A timely warning !

Television viewers have been fascinated by a disaster decimating the town of Lac-Megantic in Canada.   A runaway train rolled into the centre of this community, derailed - and exploded, leaving five people dead - forty missing and several entire blocks completely destroyed.

It is the followup investigation that makes intriguing reading.   It seems that this was a train that comprised five locomotives and seventy-seven tanker cars filled with crude oil.    It was parked on a down slope twelve kilometres out of town, awaiting a shift change, and the engineer and crew had set the brakes - and left it unattended.

Investigators are starting to suspect that this was not a simple " accident " !  It is quite possible that someone tampered with the controls and deliberately allowed this massive juggernaut to run loose.   If nothing else, this is a timely warning for other rail systems all over the world to carry out an urgent review of their work practices.

The problem is - complacency !    The way we did things half a century ago may not be a viable option in today's world.    The idea of simply walking away from a huge train loaded with a volatile substance, particularly when it is parked on a down slope - is an invitation to a terrorist or someone with evil intent to perform an act of sabotage.

This raises the question of how we manage shift changes in Australia.  Are there any instances when massive trains stand idle awaiting the arrival of the incoming crew - and could the event that happened in Canada happen here ?

In particular, the Australian rail system is a finely balanced mix of commuter traffic merging with heavy rail moving coal, iron ore, track ballast and probably oil through our cities and country towns.    The rail lines are busy at night, when commuter traffic is light - and in many cases freight trains give way to passenger traffic and stand idle during the morning and afternoon peaks.    How safe are they when stopped in marshaling yards ?

Safety is a matter of learning from accidents.    Events in Canada have highlighted what could be a very common rail practice.  Now would be a good time for our railway engineers to review the systems in place - and ensure that they conform to the hazards of the twenty-first century !