New trains costing $2 billion too wide to fit in tunnels
The Australian government in action! An order of new trains for New South Wales in Australia, costing $2 billion, have been built 20 centimeters too wide to fit in the existing tunnels.
Their solution? A very typical government one:
But Transport for New South Wales (TfNSW), the Government body that manages the state’s rail system, has come up with a cunning plan. It has proposed simply relaxing current safety standards. In addition, 10 tunnels built in the 1900s will be partially modified to allow the new trains to run. [emphasis mine]
Reading the whole article is like entering the world of Bizarro. Here is how the government explains their plan: “This option would allow the New Intercity Fleet to operate on both lines and pass each other, and therefore ensure better longer term operational outcomes, while also minimising heritage impacts through reduced tunnel lining modifications.”
They make no mention of the collisions that might occur.
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The Australian government in action! An order of new trains for New South Wales in Australia, costing $2 billion, have been built 20 centimeters too wide to fit in the existing tunnels.
Their solution? A very typical government one:
But Transport for New South Wales (TfNSW), the Government body that manages the state’s rail system, has come up with a cunning plan. It has proposed simply relaxing current safety standards. In addition, 10 tunnels built in the 1900s will be partially modified to allow the new trains to run. [emphasis mine]
Reading the whole article is like entering the world of Bizarro. Here is how the government explains their plan: “This option would allow the New Intercity Fleet to operate on both lines and pass each other, and therefore ensure better longer term operational outcomes, while also minimising heritage impacts through reduced tunnel lining modifications.”
They make no mention of the collisions that might occur.
Readers!
Every February I run a fund-raising drive during my birthday month. This year I celebrate my 72nd birthday, and hope and plan to continue writing and posting on Behind the Black for as long as I am able.
I hope my readers will support this effort. As I did in my November fund-raising drive, I am offering autographed copies of my books for large donations. Donate $250 and you can have a choice of the hardback of either Genesis: the Story of Apollo 8 or Conscious Choice: The origins of slavery in America and why it matters today and for our future in outer space. Donate $200 and you can get an autographed paperback copy of either. IMPORTANT! If you donate enough to get a book, please email me separately to tell me which book you want and the address to mail it to.
Please consider supporting my work here at Behind the Black. My analysis of space, politics, and culture, taken from the perspective of an historian, is almost always on the money and ahead of the game. For example, in 2020 I correctly predicted that the COVID panic was unnecessary, that the virus was apparently simply a variation of the flu, that masks were not simply pointless but if worn incorrectly were a health threat, that the lockdowns were a disaster and did nothing to stop the spread of COVID. Every one of those 2020 conclusions has turned out right.
Your help allows me to do this kind of intelligent analysis. I take no advertising or sponsors, so my reporting isn't influenced by donations by established space or drug companies. Instead, I rely entirely on donations and subscriptions from my readers, which gives me the freedom to write what I think, unencumbered by outside influences.
You can support me either by giving a one-time contribution or a regular subscription. There are four ways of doing so:
1. Zelle: This is the only internet method that charges no fees. All you have to do is use the Zelle link at your internet bank and give my name and email address (zimmerman at nasw dot org). What you donate is what I get.
2. Patreon: Go to my website there and pick one of five monthly subscription amounts, or by making a one-time donation.
3. A Paypal Donation or subscription:
4. Donate by check, payable to Robert Zimmerman and mailed to
Behind The Black
c/o Robert Zimmerman
P.O.Box 1262
Cortaro, AZ 85652
You can also support me by buying one of my books, as noted in the boxes interspersed throughout the webpage or shown in the menu above.
Safety standards are, after all, interpretive rules, so they’re subject to change on the whim of an inspector….
Sorry, hits a nerve. Just spent a few hours today planning compliance with a new interpretation of a standard which has evidently been being misinterpreted by the entire industrial community for years.
And if and when there is a “problem” and someone is killed? How will that be “interpreted”?
Someone somewhere at a desk or work station was tasked with determining and laying out some criteria for the specifications of said trains. I would think that there would be a fairly thick book produced dedicated to the specific subject. This would include the maximum allowable width for these bright and shinny and very expensive new trains.
If I was the boss I would be very interested in the name or names of these individuals while we all contorted ourselves in our making the lemonade that fixes this screw up. But in the end, if I was the boss it would all come down on me, it would have been my responsibility to set and check the dimensions. And even so, stuff happens.
But this is government, no one ultimately has any responsibility more than likely.
“And even so, stuff happens.”
Like many here, I have experience in the difference between shop and as-built plans; but 20 cm?
It appears from the article the new equipment will eat up half the minimum safety distance; a standard I assume was carefully studied and arrived at. The official line seems to be that the standards are overly restrictive, and can be safely ignored. Or people are taking additional risk. Whatever.
Anyone familiar with Australian defence procurement would not be surprised. We spent a billion dollars on 11 Seasprite helicopters for our Navy and got none because at the last moment someone discovered that the autopilot was a single channel device as specified in the contract but as we had decided on a two crew complement instead of the usual 3 the chopper wouldn’t be able to do its job at night or in instrument weather. I haven’t heard that anyone lost job/pension/went to jail over this.
BTW the trains are a New South Wales State government screw up, not Australian federal gummint.
Blair, I’m no expert and don’t know any more about this situation than what appears here, but I think the main factor that determines the safety margin is shaking of the train (in shipboard terms, the rolling component) as it goes through the tunnel. I don’t know how they calculated the maximum expected rolling motion, and I agree witth you; it appears someone determined that the old standard was too strict and therefore reduced it somewhat arbitrarily.
Talk about failed engineering:
http://www.miamiherald.com/news/local/community/miami-dade/west-miami-dade/article205316174.html
Cotour: This story was worth getting elevated to the main page. Thank you.
Sounds like someone was told to take off their engineering hat and put on their management hat.