Queensland Rail’s administration of the Maintenance of Competency assessment process provided limited assurance that its Citytrain rail traffic drivers meet relevant competency requirements.
The ATSB is satisfied that the actions undertaken by Queensland Rail to change the MOC process will reduce the risk of this safety issue.
N.B. This final ATSB report provides a more detailed version of the safety action provided by QR as of February 2019 than was released in the ATSB’s interim report.
The Queensland Rail (QR) internal safety investigation into the 10 January 2018 SPAD occurrence at signal ME45 was completed in February 2018. The report included the following conclusions related to the driver maintenance of competency (MOC) process:
The report also included the following internal recommendation (with a due date of 30 November 2018):
Manager Train Services Delivery Training to lead a multidisciplinary review of the Rail Traffic Driver Maintenance of Competency Assessment Process to include (not exclusively) content, assessment methods, trainer/assessors and security of training materials, and produce an action plan to address any outcomes of the review.
The ATSB briefed Queensland Rail senior management about the MOC process safety issue in June 2018 and August 2018, and the ATSB formally advised QR about the safety issue in September 2018.
On 19 October 2018, QR responded to the safety issue with the following information:
Queensland Rail senior management has not identified a systemic MOC issue. Historically Queensland Rail has identified individual code of conduct failings and has untaken HR investigations in relation to these issues…
Specifically in relation to the SPAD at ME45 on 10 January 2018, the [QR internal] safety investigation Identified inconsistencies with the marking and assessment process for the route competency of the driver involved and recommended "Manager Train Services Delivery Training to lead a multidisciplinary review of the Rail Traffic Driver Maintenance of Competency Assessment Process to include (not exclusively) content, assessment methods, trainer/assessors and security of training materials, and produce an action plan to address any outcomes of the review" with an initial target completion date of 30 November 2018…
Following identification of the issue, QR has ensured the safety of its operations, so far as is reasonably practicable, including by actively managing any identified MOC non-compliance and monitoring information regarding the operation of rolling stock to confirm driver competency.
In relation to the multidisciplinary review, QR stated that it would continue for a further 12 months for various reasons, including:
The existing Rail Traffic Crew MOC was designed to meet legislative requirements outlined in the Rail Safety National Law (Queensland) Act 2017, Subdivision 8 Competence and identification of rail safety workers, and Subdivision 10 Accreditation.
The Rail Safety National Law requires Rail Traffic Crew to hold the appropriate competencies in order to fulfil their role. Queensland Rail has been given a two year transitional period to comply with these changes, ending June 2019.
As such, the outcomes of the multidisciplinary review will not be able to be implemented until the end of this transitional period.
QR also advised:
While this multidisciplinary review is being conducted, safety actions undertaken include:
- Comprehensive review of completed MOCs to ensure quality
- Monitoring of train journey data on an ongoing basis, with over 4000 reviews completed to date to verify actual driver compliance with requirements and competency
- Active management on any identified non-compliance with the support of the People and Culture function. This has recently resulted in disciplinary action...
Further to these safety actions undertaken, Queensland Rail has implemented a Tutor Leadership program that is currently in the process of being rolled out to all Tutor Drivers and Tutor Guards. Consisting of four Modules, the program seeks to strengthen the Tutor's understanding and demonstration of Leadership, Management, Training and Assessment…
Further to this ongoing review, the Manager TSD Training undertook a review of MOCs to ensure that all drivers on the Network hold a current MOC…
On 27 February 2019, the ATSB released an interim report into its investigation of the 10 January 2018 SPAD. In February 2019, QR advised the ATSB that it had completed a multidisciplinary review of driver training (including the MOC). A working party was convened on 7 January 2019 to identify key initiatives to improve current rail traffic crew training practices, and these new initiatives commenced introduction from late January 2019.
In February 2019, QR also stated:
From April 2019, [QR] will transition to a revised theory assessment as part of the MoC process, with updated questions and content which will be administered through a classroom-based group setting, rather than on an individual basis wherever practical. This is in line with contemporary adult learning practices and the process adopted by many other rail operators in undertaking MoC assessments.
The MoC process is only one component of [QR’s] comprehensive assurance process for existing drivers, with regular analysis conducted of train event recorders… to identify and manage driver behaviours, in addition to on-track assessments by driver supervisors [see also safety issue RO-2018-002-SI-005].
In March 2021, QR advised the ATSB that the MOC process had been reviewed and updated, which included ‘Changes made to the questions and test methodology to ensure that critical requirements are tested and that the assessments assessed correctly’. More specifically, it advised:
In 2019 the TSD Training Team undertook a review of the current Monitoring of Competence (MOC) process for all Rail Traffic Crew (RTC), both in SEQ [south-east Queensland] and Regional. The MOC process was overhauled to ensure that it was current with best learning practice.
This included transitioning to a multiple choice based approach and reducing the volume of questions to ensure only understanding of critical information was being confirmed.
Two different theory papers were created to help ensure RTC did not know which test paper they would be taking, and a first line assurance process was created that involves an independent TSD Training Admin Officer monitoring the theory component as well as selecting which paper is allocated to the RTC.
In December 2020 SEQ RTC MOC [was moved to] Summative to Cloud Assess, thus removing the risk of questions being marked incorrectly.
QR further advised that:
Cloud Assess is an online learning assessment system. Queensland Rail has moved the theory components of the MoC and Summative assessments to this system which enables auto-marking of the multiple-choice questions, thus mitigating the chances of an answer being marked incorrectly.
