Rail Tunnel SafetyChris Ballantyne, New Zealand Transport Agency

Summary

1. The Rail Safety Regulator

2. Tunnel safety hazards

3. Improving safety

Not a safe passenger position

Rail Safety Regulator

• The Rail Safety Regulator is part of the Transport Agency

• We oversee the safety of the 97 rail operators in NZ

• We work closely with TAIC and WorkSafe

• Rail operators remain accountable for safety

• Duties include licencing, auditing, education, investigation & compliance

• We target critical risks

• The rail industry has a good safety record

• But there are critical risks that require focus to keep it that way

Tunnels SPADTrack

workers

Level

Xings

Train

control

Why the focus on tunnel operations?

• Long rail tunnels are a hazardous environment

• Minor incidents can turn fatal

• Greater consequences and harder to recover

• Changing expectations for the management of low frequency events

• Within and outside of the rail industry

• Change in approach for the Rail Safety Regulator

• Target specific harms that apply across the industry

• Multi-faceted approach to resolve harms

Rail tunnel disasters• High consequence, low frequency events

11 Nov 2000

Electric heater fire

3.3km tunnel

12 survivors evacuated 600m past the fire

28 Oct 1995

Electrical system fire

2.2km tunnel

300 passengers had to evacuate 200m

6 Nov 1972

Cooking fire in buffet car

13km tunnel

730 passengers had to evacuate 5.6km

3 March 1944

Stalled steam train

3km tunnel

Only those not in the tunnel survived

Kaprun155 fatalities on

ski passenger

train

Azerbaijan289 fatalities on

metro train

Hokuriku30 fatalities on

passenger train

Balvano500 fatalities on a

steam train

New Zealand rail tunnel incidents• The hazards exist

18 Jan 2015

Maintenance truck fire

1.2km tunnel

3 workers had to evacuate 1km

6 Nov 2013

Fumes from work equipment

8.8km tunnel

7 workers exposed while exiting tunnel

25 Aug 2012

Fumes from work equipment

8.9 km tunnel

10 workers had to evacuate 5km

4 Feb 1995

Fuel hose fire on a locomotive

8.8km tunnel

Train driven 4.7km on fire to evacuate

NIMT #13 workers

evacuated

burning truck

Otira7 workers

exposed to high

gas levels

Rimutaka400 passengers

with a burning

locomotive

Kaimai10 workers

exposed to high

gas levels

Rail tunnels in New Zealand

• 98 active tunnels on the KiwiRail network

• There are other tunnels not on KiwiRail’s network

• 11 tunnels are longer than 1km

• 5 metro tunnels longer than 500m

• Often difficult to access or remote

• Mostly constructed 50 – 150yrs ago

0

10

20

30

40

50

60

0

10

20

30

40

50

60

<100m 100m -500m

500m -1000m

>1000m

Len

gth

(km

)

Nu

mb

er

of

tun

ne

ls

Tunnels on KiwiRail network

Number of tunnels

Combined length of tunnels

Tunnel hazards

• “Minor” incidents can result in fatalities in a tunnel

• Smoke, fumes and fire intensify in a tunnel

• Tunnels make it difficult:

• to fix a problem

• to get to safety

• to communicate with the outside

• for emergency services to help

• Passenger, freight and maintenance services have different risks

What is being done about it?

1. Prioritise

2. Analyse the risk and the solutions

3. Focus on improvements now

4. Plan and initiate longer-term work

What is being done about it?

• Rail Safety Regulator and Worksafe are working closely together to set expectations for operators

• KiwiRail has

• prioritised higher risk tunnels

• formed a Tunnel Critical Risk Network

• formed 3 Regional Tunnel Groups

• significant improvement programmes underway

• Tourist and heritage sector focusing on excursions through highest risk tunnels

1. Prioritising action

What is being done about it?2. Analyse the risk and solutions

Fire on stuck train

Ignition source

Flammable

material

Stopped train

Unable to contain

fire

Unable to move

carriages

Evacuation barriers

Carriages not safe refuge

Mass casualties

What is being done about it?

• KiwiRail has a particular focus on Otira, Kaimai and Rimutaka Tunnels

• Infrastructure, rolling stock and operational improvements

• Further improvements to emergency management protocol

• Increasing tunnels and gas awareness for management and staff

• Increasing precautions for tourist and heritage excursions

• Where the risks haven’t been

acceptable, some excursions

have been called off

3. Focus on improvements now

What is being done about it?

• Embed current improvements

• Monitoring effectiveness of improvements

• Training and emergency preparedness

• Further understand the risks and the effectiveness of mitigations

• Safety of operations across all rail tunnels is improved

• Permanent measures for Tourist and Heritage operators

• Further improvements for activity in higher-risk tunnels

• Consider feasibility of higher-cost, best-practice options

4. Plan and initiate longer-term work

Our expectations

• Operators are responsible for identifying and managing their risks

• Mitigations are strengthened

• Staff practices and preparedness

• Rolling stock and other equipment improvements

• Emergency management

• Tunnels become safer environments

• Communication systems

• Smoke and fire management

• Evacuation facilities

Conclusions

1. Safety is a selling point for rail. Need to keep it that way

2. Tunnels are hazardous environments

3. Operators are accountable to ensure safe operations