Yesterday morning our new electric trains on the Seaford line ground to halt resulting in chaos across the rail network and on the roads, with trains stranded across some level crossings or midway between stations. Passengers, left to fend for themselves and make their own way into the City by any means possible.
The problem was caused by failure at the one and only sub-station on the line, located at Lonsdale. How can this happen on a modern railway in 2016? It happens purely and simply because of poor management and cost cutting. The boffins supposedly in control of this system were warned by senior (and experienced) railway staff, that having only one sub-station was setting the system up to fail. They advised that there needed to be a second sub-station to share the load. History will show that this expert advice from experienced staff was brushed aside with a breathtaking swiftness.
The railway staff have always said right from day one of the commencement of electric operations that it was only a matter of time before the system fails. Yesterday was the day, and it was spectacular. We now have endured a second day with no electric trains and the early prognosis is that they will be out of action for most of the weekend. What an unmitigated disaster.
Bus companies then had the arduous task of hastily implementing rail replacement bus services and this task has fallen largely with SouthLink who also have to contend with operating their normal services, which due to their close proximity to the Seaford Line are also being swamped. SouthLink are doing it tough, but as they have 'experienced' staff at the helm, I am sure they have kept passenger inconvenience to an absolute minimum.
I experienced yesterday afternoon a disturbing train ride home on the Gawler line. In order to provide a service to Brighton some 3000 class units were taken from the Gawler, Outer Harbor and Grange lines to provide these services. As a result the 4.53pm Gawler train departed Adelaide with a dangerously heavy load. There was no railway staff on board nor on the platform. The passengers were left on their own and to their own devices. One passenger was starting to panic as she suffers from claustrophobia, she alighted at the first stop at Ovingham to make other arrangements.
If there had been an emergency or some other incident on this train it could easily have been catastrophic.
As we were all crushed in like a sardine can, we all lamented as we passed by the Dry Creek Railcar Depot where we witness a good dozen 2000 class Jumbo's which were retired almost a year ago, sitting their forlornly gathering dust and graffiti. These perfectly good railcars should have been recommissioned and then they could be used on the Gawler line to provide additional capacity at times of high demand or in an emergency situation as we are experiencing now. By pressing the Jumbo's back into service yesterday would easily have allowed some 3000 class units to provide almost a full service on the Seaford Line. But alas, it is not to be.
Football and Soccer patrons must endure this chaos for this weekends games at Adelaide Oval. What a marvellous advertisement for Adelaide's public transport.
Part of the problems of yesterday were caused by the dysfunctional system the Liberal Government of the mid 90's created and the successive Labor Governments have failed to rectify. If the entire system was still operated by the State Transport Authority, the rolling effects to passengers and the services could have been greatly reduced. I am sure that had this event occurred whilst under the control of the STA the very experienced transport staff would have immediately arranged for the Jumbo's to pressed back into service, post haste. Buses from almost ALL depots would have been deployed to make up any shortfalls.
The STA had within it's ranks many proud and highly skilled and experienced staff that could have problem solved this situation within an hour of the system going down. We need to return our public transport services back to FULL control of only one Government department. Experienced operational staff, that work across all three modes and control services as required.
The sooner the Government re-instates the State Transport Authority the better. The population of Adelaide and South Australia deserve much better quality of services than those provided these days. After all, our taxpayers money still fully fund it, albeit via a convoluted path.
That's my opinion.
