Training for safety

By Ed Merrison
A LOCAL heritage railwayman has scooped a top award for his contribution to rail safety.
Chairman of the Emerald Tourist Railway board, Graeme Breydon, received the prestigious Australasian Railway Association 2005 Rail Industry Individual Award for Excellence at the AusRAIL gala dinner in Sydney on Thursday, 24 November.
The dinner was held at the end of the AusRAIL PLUS 2005 Conference and was attended by more than 550 delegates from the railway industry around Australia.
Mr Breydon has been a member of the Emerald Tourist Railway Board, the operators of Puffing Billy, since 1989 and has chaired the board since 2000.
He received the award for his work as the convener of the safety committee of the Association of Tourist and Heritage Rail Australia.
The committee’s primary role in the past 12 months has been to assist in the development of national legislation, regulation and codes of practice for safety in the rail industry.
Having collected his award, Mr Breydon paid tribute to the tourist and heritage railway sector in Australia for its ongoing commitment to rail and passenger safety.
“I’m proud and honoured to receive this award on behalf of all heritage and tourist railways in Australia,” he said.
Puffing Billy Railway chief executive Ray Leivers said Mr Breydon had earned recognition for his work.
“I’m aware of the amount of work he’s put into it, primarily as a volunteer. He’s been a huge asset to tourist and heritage railways,” he said.
Mr Leivers said that without Mr Breydon’s work in modifying legislation and cutting down on bureaucracy, many heritage railways would not be viable.
“What Graeme has done is to put a huge amount of work into making sure the limited resources available to tourist and heritage railways are put towards the components of safety, rather than the bureaucratic processes associated with running railways,” he said.