They are the people who were killed in October 2002 when The Ghan train he was driving ploughed into a car and a bus queued across the busy Park Tce railway crossing at Salisbury.

Although almost eight years have passed, the trauma the Pacific National train driver suffered has not diminished.

“I still think, `I’m home to my wife every night and my kids and there’s someone sitting at home elsewhere missing a partner, or a wife or a young kid’,” the 49-year-old says. “I’ve had Christmases with my family and they’re missing theirs.

“But (psychologists and colleagues) say to you, it’s not your fault, but you still think of things like that.

“I had three months off work after that, and it still haunts me every day.”

Mr Parslow feels compelled to tell his story – and that of other train drivers – in light of last weekend’s accidental death of a two-year-old boy at Nantawarra.

The toddler had wandered away from his family’s rural property and was playing on the tracks at Nantawarra Crossing, near Port Wakefield, just after 1pm on May 22 when he was hit by a freight train unable to stop in time.

Dark memories of the Salisbury tragedy came rushing back for Mr Parslow.

He said he was immediately filled with dread when he heard about the accident.

“We left Adelaide freight terminal at 12.55pm on Saturday and we were going over the Port Wakefield bridge when the emergency call came over the radio,” he says.

“The drivers said they’d hit a young kid and automatically your heart just goes into your mouth.

“I have a 13-month-old grandchild and as soon as they said that, it just hits you.”

Mr Parslow’s story is not isolated: the trauma and grief of fatal accidents reverberate across the industry.

He estimates 20 per cent of drivers he has worked with have been involved in a serious accident at a railway crossing.

He talks about a colleague who accidentally killed a man crossing tracks two years ago. “He still hasn’t told his kids about the accident,” Mr Parslow says.

“We’ve got 48 train drivers at the Adelaide Freight Terminal, a good bunch of blokes, so when that happened on Saturday, there would have been phone calls going around making sure everyone was OK.”

He describes the feeling of helplessness drivers have just before an unavoidable accident.

“In a car, if you see someone, you can try to swerve . . . but it’s the inevitability of what’s going to happen – you’re looking at them and they’re looking at you.

“And what can we do? There is nothing else we can do except wait for it to happen.

“And then you have to deal with the process after it.”

Over his three decades of driving, Mr Parslow has been involved in eight level crossing accidents. The father of two says he still suffers physically – as well as emotionally – from the 2002 Salisbury accident, which also injured 26 people.

“I sit at home at night and my wife says, `Why are you shaking? You’re sitting there shaking like anything’,” he says.”And I’ll be sitting here eating tea; shaking. I don’t think I’m doing it, but I am.

“My nerves are shot.”

The two drivers involved in last weekend’s fatal accident are yet to return to work and Mr Parslow says the men would be suffering emotionally – with grief, sleeplessness and nightmares.

“It affects your life – it affects your family life; it affects your work life,” he says.

But he commends a Pacific National move to implement a trauma response unit, which would help drivers immediately after an accident.

Mr Parslow says he loves his job, but another serious accident would make him consider giving up his 32-year career.”If I have another big one again, that’s it. I’m finished,” he says.

He says despite Government advertising campaigns calling for the public to stay alert around railway lines, too many people – drivers, cyclists and pedestrians – flirt with danger.

“People are still in too much of a hurry and taking too many risks,” he says.

“Drivers are still going across crossings when it’s dangerous; even when the gates are down – they just go around.”

via AdelaideNow

One hundred metres of the track north of Alice Springs was washed away in heavy rain last week.

Ghan passengers had to catch a bus or a plane between Alice Springs and Darwin and freight was taken by road.

Freightlink CEO John Fullerton said the track should be fixed by lunchtime.

“All the heavy equipment was on site last Thursday and the first work involved rebuilding the formation of the railway over about 100 metres of track that was completed over the weekend,” Mr Fullerton said.

“Since then they’ve been reassembling the sleepers and putting ballast down to allow trains to operate.”

The 115 kilometre per hour speed limit will be reduced to 60 kilometres per hour on that part of the track until further work is done.

“The track is obviously safe.”

“Once it’s completed it’s safe for all trains but there will be a slight speed restriction on the track over that area until we can come back during the dry season and do some more tamping work that needs to be done,” he said.

ABC News

The travellers told the Northern Territory News how they were surrounded by “incredible amounts of water” when the train came to a sudden stop about 230km north of Alice Springs early on Thursday.

They said the train driver and personnel had done an excellent job in avoiding a potential catastrophe.

“I think the driver should be commended,” Laurie Kissick, 66, of Mildura in Victoria said. “He saw the water, if he didn’t stop I don’t know what would have happened.”

Up to 177 passengers were aboard The Ghan as it made its 2979km journey from Darwin to Adelaide.

The trip was cut short when about 100m of the track was covered in gushing water.

Great Southern Rail commercial director Russell Westmoreland said the train was travelling at a slow speed and managed to stop about 200m before the flooded section.

He said 95 passengers who returned to Darwin with the train about 9am yesterday were put up in hotels or flown to their original destinations.

The remaining passengers were taken to Alice Springs from Tennant Creek by bus.

“It’s a fairly sizeable bill (for Great Southern Rail) but certainly financially we have the capability to handle it,” Mr Westmoreland said.

Most passengers were in good spirits despite the disruption.

Row Booker, 29, was on her way to start a new life in Melbourne after having worked in Darwin for about 18 months.

The journalist yesterday left Darwin by plane.

“We just thought the Ghan could be a brilliant way to leave Darwin,” she said.

Visitor Peter Junck, 50, of Albury in New South Wales, said many passengers saw the trip as an adventure.

NT News

The Ghan passenger train was forced to turn back to Darwin yesterday as a result of the damage.

A spokesman for the Ghan’s operator Freightlink, Tony Aldridge, says 15 wagons full of ballast rock will be taken to the affected area, which is 230 kilometres north of Alice Springs.

“We may not need that many. There’s only just over 100 metres of track involved here, but we’re deploying as many assets as we can get our hands on,” he said.

“At the same time, we’re also mobilising plant front-end loaders and things such as that, so they can get to the site and be ready once we get some dry ground to operate on.”

The train arrived in Darwin this morning and Great Southern Rail says 95 passengers have disembarked.

Some will be put on flights to their various destinations, while others say they will wait in Darwin until the track has cleared.

Most of the passengers were taking the situation in their stride.

“That was a bit disappointing, but when there’s no rail line you’re not going anywhere,” one passenger said.

“You just have to go backwards and everyone was really good about it.”

One younger passenger was a little less understanding.

“I am a bit annoyed because I didn’t get to see Ayers Rock. We had to play boardgames and just try to relax.”

ABC News

The Ghan, travelling from Darwin to Adelaide, was 230 kilometres north of Alice Springs when it came across a flooded section of track.

Great Southern Rail’s commercial director Russell Westmoreland says the decision to turn back the train was unavoidable.

“We can’t control the weather, so our role is to do the best we can to get people back on track after that,” he said.

The company says 208 guests are affected.

Freightlink owns the line and spokesman Tony Aldridge says it is too wet to start repairs.

“There’s still significant surface water residing in the area at this point in time and it’s going to take a couple of days for the area to dry out sufficiently,” he said.

The Ghan and its passengers are due to arrive back in Darwin tomorrow afternoon.

Meanwhile heavy rain around Alice Springs has also caused the partial closure of the Stuart Highway.

The Department of Infrastructure says flooding 50 kilometres north of Alice Springs has made the road impassable to all but high-clearance four-wheel drives.

ABC News