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2003 Melbourne Runaway Train
On 3 February 2003, a Comeng electric multiple unit train rolled away from Broadmeadows station in Melbourne, Australia, before it ran for nearly out of control without a driver and eventually crashed into another train about to depart Spencer Street station.Spencer Street station has since been renamed Southern Cross. Train controllers attempted several times to stop or redirect the train, but were limited in their ability to intervene, instead being forced to alter the route of other trains to avert a more serious collision. Eleven people on board the stationary train were injured; authorities did not know until after the crash if any passengers were on board the runaway. An investigation identified driver error as the cause of the accident, but the runaway event prompted significant debate about the role of government authorities and private operators in ensuring safety and reliability on the Melbourne rail network. Background Three days prior to the Melbourne crash, the ...
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Southern Cross Railway Station
Southern Cross railway station (until 2005 known as Spencer Street station) is a major railway station in Docklands, Victoria, Docklands, Melbourne. It is on Spencer Street, Melbourne, Spencer Street, between Collins Street, Melbourne, Collins and La Trobe Street, Melbourne, La Trobe Streets, at the western edge of the Melbourne city centre, Melbourne central business district. The Docklands Stadium sports arena is 500 metres north-west of the station. The station is owned, operated and maintained by Civic Nexus, a subsidiary of IFM Investors and operating as Southern Cross Station Pty Ltd, under a 30-year lease to 2036 from the Victorian State Government, as part of a public-private partnership. Southern Cross Station Pty Ltd contracts Infranexus Management Pty Ltd (Infranexus) for management services. Infranexus is also wholly owned by IFM. The station is the terminus of the List of regional railway stations in Victoria, state's regional railway network operated by V/Line, ' ...
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Hoys Roadlines
Hoys Roadlines was an Australian bus operator based in the Victorian city of Wangaratta. From 1993 until 2004 the company also had a contract to operate train services on the Shepparton line on behalf of the Victorian State Government. Bus services The company commenced operations in 1930 from Wangaratta in the north-east of Victoria, to Shepparton, Bright and the Mount Buffalo Chalet. The company later expanded into school bus runs, charter coaches, and Department of Infrastructure contract coach services such as the daily Albury to Adelaide service. The company begun to downsize their operations after the loss of the rail franchise, the Adelaide to Albury route operations being purchased by Dysons in August 2004 and the remaining operations by V/Line in July 2005. Rail services History In August 1993 the Kennett State Government put the operation of nine country passenger rail services to tender. Companies were invited to use trains, buses, or a combination of the two. H ...
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Stationmaster
The station master (or stationmaster) is the person in charge of a railway station, particularly in the United Kingdom and many other countries outside North America. In the United Kingdom, where the term originated, it is now largely historical or colloquial, with the contemporary term being station manager. However, the term ''station master'' remains current on many heritage railways, and also in many countries outside the United Kingdom, notably the extensive Indian Railways network. Historically a male occupation, women were sometimes appointed to the position, and the gender variation ''station mistress'' was sometimes employed in such cases. In the United States the role is commonly termed station agent. Job description The station master is responsible for the management of other station employees and holds responsibility for safety and the efficient running of the station. The term was historically employed across stations of all sizes, leading to variation in the precis ...
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Railway Air Brake
A railway air brake is a railway brake power braking system with compressed air as the operating medium. Modern trains rely upon a fail-safe air brake system that is based upon a design patented by George Westinghouse on April 13, 1869. The Westinghouse Air Brake Company was subsequently organized to manufacture and sell Westinghouse's invention. In various forms, it has been nearly universally adopted. The Westinghouse system uses air pressure to charge air reservoirs (tanks) on each car. Full air pressure causes each car to release the brakes. A subsequent reduction or loss of air pressure causes each car to apply its brakes, using the compressed air stored in its reservoirs. Overview Straight air brake In the air brake's simplest form, called the ''straight air system'', compressed air pushes on a piston in a cylinder. The piston is connected through mechanical linkage to brake shoes that can rub on the train wheels, using the resulting friction to slow the train. Th ...
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V/Line N Class
The N Class are a class of diesel locomotives built by Clyde Engineering, Somerton for V/Line between 1985 and 1987. History By the start of the 1980s, Victorian Railways passenger numbers had fallen to around 3 million per year, due to ageing rolling stock, stagnant timetables and competition from other forms of transport. The Lonie Report of 1980 recommended cuts to the network, with the general public responding by calling for the State Government to maintain a viable rail network. The government response in February 1981 was the ''New Deal for Country Passengers'', a $115 million commitment to recast country rail passenger services in Victoria. As part of the ''New Deal'', all B class locomotives were to be re-built as the A class for use on passenger services and ten new locomotives ordered. Tenders closed in 1983 for the first 10 units, with Clyde Engineering being awarded the contract. By mid-1985, the rising cost of the A class conversions saw the project aban ...
