Delay of the Day Pt II - The Follow Up

Could anyone who uses the Sandy line honestly say this is a good enough reason?

rail delay caused by red tape mixup
February 20, 2009 12:00am
A TRAIN that blocked the Sandringham line for more than eight hours this week was not faulty.
The Herald Sun believes a thorough check of the train by manufacturer Siemens failed to detect a significant fault.

A failure to report suspicions of a fault according to procedure led to Wednesday's standoff that stranded thousands of commuters.

Sources said a junior train driver was uncertain about whether his train had a fault about 9am that day and he had sought advice from his supervisor.

The supervisor, instead of the driver, reported the matter to train controllers, but this was contrary to Connex policy and the controllers refused to accept the report.

The controllers also refused to give the train a green signal to move on, keeping it at the station for more than eight hours until the row was resolved.

Connex yesterday took the matter to the Industrial Relations Commission and it will return there next Wednesday.

Public Transport Minister Lynne Kosky said the disruption to commuters had been outrageous.

"I don't want to go into a blame game, but the behaviour was completely unacceptable," she said.
Procedures for fault reporting are at the centre of the dispute between Connex and the Rail, Tram and Bus Union's locomotive division.

The company believes that reporting faults through driver supervisors, instead of train controllers, is less safe.

Continuing rows between the RTBU's locomotive and operations divisions have fuelled speculation of a split.