Possession Notice 31 – Requirement for Points to be Tested Prior to LPA Handback

This information has been prepared to inform Sydney Trains’ employees, contractors and TfNSW on the requirement for points to be tested by the Signaller once point clips have been removed from points prior to possession fulfillment.

Background
Following the fulfillment/handback of a recent Local Possession Authority at Central, a point clip with an identification tag attached which indicated that it was ‘PPO Protection” was removed from a set of points (621 points) which had failed to
operate post-possession at Central.

621 points had not been attempted to be operated by the affected Signaller until approximately 2 hours after the track possession had been fulfilled. The point clip was subsequently located and removed by an Incident Rail Commander.

This incident follows on from 3 other similar point clip type incidents late last year.

Requirement

All Asset Scheduling & Delivery Coordination (AS&DC) staff, other Sydney Trains employees and external contractors who are involved in removing point clips at the completion of a track possession, in order to ensure all point clips havebeen removed must:
• After point clip/s has been removed, move to a safe place clear of the Danger Zone and advise the Signaller ofremoval
• Request the affected Signaller to test affected points per the requirements of ASDC procedure the Application of Possession Protection
• Contact the Possession Protection Coordinator (PPC) or Possession Protection Officer (PPO) if there is no PPC, and confirm that point clips have been removed and the affected points have been tested
• Where for any reason a set of points cannot be tested by the affected Signaller, either the PPC or PPO must be advised and requested that a notation be made within the Possession Access Coordination Tool (PACT) to that effect

The PPC or PPO must record all information provided by the applicable protection teams in relation to the testing of points within the constraints notes section in PACT.

The PPO, when fulfilling all track possessions with the relevant Network Controller must review the information contained within PACT and advise the Network Controller if there are any set of points which were unable to be tested and the reason provided by the affected Signaller why they were unable to be tested.

The Final Word
Each and every person, whether they are AS&DC staff, other Sydney Trains staff or contractors who removes point clips following a possession has a responsibility to work in a safe manner and to be aware of and comply with all applicable rules, procedures and instructions.
AS&DC team and Possession Protection Coordinators/ Possession Protection Officers are to ensure that this Notice is highlighted and discussed with all teams removing point clips on behalf of AS&DC.

Peter Beardsley
Associate Director, Asset Scheduling and Delivery Coordination
Date: 20/03/2019