REGISTER

Daryl Byrne Director Public Transport Safety

Department of Infrastructure

Since the early 1970's there have been numerous strategies and studies conducted by both government and rail management to reduce the ballooning operating deficits while continuing to meet the expectation of the  community for the provision of safe, efficient and reliable public transport.

These strategies have ranged from formal inquiries into the operation of variousface ts of government rail activities through to the establishment of separate autonomous authorities for the metropolitan and country rail passenger and freight services.

In January 1993 the Minister for Transport announced the reform of Public Transport in Victoria. The two main thrusts to the reforms was to transform the system into a service more responsive to community needs and to ensure the long term viability of public transport in Victoria.

Amongst the many initiatives introduced were driver only trams and trains, automated ticketing, substitution of buses for some uneconomical rail services and the privatization of two intercity passenger train services.

The reform package set the scene for the entry of private rail operators in Victoria.

Since the announcement of these reforms there have been many new entrants including two new interstate freight hauliers and privatization of some of the rolling stock maintenance activities including The Overland passenger rolling stock.

There are now a total of 30 organisations with safety accreditation in Victoria and with the imminent changes to the Transport Act 1983 up to another 10 or so organisations will also need to seek accreditation.

To ensure that the good safety record of railways in Victoria was maintained a safety accreditation process was introduced in March 1994. This process required every organisation operating on the Victorian rail network to put in place a safety management system which addressed the safety risks.

The Public Transport Safety Directorate was established in February 1996 to manage the accreditation process.