PACIFIC National has overhauled its maintenance program following last year’s derailment south of Tamworth, which damaged half a kilometre of track.
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Late on Thursday the Australian Transport and Safety Bureau (ATSB) released its investigation report into the Pacific National train which came off the track after passing Ardglen, near Murrurundi, on August 28, 2015.
Investigators found the company was at fault when the fully loaded coal train, which had left Maules Creek and was bound for Port Waratah, suffered a wheel failure.
On Friday, in a statement Pacific National said it had been working closely “with the National Rail Safety Reg-ulator since the incident occurred last August”.
“We proactively overhauled our wheel maintenance program by increasing the minimum thickness of all of our 30 tonne axle-load coal fleet wheels from 25mm to 28mm and modified bogies to reduce the risk of thermal cracking,” a spokesperson said.
“This involved thousands of wheels and the project was completed well before the regulator issued its recommendations.
“This project means we have dramatically decreased the chances of this kind of incident from ever reoccurring.”
The impact of the derailment damaged more than 590m of the rail track, including 963 sleepers, after the train continued to travel “until a damaged inter-car brake cable activated the train’s brakes”.
