Cleveland station train crash

The Cleveland station train crash occurred on January 31, 2013 at about 9:40 AM when a passenger train failed to stop at the platform of Cleveland railway station, proceeded to crash into the end-of-line buffer stop and derailed onto the station platform. There were no fatalities or major injuries.

The crash
On the morning of Thursday, January 31, 2013, a passenger train was completing its route on the Cleveland railway line. According to passenger Lisa Willoughby, "The train started playing up from Wellington Point Station because it started to shudder on the tracks. It was running about 10 to 15 minutes late, but that's not unusual." When the train arrived at Ormiston station the train allegedly struggled to slow down. Once the train began for Cleveland, Willoughby "knew something really was wrong."

Shortly soon after at approximately 9:40 AM, the Queensland Rail train missed the platform, hit the end-of-line buffer stop and derailed 10 metres onto the station platform, colliding with the station toilet block. 19 people were on board the train at the time including the driver and guard, three people were on the platform and five people were in the station building. Ten people were treated for minor injuries and transported to Redland Hospital for further examination.

After the accident the Cleveland line was closed from Murarrie station to Cleveland station. The line was partially reopened the next day but Wellington Point to Cleveland remained closed.

Prior to the crash, the line between Wellington Point and Cleveland had been closed for three days following severe storms that December. It had only reopened to rail traffic on January 25, six days before the accident.

ATSB report
It was requested by the Queensland Government that the Australian Traffic Safety Bureau (ATSB) investigate the train crash. An interim report was released less than two months later in March. It found that Queensland Rail had not sufficiently mitigated the risk of environmental conditions. Despite the line being closed to clear debris from the storms that December, leaves and wood had been crushed into the rails. There had also been natural oils and oil from the trains passing over that caused rail adhesion to be lost. With water added into the mix it became a "pretty slippery sort of mixture" according to ATSB chief commissioner Martin Dolan.

It was also found that the new fleet of trains were more susceptible to 'wheel slide' while the older fleet had 'wheel-tread brakes'. This meant that despite the driver braking as normal then applying full braking and pulling the emergency brake, the train still crashed.

The final report was released on December 20, 2013 nearly a year after the crash. It found the aforementioned environmental conditions contributed to the crash but also that Queensland Rail has not adequately assessed the risk of running trains under these conditions. As well as this, Queensland Rail "had not undertaken exercises to test the preparedness and effectiveness of their emergency management system." Another issue that was identified was internal communications between train control and the staff at Cleveland station that resulted in incomplete information being conveyed to key personnel.

In response to the crash, Queensland Rail introduced a risk mitigation strategy and the formation of a Wheel Rail Interface Working Group. Their goals included "identifying localised black spot locations and applying vegetation control measures, treating rail-head contaminants, reviewing and updating driver training with enhanced train handling advice about wheel slide and the trialling of sanding equipment on IMU160/SMU260 class trains." Queensland Rail now have emergency exercises specifically for testing their emergency communication protocols and emergency response arrangements.

Overall the crash at Cleveland station was officially classed as an accident resulting in minor injuries and substantial damage to the train.