METHOD OF DRAFTING TRAIN SCHEDULES

Dominion, Volume 31, Issue 252, 21 July 1938, Page 8

METHOD OF DRAFTING TRAIN SCHEDULES

“Present System Seems

Anomalous”

DRIVERS’ ADHERENCE TO REGULATIONS

The method employed, by the Railways Department for drafting train running schedules was commented upon by the Board of Inquiry set up to investigate the Ratana railway disaster on March 26. The board’s report was tabled in the House of Representatives yesterday by the Minister of Railways, Hon. D. G. Sullivan.

“It appeared during the course of the inquiry,” said the board, that the chief engineer’s branch, which has no responsibility for the actual operation of trains, not only determines the speed restrictions, which is the legitimate duty of that branch, but also prepares the detailed running schedules for the use of the operating branches. "This seems anomalous, in that the civil engineering branch is no more concerned with the actual operation and performance of the locomotives and rolling stock than the locomotive superintendent is with the maintenance of the way an'd works. “This procedure does not actually relieve the locomotive superintendent of any responsibility; it rather makes his responsibilities more onerous, because the train running schedules are drafted, with speed restrictions as their basis and chief concern, by officers who do not possess first-hand knowledge or experience of the economies of locomotive operation, or of tho practical handling of trains over difficult country such as is characteristic of most of the New Zealand railway system. “One result of this procedure was disclosed in some very frank evidence that was given before the board in the course of the inquiry, when it was stated that in actual practice, drivers did not feel bound to give any ‘slavish a'dherence’ to the standard schedules prepared by the chief engineer’s branch, but relied more upon their own knowledge and experience in train handling. “It seems desirable to observe, therefore, that some amendment of the existing procedure in the preparation of standard running schedules is called for, in order to remove any possible justification for not adhering strictly to the limits prescribed, and would be in the interests of economical operation as well as of safety. # “It is for the chief engineer to prescribe the maximum permissible speeds over those sections which by reason of difficulties (e.g., curves and steep descents combined) due to exigencies of location or of maintenance, demand special restrictions; but the manner in which the engine run as a whole is to be shape'd, so as, on the one hand, to meet the requiremetats of the (traffic branch, and, on the other, to ensure due observance of the necessary restrictions of the way and works branch, is essentially a matter for the responsible operating officer—namely, tho locomotive superintendent.”