The Glenbrook rail accident occurred on 2 December 1999 at 8:22 am on a curve east of Glenbrook railway station on the

CityRail CityRail was a passenger railway brand operated by the State Rail Authority from 1989 to 2003 and by RailCorp from 2003 to 2013 with services in and around Sydney, Newcastle and Wollongong, the three largest cities in New South Wales, Australia ...

network between Glenbrook and

Lapstone Lapstone is a township on the eastern escarpment of the Blue Mountains in New South Wales, Australia. Elevation 160 m (525 ft). Lapstone is located 62 kilometres west of the Sydney CBD in the local government area of the City of Blu ...

, in the Blue Mountains of

New South Wales ) , nickname = , image_map = New South Wales in Australia.svg , map_caption = Location of New South Wales in AustraliaCoordinates: , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name = Australia , established_title = Before federation , es ...

, Australia. Seven passengers were killed and 51 passengers were taken to hospital with injuries when a CityRail electric interurban train collided with the rear wagon of the long-haul Perth-to-Sydney

Indian Pacific The ''Indian Pacific'' is a weekly experiential tourism passenger train service that runs in Australia's east–west rail corridor between Sydney, on the shore of the Pacific Ocean, and Perth, on the shore of the Indian Ocean – thus, l ...

Overview

The

train was authorised to pass a red signal at Glenbrook and stopped at the next signal, also red. The driver alighted to use the lineside signal telephone to call the signaller for authority to pass the signal at danger; as a component of the phone was missing, he incorrectly believed it to be defective. A delay of approximately seven minutes resulted despite the locomotive having a radio (at that time it was not a procedure for the

National Rail Corporation The National Rail Corporation was an Australian rail operator established by the Federal, New South Wales and Victorian governments in February 1992. In February 2002, National Rail was sold to a Patrick Corporation and Toll Holdings consort ...

to use a radio to contact signal boxes). The interurban train restarted with authority after stopping at the red signal at Glenbrook and collided shortly after with the rear of the Indian Pacific train waiting at the second failed signal. Several factors were involved, from equipment breakdown to poor phrasing of the safe working rules: the most important was that the interurban picked up too much speed and the driver was not able to see the rear of the Indian Pacific around a sharp curve in a deep

cutting Cutting is the separation or opening of a physical object, into two or more portions, through the application of an acutely directed force. Implements commonly used for wikt:cut, cutting are the knife and saw, or in medicine and science the scal ...

in time to avoid a collision. This is essentially equivalent to a

blind corner ''Blind Corner'' (U.S. ''Man in the Dark'') is a 1964 British thriller film directed by Lance Comfort and starring William Sylvester and Barbara Shelley. It also features popular singer of the time Ronnie Carroll playing himself. The film ...

Visibility

The track was curved to the left, the train was using the left-hand track, the driver was sitting on the left side of the train, and the track was in a narrow rock cutting. These four factors contributed to less than average visibility.

Inquiry

A Commission of Inquiry headed by Justice

Peter McInerney Peter Aloysius McInerney , (1927-2014) was an Australian barrister and New South Wales Supreme Court judge. Biography McInerney was born in Goulburn, New South Wales, the only child of grazier Leslie McInerney and his wife, Florence (née Smith ...

investigated the accident.

Causes

The Commission found that the accident occurred after a power failure disabled two consecutive automatic signals: due to their

fail-safe In engineering, a fail-safe is a design feature or practice that in the event of a specific type of failure, inherently responds in a way that will cause minimal or no harm to other equipment, to the environment or to people. Unlike inherent safe ...

design, both exhibited danger (red). Both trains obtained permission from the signalman at Penrith to pass the first signal at danger. The driver of the Indian Pacific obeyed the rule requiring him to proceed with "extreme caution", but the driver of the interurban train failed to do so and caught up with the Indian Pacific. The Commission found fault with a number of procedures, their application by railway employees, and the training those employees had received. Among other factors, it found that: * the signalman was unable to monitor the position of the Indian Pacific, so was unaware it had not cleared the second signal; * safety-critical communication was too informal; * the train controller in Sydney told the driver of the interurban train by radio, "it's only an auto... just trip past", thereby potentially misleading the driver into believing that the signal section was clear; the signalman in Penrith was not aware of this exchange; * the driver of the interurban train failed to proceed with "extreme caution", as required by the rule, and so was unable to stop in time to avoid the collision. * training for passing signals at danger was deficient, as was the rule, safeworking unit 245.

Effects

The seven people who died were in the front compartment of the first carriage of the interurban train. The rear carriage of the Indian Pacific was a car transport wagon that did not convey passengers, and, in absorbing the brunt of the collision, was arguably the reason there were not any fatalities on board the Indian Pacific. The impact of the collision was such that the front six metres of the interurban car were compressed into just one metre, while also causing the first six carriages of the Indian Pacific to separate from the rest of the train. When the driver of the CityRail train saw the stationary Indian Pacific, he ran from the driver's compartment (the dead-man's brake was automatically activated) to the lower deck of the double-decker carriage warning the passengers to brace themselves. He was badly injured, but survived because of this. As he ran through, a man from the front compartment ran to the upper deck to warn the passengers and thereby also survived the crash. A third train, bound for Lithgow, only narrowly avoided colliding with the wreckage when signallers managed to warn the driver to stop just 60 seconds before it reached the crash site.

The interurban train

The train was a standard four-car V set, labelled V21. The first carriage, DIM8067, received critical damage to its front and lower compartments, but it was repaired. To avoid any reference and insensitivity to the victims, it was re-numbered DIM8020 and remained in service until it was withdrawn in 2003 following many problems.

References

{{Blue Mountains topics 1999 in Australia Railway accidents in 1999 Railway accidents and incidents in New South Wales 1990s in New South Wales Train collisions in Australia Glenbrook, New South Wales History of the Blue Mountains (New South Wales) 1999 disasters in Australia