More problems with rail tunnel

According to this article from the Sydney Morning Herald the Epping to Chatswood rail line now has further problems relating to flaws in the tracks, bolts and sleepers.  These flaws will need to be fixed resulting in further budget blowouts and delays.


There have been a bewildering number of core problems with this rail tunnel.  The tunnel is too steep for Tangara trains, the curves in the track are too tight, causing extended periods of painfully loud wheel screeching, and now we read that the sleepers are cracked, the pins were tensioned incorrectly and the epoxy was contaminated and sub-standard.


The level of failures required to produce such a shoddy project is hard to imagine.  Firstly, planning the design of the tunnel was obviously not thorough enough.  It is a whopping mistake to get ninety percent of the way through the tunnelling process before realising the tunnel grade is too steep for the rolling stock.  How did that specification get by the planners?  I imagine each rolling stock design comes with a specs sheet outlining its safe operating limits - including grade.



Secondly, the wheels screech because the bends are too tight.  While this one may not be a clear design specification like the grade limit, it is still something that I would have thought was obvious from experience.  CityRail staff and anyone who rides the city circle regularly should be aware that trains screech when going around bends.  A formula combining speed and track curvature should be all you need to model safety limits and avoid screeching.  Another design parameter that got by the approval process.



Thirdly, the new problems of track quality.  This is an issue that obviously came up in the construction phase so the planners are off the hook for this one but where was the quality assurance? The safety implications here are disturbing to say the least.



From the seriousness and wide range of these problems it's pretty clear this project was run by people who were distracted and rushed with restricted powers and conflicting demands.  It is a disgraceful state of affairs that symbolises everything wrong with the NSW Government at the moment.  It's a clear illustration that when there's problems at the top it filters down to affect the quality of every project at every level.  It's a problem the people of Sydney can't afford to suffer.

NSW Labor - fix your rot before someone dies!