Vital disabling release (VDR) for Aurizon

One of the most dangerous areas in Australasian Railway Networks are level crossings. Maintenance activities in this area add to this risk and these activities to a large extent have been ignored. All Railway Authorities have processes in place to temporarily alter the operation of the installation to allow maintenance vehicles to work in and around the level crossing whilst minimising the amount of time that the crossing is closed to road users. These processes must maintain a very high level of safety at all times. In today's railways, every operational interruption due to maintenance activities is costly and must therefore be challenged to seek more efficient ways of providing safe and timely access to track and to minimise delays to services and the public. This paper details Aurizon's introduction of the Vital Disabling Release (VDR) to address some of the Safety, Financial, Commercial and Operational issues that occur as a result of Maintenance activities at Level Crossings.