Victoria's Rail Safety Act 2006 (RSA) was introduced to support a national approach to consistent rail safety regulation.
The national model Rail Safety Bill 2006, developed by the National Transport Commission (NTC) and approved by the Australian Transport Council (ATC), provided the framework for Victoria's RSA.
National rail safety guidelines
Victoria has provided support for, and substantial input into a range of national rail safety guidelines. The guidelines have been developed to complement the model Rail Safety Bill. While the guidelines have been endorsed by the ATC, they will not be formally adopted in Victoria until all states' rail safety legislation is consistent with the national model Bill.
The guidelines are available to download from the Rail Safety Regulators' Panel (RSRP) website. The RSRP consists of representatives from rail safety regulators in each state and the Northern Territory, and from the rail safety regulator in New Zealand.
Single, national rail safety regulatory framework
In November 2008, the NTC issued a draft regulatory impact statement regarding options for a single, national rail safety regulatory and investigation framework for public consultation.
PTSV and the Department of Transport (DOT) both made submissions to the NTC (available to download from the NTC website and from this page).
In summary, PTSV's position:
- supports the need for national consistency in rail safety regulation, as demonstrated by the enactment of the RSA, and
- believes that most, if not all, of the issues raised in the regulatory impact statement can be addressed with adoption of the "enhanced status-quo" option (retention of state rail safety regulators with increased RSRP decision-making capability).