Boom gates fail in Melbourne, limiting train services

Malfunctioning boom gates have been swinging open as trains approach at level crossings on the Stony Point line south of Melbourne, forcing Metro to pull trains out of service and put passengers on buses to avoid the risk of a crash.

Metro has issued a safety alert to staff warning them of the boom gate failures and has banned single-car trains from running on the line until further notice. It has also blamed train drivers for sprinkling too much sand onto the tracks from the train's "sander".

Train drivers have reported three cases where boom gates have dangerously swung open this year, Metro says. All three happened while the train was stopped at a station platform and no train passed through a crossing with raised booms.

On Sunday Metro cancelled three Stony Point trains per day until further notice, because its ban on single-car trains means it no longer has enough trains to meet the timetable. The trains will be replaced with buses.

Metro operates the Stony Point line using diesel Sprinter trains provided by V/Line.

The line, between Frankston and Stony Point on the Mornington Peninsula, is by far the quietest line in Metro's network, with just seven passenger trains a day. Freight trains also use the line to go to and from the Port of Hastings.

Metro has laid part of the blame for the problem on its drivers, accusing some of them of being too quick to use the train's sander, an instrument that provides more adhesion on the rails.

If I had to take a wild guess: the level crossing gates are controlled by track circuits rather than treadles, and sand is not electrically conductive resulting in failure to shunt the circuit? This would also explain why multi-car trains were not banned: much of the sand would likely have been brushed off the track by the time the later cars’ wheels arrived, letting them shunt the TCs effectively.

If I had to take a wild guess: the level crossing gates are controlled by track circuits rather than treadles, and sand is not electrically conductive resulting in failure to shunt the circuit? This would also explain why multi-car trains were not banned: much of the sand would likely have been brushed off the track by the time the later cars’ wheels arrived, letting them shunt the TCs effectively.