A Churchill fellow travels the world
The IRO South West Area was privileged to have Peter Anderson as guest speaker at a recent talk. Peter, the Vice President and Manager of Rail Safety & Accreditation of the Australian Railway Historical Society, is currently a Churchill Fellow, with a remit – and funding – to develop a unified and fit for purpose Safety Management System for the heritage railway sector in Australia, drawing on best practice around the world. Peter had been on a fact finding tour, starting in Alaska with the Alaska Railroad, the United States’ last freight and passenger railroad, and the Whitepass and Yukon Railway. He had then spent some time with the Union Pacific’s steam operation in Cheyenne, Wyoming and narrow gauge operations in Colorado. In Canada he toured railways in British Columbia.
In the UK his tour, organised by the Heritage Rail Association, had been focussed on railways which have an interface with Network Rail infrastructure and had taken in the Strathspey, Bo’ness & Kinneil, North Yorkshire Moors and North Norfolk Railways. At he time of the talk he still had plans to visit the Avon Valley Railway, West Somerset Railway and Bluebell Railway before heading back “down under” to start the review all of the material and recordings from his visit.
Peter explained the background to his Churchill Fellowship but also a fascinating insight into the regulation of railways in Australia, which stems from the creation of the Australian Commonwealth from separate colonies which now form the States and Territories in the Commonwealth. This history explained the different gauges still in daily use in Australia.
Unlike the UK, the heritage sector is governed by the rules, regulations and safety management systems which are applicable to main line operators, regardless of the type of operation. So, for example the operator of a self-contained branch line would be governed by the same rules as a main line operator, as is the Society to which Peter belongs, even though the risks are different.
Peter explained that his society actually runs a main line “wine and dine” service at weekends using heritage rolling stock. This runs from Canberra to Melbourne or Sydney and returns with customers maybe taking in shopping or a theatre trip whilst at their destination. The service also provides sleeper berths. This is achieved with only two full time members of staff – one for reservations and an engineer. The rest of the team are volunteers. The closest example to this in the UK would be the North Yorkshire Moors Railway operation from Grosmont to Whitby, although the Esk Valley route is not a main line.
Currently an Australian heritage operator is audited by each state through which it operates, although fortunately all at the same time. There are some exceptions to this, as the Australian Capital Territory, Canberra, for example does not have a Department, even though it does have a railway. One feature of Australian railway operations the audience did like was the single point of contact for organising a train path on the network, although he did say this worked as the network was considerably less congested than in the UK.
The Commonwealth Government, recognising that there needs to be joined-up thinking in the area of rail regulation and safety management, has worked with the States and Territories to enact common legislation on rail regulation and safety management systems which will reduce this complexity. This is where Peter’s remit comes in, which is to develop the SMS for the heritage sector going forward to a common standard which meets the need of the sector.
Peter then shared some of his observations of his trip to date, including some of the things he considered to be good practice. Clearly these included a common set of standards, excellent record keeping, and consistency of application and common standards for training of each grade of staff were all important. He had been surprised to note inconsistencies in the UK in respect of brake-testing, for example.
After that, Peter opened the floor and a lively discussion ensued on heritage railway regulation before the IROSW gave him our customary vote of thanks as well as giving offers of support to the work he is undertaking as the Churchill Fellow. We would like to thank Peter for sharing his experiences and observations with him and wish him all the best in the research and invaluable work he is undertaking on Safety Managements Systems for the heritage railway sector in Australia. At our next meeting we may well start planning an Area visit to Australia to test the result of Peter’s Fellowship.