Scope and methods

Reporting period

The current reporting period starts on 1 July 2022 and ends with the last complete quarter, allowing a month for operator reporting to be completed and validated.

For older (historic) data (up to 30 June 2022), click here.

Railway operations and geographic coverage

The statistics cover all railway operations in Australia covered by the National Rail Safety Law.

Data and sources

Harm to People, Key Occurrences

The statistics are principally based on notifiable occurrences - the initial written advice of a rail safety incident that a rail transport operator (RTO) submits to ONRSR in accordance with section 121 of the RSNL.

Network Statistics

Activity data (for example, train kilometres travelled, or drug and alcohol testing undertaken by industry) is based on monthly returns supplied by RTOs in accordance with section 120(3) of the RSNL. The specific information to be provided is defined in clause 56 of the National Regulations.

Other data (for example track kilometres managed) is based on network and railway operations information, commonly referred to as the ontology data, supplied by RTOs in accordance with section 123(3) of the RSNL. The specific information to be provided is defined in clause 56A of the National Regulations.

Industry Drug & Alcohol Testing

RTOs are required to provide information about drug and alcohol testing undertaken under their Drug and Alcohol Management Plan (DAMP) as part of their monthly reporting to ONRSR in accordance with section 120(3) of the RSNL. The RTO is responsible for determining if the worker was in breach of the DAMP. This would include a positive test result for any drug that is not permitted by the RTO. The specific information provided is defined in clause 56 of the National Regulations.

RTOs accredited for operations in New South Wales (NSW) are subject to additional requirements for drug and alcohol testing under the Rail Safety National Law (RSNL), which include:

• Random, post-incident and targeted drug and alcohol testing in NSW must be carried out by an authorised person, appointed under section 124 of the RSNL;
• Annual random testing of at least 25% of rail safety workers (commercial operators only);
• Mandatory post-incident testing following a NSW prescribed incident;
• Additional reporting of certain events.

The NSW Rail Safety (Adoption of National Law) Regulation 2018 details further NSW-specific requirements relating to the process and standards that apply to drug and alcohol testing.

Definitions

Harm to People, Key Occurrences

Statistics are predominantly based on the incident definitions of the national occurrence classification guideline. For data collected since 1 July 2022, incident definitions are based on the Notifiable Occurrence Reporting Requirements (https://www.onrsr.com.au/opera...).

Variations from the incident definitions provided in the national occurrence classification guideline are described below:

• Level crossing collisions with person and level crossing collisions with vehicle – statistics exclude suspected self-harm incidents;
• Level crossing near hits with person and level crossing near hits with vehicle – statistics exclude suspected attempted self-harm incidents;
• Proceed authority exceeded (PAE) – driver related – statistics are limited to PAEs where the likely cause is driver related, e.g. the driver completely missing the limit of authority;
• Proceed authority exceeded (PAE) – infrastructure related – statistics are limited to PAEs where the likely cause is infrastructure related, e.g. signal/sign obstructed or not visible;
• Proceed authority exceeded (PAE) – network control error/miscommunication – statistics are limited to PAEs where the likely cause is related to a network control error or miscommunication;
• Rolling stock irregularity – wheel / axle – statistics include those occurrences with irregularity type broken wheel, broken axle, and bearing failure;
• Track irregularity – broken rail / defect – statistics include those occurrences with irregularity type broken rail and rail defect;
• Track irregularity – spread / narrow track – statistics include those occurrences with irregularity type spread track and narrow track;
• Person / train interface incident – fall – statistics include those person / train interface occurrences with type fall whilst boarding / alighting, fall from platform onto track, and fall between train and platform.

Train types are as specified within the relevant chart filtering tabs, except for “Other”. In addition to including occurrences involving all other types of rolling stock, “Other” train type also includes a small number of occurrences where the train type is unknown.

Network Statistics

Monthly activity definitions are based on the Monthly Activity Reporting Requirements (Monthly Activity Reporting). Network and railway operations definitions are based on the Network and Railway Operations Data Submission Requirements Guideline (Annual returns | ONRSR).

Industry Drug & Alcohol Testing

For most definitions, refer to the ONRSR Business Glossary (ONRSR Business Glossary).

The worker type “other” means rail safety workers whose roles are not listed in the available set of roles. This does NOT include workers who are not rail safety workers. Examples of “other” may include civil and sub-contractor roles, supervisors, terminal operators, and on-train passenger attendants.

Disclaimer

The statistics may differ to other sources that utilise the same data and coding specifications. This will be due in part to the data collection and preparation methods used to generate the tables and charts on this website, which included identification and correction of errors in historical data. In addition, the statistics are subject to review and amendment as more information becomes available through investigation or inquiry, or as ONRSR refines its systems for data capture, validation and reporting. This may result in variation between historical and future reports.