(188a) Human Factors in Transient Operations – the Story of a Train Derailment

On the 20^th February 2020 an interstate passenger train travelling between Sydney and Melbourne in Australia derailed, killing two crew and seriously injuring five other crew and 61 passengers. It was travelling at approximately 60 mph over the speed limit for the section of track. A recent fire in a signalling hut had meant that traffic through that stretch of line was being managed with administrative controls rather than with track signals. This paper will explore the human factors of this incident and compare it to transient operations that occur in processing facilities. There have been a number of train derailment incidents in the past years, most notability in Ohio (2023) and Lac Megantic (2013) where the dangerous goods cardo resulting in the incidents escalation. Human factors played a role in all of these events, either in derailment or emergency response, especially when managing transient or temporary operations. This paper will discuss how transient operations can be managed more effectively to avoid human factors issues.