ATSB – RO-2018-004
At 0900, on the day of the accident, the temperature was recorded at Richmond as 23.1°C. The overnight minimum temperature was 16.3°C. The nearest Bureau of Meteorology automatic weather station (AWS) was located at RAAF Base Richmond, about 3 km east of Richmond Station.
The previous four days all recorded a maximum temperature over 35°C and the temperature on the day of the accident eventually reached 42°C (five hours after the accident). Sunrise on the day of the incident was at 0539 and it was a fine morning. The sun was behind and on the right-hand side of the train. The position of the sun was determined not to have affected the driver’s visibility.
There had been no rain recorded at Richmond Station in the 11 days prior to the incident.
The train crew were both Sydney Trains employees. The driver was based at the Blacktown depot while the guard was based at the Richmond depot. Both lived in nearby suburbs and drove to work with less than 20 minutes’ travel time to work.
The driver was an experienced driver who started as a guard in 2005 and progressed to become a metropolitan train driver in 2007. He had been as passed as medically fit in February 2014 and was not due to be reassessed until 2019. He was familiar with the route and had been qualified to drive Waratah sets since 2013.
The guard was an experienced guard, having started as a guard in 1985 and became a trainer guard in 2003. He was familiar with the route, being based at Richmond for 20 years, and had been qualified on Waratah sets since 2014.
The train involved in the incident was called a Waratah train, also known as an A-set. Each 8-car Waratah set has a designated number, all beginning with the letter A. The train involved in the incident was A42. Sydney Trains operate the A-sets which are leased to Sydney Trains by Reliance Rail Pty Ltd under a Rolling Stock Manufacture Contract with Reliance Rail, a Downer/Hitachi Joint Venture was responsible for the design, manufacture and commissioning of the Waratah trains and train simulators. Under a Through Life Support Contract with Reliance Rail, Downer is responsible for the through life support of the Waratah trains, the Auburn maintenance centre and train simulators (Figure 5).
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