At 0706hrs a protection officer obtained a track occupancy
authority from the network controller at Junee to carry out work on
the track between the 271.000 km - 271.900 km near Fish River, NSW
within the Yass to Joppa Junction track section. The protection
officer had also identified that train 8938 had passed his
worksite. At 0710hrs the network controller realised that another
train (8138) was within the track section and contacted the driver
of train 8138 to stop. The train stopped about 11km from the
worksite. There were no injuries. The ATSB has commenced an
investigation into the incident.
Discountinuation:
Section 21 (2) of the Transport Safety Investigation Act
2003 (TSI Act) empowers the Australian Transport Safety Bureau
(ATSB) to discontinue an investigation into a transport safety
matter at any time. Section 21 (3) of the TSI Act requires the ATSB
to publish a statement setting out the reasons for discontinuing an
investigation.
On 10 July 2011, the ATSB commenced an investigation into a
safeworking irregularity incident that occurred at about 0706
Eastern Standard Time on 10 July 2011 near Fish River, New South
Wales. Examination of the information collected during the
investigation identified that the occurrence had significant
similarities to aspects of other occurrences being investigated by
the ATSB as part of the safety issue investigation of rail
operations on the interstate rail line between Sydney and Melbourne
(RI-2011-015).
Accordingly the ATSB decided to examine the Fish River occurrence
as part of the broader safety issue investigation and the separate
RO-2011-010 investigation was discontinued.