Safety review sees major change to Passive Level Railway Crossings

Amajor safety review into the State’s public road, passively-controlled level crossings has been completed, with safety improvements recommended for 87 level crossings.

There are currently 960 public road level crossings within Western Australia located on operational rail lines, with around half of these fitted with active level crossing controls (flashing lights or boom gates).

There are 491 level crossings fitted with passive controls (405 with stop signs and 87 with give way signs).

The safety review was commissioned by Main Roads in mid-2021 and involved visiting all 491 passively-controlled level crossings and undertaking detailed site assessments at each crossing location, in line with an Australian Level Crossing Assessment Model (ALCAM).

The ALCAM process involves the collection of data through a combination of level crossing site surveys as well as train and vehicle volume information from respective rail and road authorities.

Each level crossing is assessed uniformly using a standardised procedure to gather and interpret level crossing data. ALCAM identifies key safety risks, whilst also producing a unique risk score for each individual crossing.

Following a completion of the review in December 2022, Main Roads assessed the information with the key findings as follows:

Of the 491 passively-controlled level crossings, 87 are to have upgrades made to their regulatory control. This includes:

• an upgrade of seven give way-controlled crossings to active flashing light controls, with an estimated cost of $6.16million;

• an upgrade of six stop sign-controlled crossings to active flashing light controls, with an estimated cost of $5.28million; and

• an upgrade of 74 give way-controlled crossings to stop sign controls, with an estimated cost of $370,000.

Of the 87 level crossings to be upgraded:

• 81 are in the Wheatbelt region;

• two are in the Goldfields-Esperance region;

• two are in the Great Southern region;

• one is in the Mid-West Gascoyne region; and

• one is in the Metropolitan region.

The 13 crossings proposed for upgrade to active flashing light controls will be undertaken as part of the 2024-2029 5-Year Level Crossing Capital Works Program, with the remaining 74 give way-controlled crossings to be upgraded to stop sign control by 30 June 2024.

Following implementation of these changes there will no longer be any give way-controlled level crossings located on main line railways within WA. Additionally, more than 50 per cent of all public road level crossings in WA will now be controlled by flashing lights or boom gates,

By Graham Lilleyman Director Employment Services and Solutions

The Fair Work Commission has handed down the 2022-23 Annual Wage Review Decision which has provided a significant increase in minimum wage rates for Award classifications and in addition, it changed the basis of the federal minimum wage which means that the Decision provides the highest increase in minimum rates of pay for more than 30 years.

The National Minimum Wage will increase by 8.65%, whilst all Modern Award base rates of pay will increase by 5.75%.

The increase of 5.75% must also be applied to each wage classification in each Modern Award and as such, the amount of the increase may vary even within the same Modern Award. Because of the way the NMW has been adjusted this year, some employees covered under Awards will also get greater increases than the 5.75% provided by the FWC. This will typically only be those employees paid below the C13 classification in the Award system.

The increase in wages will flow on to employees that are less than 21 years of age proportionally depending on the junior worker provisions that are relevant to those employees.

which is above the national average.

It is expected the changes will result in a 33 per cent reduction in the cumulative ALCAM risk score across these 87 locations.

There will be no changes to the existing 469 actively controlled level crossings.

Transport Minister Rita Saffioti said, “The upgrades of 13 level crossings to either flashing lights or boom gates means more than half of the level crossings on public roads in Western Australia will have active controls, one of the highest proportions of any State or Territory in the country.

“We intend to undertake these works as quickly as possible, with the vast majority of the give way signs to be removed by the middle of next year, and the upgrades of the 13 level crossings to active controls to be undertaken progressively over the next few years.

Employers using enterprise bargaining agreements and old Australian Workplace Agreements also need to check that the rates of pay they are paying meet the minimum obligations under section 206 of the Fair Work Act 2009.

Employers paying staff a salary or higher flat hourly rates of pay must ensure that the salary paid to employees is sufficient to meet your minimum Award obligations to your staff member and that the salary agreement has been recorded in writing with clear language citing which entitlements have been offset against the higher amount. Failure to adequately address these issues may result in a compliance claim being made against you.

The increase has effect from the first pay period commencing on or after 1 July 2023.