The ARTC response to the derailment on 11 September 2013 was ineffective and did not prevent a similar derailment at the same location on 30 October.
ARTC has taken safety actions to address the recommendation and safety issue (actions articulated in their 90 day response to recommendation).
The Australian Transport Safety Bureau recommends that ARTC takes safety action to enhance the effectiveness of its response to a derailment event to prevent a similar incident.
Since the Newport derailment, ARTC has undertaken the following safety actions to address this safety issue:
ARTC provided a summary of its investigations into the 11 September and 30 October derailments indicating that findings were similar to those of the ATSB investigation.
However, the response did not include safety actions to address this safety issue.
This safety issue pertains to the response by ARTC to the derailment on 11 September 2013. Post-derailment response includes both the initial investigative activity and the physical task of restoring track to a condition suitable for train operations. At the incident site, there was sufficient evidence immediately available to conclude that wide gauge was probably the primary cause of the derailment, but insufficient action was taken to rectify the track condition.
An appropriate safety action in response to this issue would be to examine the immediate investigative response to such incidents including the relationship and communication between the investigation team and those responsible for track restoration.
