ALN VALLEY OPERATIONS ON HOLD AFTER ORR INSPECTION
Rail regulator discovers multiple competence and maintenance issues at Northumberland line.
THERE HAVE BEEN AN UNDULY LARGE AMOUNT OF INCIDENTS STEPHEN TURNER, ORR
All train operations at the Aln Valley Railway have been suspended following an inspection by the Office of Rail and Road.
Stephen Turner, HM Principal Inspector of Railways, and Ian Skinner, Head of Non Mainline Railways, visited the AVR on July 22/23 after the ORR received “a double figure of separate complaints” from the line’s working members.
In a letter to the AVR, Mr Turner listed a number of issues with the line’s safety management system, maintenance practices and infrastructure that must be resolved before it can run trains again.
The ORR visit came ten days after the AVR announced that it had cancelled all its summer events, stating: “The Aln Valley Railway Board has been constantly monitoring and reviewing Covid-19 advice. However, it has now been decided that the railway cannot yet safely re-open to visitors, until after the end of September this year at the earliest.”
An ORR spokesperson confirmed: “Had the railway not voluntarily agreed to suspend rail vehicle movements, we would have considered all available options to secure safety. This could have included a prohibition notice.”
Mr Turner found that footplate crews and guards had not been assessed for rule book or route knowledge; that the AVR “has effectively been using working instructions rather than a proper Rule Book since 2014” (with a new one prepared but yet to be adopted); was similarly still using a safety management system dating from 2011, with a 2020 edition yet to be adopted; and was “generally unable to demonstrate competence” of staff, with “no evidence” of Personal Track Safety certification, or assessment of footplate crews’ knowledge.
The AVR confirmed: “Throughout last season a number of concerns were raised, which resulted in the trustees inviting Green Dragon Rail, our health and safety advisors, to do a full audit towards the end of 2019. As expected, this highlighted a number of issues about our safety management systems, so after the mince pie specials, the railway was closed to all but essential movements to allow us to focus on remedial work with a view to being ready to re-open at Easter.”
AVR press officer Gemma Maughan explained: “The decision to postpone all running until September was led by the need to refresh our operating crew competencies which we had not managed to achieve prior to lockdown. The AVR was due to open on April 4 with competency refreshments taking place in the week commencing March 23.
As we all know, lockdown hit that week. The plan was to assess enough crew to operate throughout April, with all other crew reassessments taking place throughout running days.”
In the maintenance records for the line’s steam fleet, Mr Turner found that no monthly fitness-to-run examinations had been undertaken since June 2018; that no period was specified for the length of time between boiler washouts; and that no requirement existed for annual examinations of steam or diesel locomotives.
Although he considered that the Carriage & Wagon Department “had good standards”, and was generally satisfied with the AVR’s permanent way, Mr Turner raised two issues relating to its extension to Greenrigg Halt – one being the partially completed platform at that station, which requires a full design and risk assessment before passengers can use it.
He also decreed that Cawledge Viaduct should be assessed; an engineer’s report in 2018 placed a number of restrictions, including a speed limit of 3mph, on the seven-arch structure, and recommended that the track will have to be lifted in the future to install waterproofing.
Mrs Maughan told
Steam Railway: “There was a structural engineers’ report for the viaduct, which did not preclude us from running to Greenrigg Halt; this report is valid until November this year.
“Following the ORR visit, we brought forward the inspection renewal and have subsequently received a new report. This report still does not preclude us from running over the viaduct.
“We are required to carry out some remedial work; however in line with the report, we are investigating the options available (of which there are currently three) for this to be an ongoing exercise.
“The railway has always known that the track will have to come up to complete the waterproofing; this will be completed during a closed season. In order to allow some time for this to happen, we have improved the drainage on the viaduct and its approaches.”
Mr Turner concluded: “For a relatively small railway there have been an unduly large amount of incidents: a couple of shed collisions, platform stock collision, exploding locomotive batteries, a diesel generator becoming live, derailment, a volunteer breaking his leg when photographing etc. A significant improvement is required.”
The AVR told its members: “We aim to be able to re-start limited operations for training and works purposes by the end of October. Once we’ve achieved that goal, the focus will move on to training, with a view to being ready to re-open at Easter 2021.”