As part of the review of the standardisation, refurbishment and risk assessment of the XPT Power Cars, the RTBU driver representatives have questioned the adequacy and safety of the current headlight system.

The headlight lenses are difficult to clean because of their location and the restrictive housing around the lenses. The fog/ditch lights are often not focused or have been knocked from focus and therefore don’t illuminate the intended areas, and it’s very difficult to adjust the beam of light. The lights also lack the inability to flash on and off when the horn sounds (level crossings). The current LED marker light clusters are also not bright enough and it can be hard to tell they are lit, especially the red units.

The good news is that results of the tests at XPT Maintenance Centre have showed that the new HID lights provide a sufficient improvement in train visibility and track illumination, which justify further investigations into using these lights for the upgrade of the headlights, fog lights and marker lights.

Further to this information, the upgraded external lights have now been fitted to XPT Power Car XP2004 during the refurbishment project. Static testing has now been completed with trials commencing with Locomotive XP2004.

The following additional advice is being provided for the dynamic trial;

- A notice will be placed inside the cab outlining the details of the upgrade.

- Feedback is being sought and questionnaire sheets will be placed in the cab for drivers to complete.

A Dubbo organiser has moved quickly to ensure that CountryLink follows the Stable Rostering Code as track work starts affecting train arrival times on the Western Line.

Due to the track work, Dubbo XPT trains are tabled to arrive into Sydney later than usual for the next 9 weeks.

This means that Dubbo drivers will not be able to bring their train in from the Meeks Road XPT centre as usual. Taking into account the later arrival, drivers won’t have time to return their train and have the 7 hour period in barracks required under the Rail Safety Act.

CountryLink were informed of this issue months before the work started but had failed to amend the Dubbo depot’s diagrams to take the later arrival time into account. The diagrams required a change to drivers’ sign on time, but drivers instead had their rosters marked as “sign on to be advised”.

This would have been a clear breach of the Stable Rostering Code and a step back into the dark days of “pencil rostering”.

Thanks to the diligence of the Dubbo organiser, this process was stopped, correct sign on times were displayed on the roster and appropriate changes were made.