Is the war with RailCorp finally over?

I have been a bit slack in regard to publishing my incoming mail.  RailCorp sent me this nice letter over two weeks ago, and they appear to have relented and common sense has finally made an appearance.  I now have a contact at RailCorp to call next time the bridge in question needs cleaning.

I also stirred the pot a bit by contacting the MP for Balmain, Verity Firth.  She's written to the Minister for Transport about this bridge on my behalf, so hopefully that will give me a bit more leverage when I ask for the next coat of paint.

Wonders will never cease

This just goes to show that persistence does pay off most of the time.  After 11 months, RailCorp have finally slapped a coat of paint on the outside surfaces of this bridge in Leichhardt.  They didn't bother with the inside, which is not visible from the road, but the graffiti on the inside surfaces is visible from the pedestrian bridge nearby where I took this photo from.

I had given up on RailCorp ever doing anything or replying to my letters, so I wrote to the Member for Balmain yesterday (Verity Firth MP) and asked her to do something about it.  I had to write again today to tell her to forget about it.

The next challenge is getting RailCorp to paint out graffiti as it reappears.  This area here, comprising this rail bridge and an RTA pedestrian bridge, is a graffiti hot spot, and frequent use of the paint brush and grey paint is required to keep on top of the graffiti.  The RTA manages to do it - let's see if RailCorp can lift their standard to that of the RTA.

RailCorp vs RTA - same portfolio, different approaches

RailCorp and the RTA both deal with infrastructure - bridges, culverts, pedestrian footpaths, utility boxes and so forth.  Whilst RailCorp is generally very good at removing graffiti quickly from trains and stations, it is hopeless at removing it from infrastructure.  It is now nearly 11 months since I first asked RailCorp to clean the graffiti on this bridge, with no result.

Just next to this bridge is a strip of RTA land and a pedestrian footbridge that crosses the City West Link.  The RTA bridge cops a lot more graffiti than the RailCorp structure, but the RTA is generally diligent in regard to removing it.  They've even had a crew here recently cleaning up the landscaping - trimming back the undergrowth and collecting the rubbish that the vandals had left behind.

I find it funny sometimes that vandals like to think of themselves as "responsible artists", yet they never seem to take away their rubbish when they have finished trashing a site.  They leave empty pizza boxes and other fast food wrappers behind, along with empty cans and bottles (mixed vodka drinks seem to be their favourite), together with the ubiquitous empty spray cans.  Last time I came through here, I counted half a dozen empty spray cans dumped under the trees.  Now that's really "caring for the environment".  Not.

Here is a patch of wall that the RTA is responsible for.  As a vandal has written "fuck you" on it, this is now classed as offensive graffiti, which means the RTA is obliged to remove it more rapidly than usual.  

The amazing thing is that the RTA and RailCorp are both subordinate to the Ministry of Transport.  You'd think that from a policy standpoint, the Ministry would try and have a consistent policy between the two organisations, particularly when both have infrastructure right next to each other, such as this location.  You might also think that the two authorities might be able to liaise from time to time so that cleaning work at a site like this could be carried out at the same time, ensuring the entire site is free of graffiti from end to end.

If you think that is the case, you are living in fantasy land.  Lack of co-operation and policy co-ordination is alive and well in the NSW public sector.

I spotted this just across the way - "Poo is 4 you!", written on the back of a real estate sign.

Nice - writing that right next to a childcare centre.  Vandals are all class.

Going down the FOI rabbit hole

I've submitted one FOI request in my life, and I really don't want to have to go through that again if I can help it. However, I am at the point where I might have to lodge a request with RailCorp in order to extract some information out of them.

The question is this - how do you actually submit an FOI request to RailCorp?

I started by searching the RailCorp website for a contact number and perhaps an actual FOI request form template. It returned no hits for the search term "FOI". I got one hit with "freedom of information" - but all I found was a Summary of Affairs. All this tells me is this:

Many RailCorp documents are available for inspection or purchase. Access to some documents may require an application under the Freedom of Information (FOI) Act. You can apply under the FOI Act for access to documents held by RailCorp that are not publicly available.

There is nothing in there about how to actually apply for documents, just a note that you can apply. It's like being a character in Catch-22.

I then fell back on Google, which threw up a hit under the CCTV section of the RailCorp website:

RailCorp collects, uses, stores and disseminates personal information, in a manner consistent with the Information Privacy Principles contained within the Privacy and Personal Information Protection Act 1998. Complaints concerning privacy are to be referred to the RailCorp FOI/Privacy Office on ph: (02) 8202 2323.

At least it provides a phone number for the FOI office, but no link to FOI request templates or other useful information. Not even an address where you can mail your request.

Google also threw up a hit on the 2004-2005 Annual Report for RIC, which says:

The FOI and Privacy Office is located in the Communications Group, Level 6, 18 Lee Street Chippendale NSW 2008, and may be contacted on (02) 8202 2323 or (02) 8202 3058 during business hours.

Knowing my luck, the FOI Office will have been re-organised into another department since 2005, and will also be located in another building. At least the phone number appears to still be the same.

Contrast this with the RTA. A search for FOI on the RTA website returns 50 hits, many of them useful, such as a list of forms in PDF format that you can actually use to request information.

It's no wonder that the RIC annual report listed only 2 FOI requests for 2004-2005. The people who managed to lodge those requests must have been world class private detectives.

