The Whistle Board Newsletter – No. 72, July 2020

Train Control Systems Standing Committee Meeting Update

The Train Control Systems Standing Committee met last week to discuss a range of issues. Firstly, Standing Committee Chair, Peter McGregor, led an interesting discussion on COVID-19 and how managers are working with their teams remotely. Cris Fitzhardinge then advised the committee on current RISSB publications and RISSB's intended 2020 / 21 work plan. A number of other areas were discussed, including interoperability and the new light rail Standards that will be developed over the coming year.

Safety Standing Committee Meets to Discuss Industry Priorities

Australia’s most senior safety leaders attended a Safety Standing Committee meeting last week to talk about industry-wide issues and share knowledge.  Fruitful discussions focused on hot industry topics such as track worker safety, contractor management, harmonisation of network rules and other RISSB Major Projects initiatives. 

RISSB would like to thank all participants for attending and providing technical input and considered feedback.

RISSB Recommences Training Activities

RISSB recommenced its face-to-face training this week with nine people attending a Derailment Investigation and Analysis course in Perth. 

A significant milestone for RISSB, this is the first RISSB-run course to be offered after COVID-19 restrictions lifted in Western Australia. Adhering to social distancing requirements did not dampen the enthusiasm of attendees nor did it affect the course delivery, with both participants and facilitators reporting that being COVID-19 safe was not a barrier to learning.

Chicken and Egg: Back to Front Hazard Management and Other Fallacies from the SFAIRP Universe

The duty to ensure safety SFAIRP remains a contentious and sometimes foreign concept to many sectors of the rail industry.

Drawing from 20 years of endeavouring to be reasonably practicable, guest presenter Steve Bickley from Abbott Risk Consulting will challenge common misuses of SFAIRP in the Australian rail industry.

Join us at 12PM (AEST) on Tuesday, 28 July 2020 to hear some practical suggestions in how to meet this vital safety obligation.

Please click on the blue 'Register Now' button to reserve your place in next week's webinar.

About our webinars
With a strong line-up of alternating technical presenters and industry leaders, RISSB's MasterClass webinars are the ideal way to keep up-to-date on changes in your industry. 

Missed this week's webinar? 
All past webinars have been recorded and are available on this https://www.rissb.com.au/home/webinars/ page. Simply find a presenter's name and click on the 'Watch' button near it.

AS 7658 Level Crossings 

The draft validation report was received last week and has been distributed to the Development Group for consideration. The group will meet next week to discuss the report and make any amendments necessary to the Standard.

AS 7703 Signalling Power Supplies

The latest draft was sent out to the Development Group for consideration prior to it being released for public comment. It is envisaged this document will be available for public comment by the end of July.

AS 7664 Railway signalling cable routes, pits, and foundations

The public consultation period closed this week. A number of submissions were received and will be discussed with the Development Group over the coming weeks.

Development Group Members Required for New Guideline - Good Practice for Planning Works in the Rail Corridor

As part of a major project recently launched by RISSB, we are now seeking nominations for Development Group members to work on a new Guideline – Good Practice for Planning Works in the Rail Corridor. 

Nominations close on Friday, 7 August 2020.

For more information about this project and what to include in your Development Group nomination, click on this hyperlink.

Our Work Plan Clarification

Last week, we issued our upcoming work plan which was very well received by industry.

To clarify, in every instance that an R appears alongside the type of publication that will be developed in 2020 / 2021 or was published in 2019 / 2020, it denotes a review.

Sharing Investigations Forum 3

A hybrid Sharing Investigations Forum is planned for Monday, 21 September 2020.

The forum will be held at Fortescue Metals, Level 2, 87 Adelaide Terrace, East Perth. 

COVID-19 has challenged all organisations to adapt to remote and virtual meetings and RISSB is much the same. This hybrid style event will offer event attendees the option of attending in person or watching the forum online (attending virtually).

If you want to know more about the Sharing Investigations Forum, please contact Phil Allan at pallan@rissb.com.au