John Kennedy, 54, the well-respected Canberra-based XPT driver who was killed in the derailment near Wallan, was a victim of many years of government neglect of our railway system. The only possible consolation is that John died doing the work he loved best - which was train driving. John had been a senior manager with NSW railways, but took a redundancy to become a train driver.
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I first met John in early 2017 while organising a town hall meeting at the ANU to try to get the Canberra-Sydney rail system upgraded. A guest speaker was Guillermo Martinez, director of the Spanish fast train company, Talgo Trains. I had invited Guillermo to come to Canberra to help lobby ACT and federal government agencies for a better service.
Talgo offered to provide a faster train service to Sydney for $100 million, with an initial test locomotive provided at Talgo's expense. Some track work would have been required, but Talgo tilt-train technology can adapt to less than ideal conditions. Anyway, that all went nowhere beyond superficial federal and local government expressions of interest.
At the time, John asked me if I would like to make some runs with him in the XPT cab between Canberra and Sydney to get a better appreciation of the sector. Over the next two years, I did that on several occasions at different times of day.
There are three train services a day between Canberra and Sydney, taking just over four hours for the 286-kilometre journey. The slow average speed of the XPT on this run (under 70km/h) is largely due to variable speed limits, having to wait for clearance to continue, and the nine stops between Canberra and Sydney Central. If the train is running behind time, it can be further delayed near Sydney by higher-priority suburban trains on the same line. Even so, the Canberra-Sydney XPT train ran on time 92 per cent of the time in 2019-2020.
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The driver's cab on the XPT is quite small with two seats and no seat belts. Sometimes you have to hang on because of rough sections of track. The sideways and up-and-down movement is much more accentuated in the cab than it is in the carriages. The XPT is reasonably reliable in the way that a Mack truck is reliable, but it's an old work horse dating from 1982 and suffers from arthritic creaks and groans and parts that are wearing out.
XPT train staff are dedicated and hard-working but have to cope with 1980s technology and early 20th-century rail infrastructure.
I recently watched a television documentary, Mighty Trains, featuring Japanese Shinkansen electric bullet trains. What a contrast! A Shinkansen train is regularly overhauled involving complete dismantlement. Every two weeks, a special yellow train known as "the Doctor" checks all Shinkansen track. Any track maintenance needed is undertaken the same day.
Over the Shinkansen's 56-year history, carrying over 5.3 billion passengers, there has been not a single passenger fatality or injury due to train accidents - despite the Shinkansen's top speed of 320 kilometres an hour. What's more, it usually runs within seconds of its scheduled time.
John drove freight trains as well at the XPT, and in 2019 started working on the daily Sydney-Melbourne XPT run. In November 2019, I rode with him from Albury to Melbourne. At the time, passengers from Canberra had to board the train at Albury because of track work in NSW. On that occasion, the XPT left Albury an hour late because a rail-substitute coach from Canberra was delayed by a fuel spillage at Wagga.
John was his usual welcoming self and explained some of his challenges driving this different sector. The XPT drives on a dedicated track in Victoria to Southern Cross station in Melbourne because the rail gauge in Victoria is different to NSW. The Victoria signals system is also different, as are the rail signage and general operating procedures.
John advised me to make my stuff secure and said I would need to hang on because some sections were very hair-raising, with quite violent sideways movement. He said that the XPT track was under-maintained and he had half-expected to come off the rails on his first few trips.
John was a cautious driver, but under continual pressure to make up time. (The XPT train service into Melbourne has a poor record for timeliness, with only 41 percent of trains arriving on time during 2019-2020.)
On this occasion, we were an hour late into Melbourne due to the delayed start, red signal lights, and speed restrictions.
It is to be hoped that John's and his colleague's unnecessary deaths prick the conscience of ACT and federal politicians to do something radical about our outmoded train service. It should be an election issue in the ACT this year. It's a disgrace that Australia has a worse train system than many Third World countries.
If we scrapped the purchase of our 12 (already obsolete) new submarines for an estimated $80 billion saved, Australia could have a first-class national rail infrastructure with all the environmental, economic and social benefits that would come with it. But we might have to get Japan or China to build it for us.
- In memory of my friend John Kennedy, a good mate to many, loving family man, and dedicated train driver.
