RAIB Report on derailment at Heworth

[fergusjbend]

This report should be widely read. In its understated manner, it lays bare the extraordinary extent of management failure and under-resourcing at Network Rail. Forget the failure to manage new projects like electrification, the company apparently cannot even carry out routine essential maintenance. Quite shocking!

https://assets.digital.cabinet-offi...59e5274a151e000021/R162015_150924_Heworth.pdf

Summary of conclusions

Immediate cause

The leading left-hand wheel of PCA wagon 10769 climbed onto the head of the rail and derailed

Causal factors

The causal factors were:

a. The wheel on the leading right-hand corner of wagon 10769 was not sufficiently damped due to a worn damper pad in its suspension, which made the leading left-hand wheel on the wagon susceptible to unloading when responding to changes in vertical track geometry....
​

b. The ballast on the approach to the point of derailment on the Down Sunderland line was heavily contaminated with slurry, resulting in wet beds and vertical track geometry faults that required maintenance action, including a cyclic top defect which should have resulted in the imposition of an emergency speed restriction....​

 

[Joseph_Locke]

This report should be widely read. In its understated manner, it lays bare the extraordinary extent of management failure and under-resourcing at Network Rail. Forget the failure to manage new projects like electrification, the company apparently cannot even carry out routine essential maintenance. Quite shocking!

https://assets.digital.cabinet-offi...59e5274a151e000021/R162015_150924_Heworth.pdf

What does a. have to do with Network Rail?

 

[DarloRich]

What does a. have to do with Network Rail?

Nothing.

 

[Ships]

A bit of a perfect storm with a defective wagon and an area of poor track quality. Basically this sort of thing becomes much more likely when the opex and renewals budget is cut. Being a cat 3 line chances of renewal are fairly low given the budgetary shortfall in the track renewals budget. I don't want to get on my soapbox but if the DFT don't learn the lessons of rail track and privatise NR then this sort of thing will happen more often.

At the original poster, I agree about the shortage of resources but not management incompetence (unless you are talking about the ORR), the maintenance teams are massively understaffed and underfunded and in general do an excellent job on limited budgets.

 

[Llanigraham]

I have read the report, in full!

I see no "" extraordinary extent of management failure"", but I might agree about ""under-resourcing""". Your "rant" suggests that you actually haven't read the full report; I suggest you do so.

And Causal Factor A has nothing to do with NR!!

 

[edwin_m]

I have read the report, in full!

I see no "" extraordinary extent of management failure"", but I might agree about ""under-resourcing""". Your "rant" suggests that you actually haven't read the full report; I suggest you do so.

And Causal Factor A has nothing to do with NR!!

Indeed it doesn't but Causal Factors B onwards certainly do. This is the latest in a long run of accidents, of which Lambrigg was by far the most serious, which suggest there is a problem of under-resourcing in NR's track maintenance functions. The responsible people often don't seem to have the time to do the job, and trying to resolve it by adding extra layers of paperwork could just make it worse. And the management failure is not of the managers discussed in this report, but of those at the higher level who are allowing it to happen.

 

[fergusjbend]

I apologise for a fault in the original post. I had meant to insert a link to the RAIB report, but ended up with a link to the first couple of points in the summary recommendations. The report needs to be read in its entirety (which I have done). From this it is abundantly clear that NR (at least in the Newcastle area), is quite dysfunctional. Faults were identified but were not repaired for a variety of reasons which certainly include deficient manpower resources, but which also certainly includes an organisational culture which is more concerned with ticking boxes than actually achieving results.

After the 1987 disaster of the sinking of the Herald of Free Enterprise, Mr Justice Sheen referred to he 'disease of sloppiness' which he identified as being at the root of the tragedy, and it seems to me that the same disease is infecting Network Rail today. I am sorry if this seems like a 'rant' to some readers, but it seems to me that ranting is better than complaisance.

 

[Clarence Yard]

This report should be read by anyone who thinks they can set up a maintenance organisation on the railway. Wilful under resourcing combined with an oppressive "get it signed off" attitude to the local management and his/her team will have only one result - an incident.

Mis matches between workload and resources is getting to be a common theme with NR in RAIB reports. And the thought that maternity leave can bring a safety critical part of the maintenance process to a halt is just unacceptable to this old maintenance planner.

The dysfunctional nature of NR is worrying. You get the impression of a self serving organisation putting the squeeze on maintenance, without a thought about what on the ground behaviours will result. Meanwhile, the money gets spent in offices on working up projects for CP6 and beyond. This may be an organisation beyond help.