27 Jan 2020

Public hearings into last December’s Botswana Railways (BR) train accident have been temporarily halted until February 3.

The week-long break, which commenced yesterday, will be used for analysing evidence collected since the hearings began on January 13.

Testifying on Friday,    acting civil engineer, Mr Johnson Thupane, said extensive patrols of the rail line were undertaken prior to the derailment of  passenger train 0501 that killed two BR employees on December 10.

“These inspections covered this affected spot of kilometric peg 464 and Bonwapitse River which was checked twice on December 9, 2019 by Pallaroad gang leader,” he said.

The inspections, he said, revealed that water was flowing heavily but detected no threat to  track structure.

Mr Thupane said it was suspected the inflow increased overnight after the inspection “thereby overloading the existing drainage structures”.

Upon completion of each inspection, patrolling teams communicated with Operations Control Centre as per regulations.

At around 6 pm, Mr Thupane said BR engineering manager, Mr Baboloki Phuthego, requested an update for the entire section affected by rains, which was given around 6:37 pm.

Mr Thupane said he also forwarded the inspection status to BR operations Whatsapp group at 10:54 pm.

Due to overloading by flood inflows, about 25 metres of the track was completely washed away north of the existing culvert, said Mr Thupane.  

He said 70 metres of track was destroyed by the impact thereby bending and breaking rails, chopping concrete sleepers and destroying fastenings as well as breaking culvert head walls.Mr Thupane said emergency maintenance was undertaken to restore the track formation.

Restoration covered clearing damaged sleepers, rubble and rails, reconstruction of track formation and laying of new sleepers as well as new rails, he said.

In addition, Mr Thupane said, ballasting, packing ballast and alignment, both vertical and horizontal, widening formation with granular material, backfilling and levelling up as well as cutting of side drain on the western side of the track were done.

He further explained that the culvert outlet and inlet were opened for easy flow of water while mitre drains were done on the eastern side to relieve existing side drains adding that lifting and packing to correct alignment continued to be done.

For total restoration, he said, additional culverts were to be installed between section Bonwapitse Bridge and Pallaroad Level Crossing to relieve existing ones.

Following recovery and restoration of the track, he said, the line was opened for train movements on December 23.

A speed restriction of 10 kilometres per hour has been certified safe for movement of trains, he revealed.

Mr Thupane recommended  the revival of BR Safety Review Committee to handle specific issues which were unclear, ambiguous, unpredictable or unforeseeable with potential to affect the safety of trains such as disaster warnings.

He also recommended  the use of modern technology or digital solutions for maintenance, asset management and condition monitoring as well as provision of capital for drainage overhaul along the entire rail network. ENDS