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V/Line H Type Carriage
The H type carriages are a class of interurban passenger carriage operated by V/Line in Victoria, Australia. Fitted with high-density 2+3 seating, they are typically used on short distance interurban services from Melbourne to Bacchus Marsh and Geelong. Overview By 1983, the 1981 New Deal had been such a success that the incoming Cain Government ordered conversion of a fleet of the early Harris suburban Electric Multiple Units to replace the last of the older wooden carriage stock. The fleet eventually reached 59 carriages of multiple types. For the purpose of contract negotiations, short cars were referred to as SCH, SH or STH and long as LCH, LH or LTH, respectively for conductor, regular and terminal carriages. Each carriage has two doors per side, manually opened by passengers, but remotely closed and locked by the train conductor. Toilets, drinking fountains and luggage areas are provided throughout each carriage set. The carriage sets were originally used for com ...
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Signal Box
In signal processing, a signal is a function that conveys information about a phenomenon. Any quantity that can vary over space or time can be used as a signal to share messages between observers. The ''IEEE Transactions on Signal Processing'' includes audio, video, speech, image, sonar, and radar as examples of signal. A signal may also be defined as observable change in a quantity over space or time (a time series), even if it does not carry information. In nature, signals can be actions done by an organism to alert other organisms, ranging from the release of plant chemicals to warn nearby plants of a predator, to sounds or motions made by animals to alert other animals of food. Signaling occurs in all organisms even at cellular levels, with cell signaling. Signaling theory, in evolutionary biology, proposes that a substantial driver for evolution is the ability of animals to communicate with each other by developing ways of signaling. In human engineering, signals are typi ...
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Metrol
Metrol is the central control centre of the Railways in Melbourne, Melbourne suburban rail network. It controls Railway signalling, signalling, PRIDE, Melbourne rail network, passenger information, and emergency procedures. It is located at 595 Collins Street, in the Melbourne central business district. Operations Metrol has two key functions—train control and signalling. Operations are split, with train control covering the whole suburban area, while control of points and signalling is only over a limited area in the centre of Melbourne. Outside this area, signal box, signal-boxes direct trains under the direction of the train controllers at Metrol. Before Metrol, the points and signals in the Melbourne suburban area were controlled by a series of individual signal-boxes, under the direction of a train controller who coordinated train movements. The original function was to be the main train control facility for the Melbourne suburban railways, as well as to be the signal bo ...
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Railway Signalling
Railway signalling (), also called railroad signaling (), is a system used to control the movement of railway traffic. Trains move on fixed rails, making them uniquely susceptible to collision. This susceptibility is exacerbated by the enormous weight and inertia of a train, which makes it difficult to quickly stop when encountering an obstacle. In the UK, the Regulation of Railways Act 1889 introduced a series of requirements on matters such as the implementation of interlocked block signalling and other safety measures as a direct result of the Armagh rail disaster in that year. Most forms of train control involve movement authority being passed from those responsible for each section of a rail network (e.g. a signalman or stationmaster) to the train crew. The set of rules and the physical equipment used to accomplish this determine what is known as the ''method of working'' (UK), ''method of operation'' (US) or ''safeworking'' (Aus.). Not all these methods require the use ...
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Journey Beyond
Journey Beyond is the business name (together with more than a dozen other related names) of Experience Australia Group Pty Ltd, a private equity-owned company known mainly for operating Australian interstate experiential tourism trains (''The Ghan'', the ''Indian Pacific'', ''The Overland'', and the '' Great Southern''). , the company was a diversified tourism business based in Adelaide, South Australia, with interests in cruise and air tourism in addition to rail. In January 2022, the United States travel company the Hornblower Group acquired the business from Quadrant Private Equity, which had owned it since 2016. History Before the 1990s, the government-owned Australian National Railways Commission, trading as Australian National, was the owner and operator of Australia's interstate railways and freight and passenger trains. From 1996 to 1998, Australian National was broken up and in 1997 its interstate passenger trains — ''The Ghan'', ''Indian Pacific'' and ''The Over ...
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CountryLink
CountryLink was a passenger rail and road service brand that operated in regional areas New South Wales, Canberra, Brisbane and Melbourne. Originally created as a business unit (or sub-brand) of the State Rail Authority of New South Wales, it later became a subsidiary of RailCorp, a Government of New South Wales entity. CountryLink operated rail services using XPT and Xplorer rolling stock, with connecting coach services operated under contract by private operators. History CountryLink was established in January 1989 under the Transport Administration Act 1988 as a business unit of what was then the State Rail Authority to operate all non-metropolitan long distance passenger services. It inherited a fleet of XPT and locomotive-hauled passenger trains. Following the election of the Greiner State Government in March 1988, consultants Booz Allen Hamilton were commissioned to prepare a report into NSW rail services. On purely economic grounds, the report recommended closing all ...
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