered over 40 webinars on topics covering new technology, major projects, key safety issues, and views by leaders in the industry.

• There have been six international presenters.
• Over 8300 people have watched live or viewed recorded webinars,
• 666 watched the Steve Bickley (Abbott Risk Consulting) webinar on Chicken and Egg: Back to Front Hazard Management and Other Fallacies from the SFAIRP Universe.
•  The average attendance per-webinar, including live and views, is over 200.

Series 2 continues next week (see article below) and the line-up for the rest of 2021 is impressive with topics such as:  future mobility, lessons from accident investigations, and an exploration of major research RISSB has managed on pre-cursor behaviour to SPADs.

Stay tuned and thank you to all those who have watched.

RISSB welcomes new recruit Andrew Muscat

RISSB would like to introduce our newest star recruit Andrew Muscat. Andrew will be one of our Standards Development Managers (SDMs) producing the Standards/Codes/Guidelines, as well as the Major Projects and other products - for you (!), and the benefit of the broader industry. Andrew brings with him a wealth of experience from John Holland (CRN, Canberra Metro) and the ATSB, ARTC, VicTrack etc., etc. he’ll bring a lot to our skill set – especially signalling. He certainly knows this industry! We’re looking forward to Andrew working with you.

SPAD/LRTAE Group to meet

The SPAD/LRTAE Industry Group will meet virtually on 29 June 2021 and discuss major research projects (such as relieving drivers and Train the Train Controllers) as well as recent SPAD/LRTAE issues/incidents.

Introduction to Rail Safety Course on Track

Got someone relatively new to your organisation who needs to understand the basics of rail safety, who is involved, the rules and how it all works? Then the 1 hr online Introduction to Rail Safety course is just what you need.

The course will be offered for the first time later this month. More information later but if you want to find out more contact Phil Allan at pallan@rissb.com.au.

Explore the Cross River Rail Project – RISSB MasterClass webinar

Join Graeme Newton, Chief Executive Officer, Cross River Rail Delivery Authority to hear about Queensland’s $5.4 billion priority infrastructure project, which will transform how people travel to, through and from the CBD, and how Cross River Rail will help Brisbane continue to evolve as a world-class city.  Joining Graeme will be Jeremy Kruger, Project Director for the Tunnels, Stations and Development major package of works. Jeremy will provide insight into how we’re tunnelling under the Brisbane River and CBD and provide participants with a first-hand look at the progress of Brisbane’s new underground.

The MasterClass webinar will be on Tuesday 15 June at 12 noon.

PUBLICATIONS

Call for Development Group Members

The Rail Industry Safety and Standards Board (RISSB) is seeking nominations from people to join  Development Groups for the following projects 

Train Horn Use Code of Practice

AS 7739 Digital Engineering

 Open - Call for Public Consultation

AS 7601.1 Light Rail And Road Interfaces Part 1: Management of Light Rail Vehicle Movement
(Closes - Monday, 28 June 2021)

Progress Reports

National Rules

In the last week RISSB hosted a landmark meeting of the National Rules Industry Reference Group – the group has overseen the delivery of a national  harmonised Network Communications rule, and are now considering a future pipeline of rules. Watch this space in the coming weeks for a more comprehensive announcement regarding where this has got to – this is VERY exciting!

AS 7638 Railway Earthworks

The development group has completed their revision of this existing Standard. The review has incorporated many changes to better reflect current industry practices. The Standard is now being prepared for a wider industry review through the RISSB public consultation process.

Development and maintenance of network rules - Code of Practice

The development group met last week to discuss the initial draft and to work on building up information within various sections of the Code. During the meeting key areas including fundamental principles of safety, change management and use of procedures and forms were discussed at length. The next draft is currently being worked on, and will be available for the group to review later this month.

Train Horns - Code of Practice

Continuing RISSB’s work as part of the National Rail Action Plan looking at the environmental impacts of noise a new Code of Practice is going to be developed addressing the use of train horns.

Based on the recently released RISSB paper and ongoing research from the Australian Centre for Rail Innovation this publication will cover areas including current practices, risk management, human interactions and environmental impacts.

For further information regarding making a contribution to this new Code please go to the RISSB Website.

EVENTS 

IRSC 2021

This year’s International Rail Safety Conference, hosted by Korea, will be delivered virtually as a webinar event on 11-13 October 2021. Currently, a call for abstracts is underway.

Further information about the conference and how to submit an abstract is available on the IRSC 2021 website - www.irsc2021.com