RailCorp pwned

The history - late in 2008, I got a letter from RailCorp suggesting that I ask the local council to clean their rail bridge.  I didn't see why a council should be responsible for cleaning a rail bridge, but I did as was suggested and contacted Leichhardt Council.  I got their response today.

The response from Council to RailCorp is polite and structured in the usual bureaucratic fashion (I have written hundreds and hundreds of letter like this), but in essence, they are telling RailCorp to pull their head in and to not try to offload maintenance activities to councils.

Good on them.  I rang Leichhardt today and left a message for Allan Willding to let him know that he is a legend.

RailCorp vs Leichhardt Council

This letter is pretty self-explanatory.  I'm still waiting for a response though - it's been nearly 3 weeks.

27 February 2009

Councillor Jamie Parker

Mayor

Leichhardt Municipal Council

PO Box 45

Leichhardt NSW 2040

Dear Mr Parker

Removal of graffiti from railway structures in Leichhardt

I have had a series of correspondence with RailCorp since May 2008 regarding the removal of graffiti from a rail bridge at Charles St, Leichhardt (near the corner of Darley St).  

The last response from RailCorp in November suggested that I contact your Council in order to have it removed.  Personally, I doubt that the removal of graffiti from railway bridges is a Council responsibility, but I did phone Leichhardt Council in November to report it.

I would appreciate it if you would approach RailCorp and ask them to clean up the bridge in question, and assist them with any road closures that may be required to repaint or clean the bridge.

Yours sincerely

RailCorp fibs

RailCorp are doing their best to wriggle out of cleaning graffiti from a bridge in Leichhardt.  Recent correspondence from RailCorp stated that a "closedown" would be required in order to paint the bridge safely.  A "closedown" is where you stop all traffic on the line for a period - 4 hours, 8 hours, a weekend - in order to carry out an intensive set of maintenance tasks without having to worry about trains going through the site every so often.

I visited the bridge in question this week and photographed the tracks on one side of it.  Look at the weeds growing through the sleepers, and the rust on the top of the rails.  If a section of track has a lot of trains going back and forth over it, the railhead will be shiny, because the constant action of train wheels running over it removes any rust.  Rust is a sign of a rarely used or disused rail line.  So are weeds - if trains were going past here regularly, the weeds would have been knocked over by the trains.

You don't need a closedown to do work on a line that is for all intents already closed to rail traffic.  Why would RailCorp tell me that a closedown would be required to paint the bridge?  Either the Ministerial Correspondence Unit is not talking to the managers in the field responsible for this section of line, and they are just making it up as they go along to shut me up, or someone is spinning them a line.

I'm tempted to FOI the timetable for this section of line for the last few months, including the SWT (Special Working Timetable), which lists any special trains (ie, trains not in the regular timetable) that have gone past here.  The goods yard at the end of the line is showing no activity and plenty of tall weeds, so it would appear likely that the line is unused.  If the timetable shows that no trains are using this track, or they are only using it once every week or so, then someone at RailCorp has been fibbing.

Bashing your head against the railways

Latest letter to RailCorp:

24 February 2009

Mr Ben Johnson

General Manager

Ministerial Correspondence and Customer Relations

RailCorp

PO Box K349

Haymarket NSW 1238

Dear Mr Johnson

Removal of graffiti from railway structures in Leichhardt

I refer to my letters of 13 May 2008, 11 October 2008 and 12 November 2008 and your subsequent responses.

I don’t believe that I received a reply to my letter of 12 November.  I did receive a survey last month asking me to comment on your performance, but a substantive response to my concerns has not been forthcoming.

Let me recap briefly for you:

1. On 13 May 2008, I wrote to you requesting that you paint over the graffiti on the overbridge at Charles St in Leichhardt

2. Six months later, after noticing that nothing had been done, I wrote to you again – this time asking that a work order be lodged in Ellipse

3. Your response in essence said that nothing could be done without a closedown

4. I wrote back and asked for the date of the next closedown, and never got a response

5. I also contacted Leichhardt Council as you suggested.

Therefore, I am following up to see where things stand.

1. Has RailCorp been contacted by Leichhardt Council with regard to this bridge, and what position has RailCorp taken in regard to having the graffiti removed?

2. Is this line still operational, and if so, when is the next scheduled closedown?

3. Assuming that a closedown has been programmed for 2009, has graffiti removal been inserted into the program of works?

4. If this line is no longer operational, I presume that a closedown is not required, and therefore the graffiti can be removed at any time.  If that is the case, why has nothing been done for the last 9 months?

5. What action has your department taken to pass on my request to the appropriate area within the Asset Management division?  The twelve month anniversary of my first letter is fast approaching, and depending on your response to this last question (assuming you bother to respond), I will decide whether to FOI the entire file regarding this correspondence.  

I don’t particularly want to go through the FOI process – I just want RailCorp to remove the graffiti in question.  Is that too much to ask?

Yours sincerely

---------------------

There are a few things that I am trying to clarify with RailCorp in regard to their actions so far; mainly, have they actually thought about cleaning away the graffiti on the bridge in question, or are they just sending me canned responses?

In one of my earlier letters, I asked for the Ellipse work order number.  RailCorp uses an Enterprise Resource Management system (ERM) called Ellipse, which comes from a Queensland company called Mincom.  Earlier versions of Ellipse were called MIMS.  Ellipse is like SAP or Oracle Financials - it is an enormous bit of expensive, integrated software that is used to run the HR, finance, asset management and asset maintenance functions of big companies.  Mincom started by writing this software for mining companies, and it is now used by all the big electricity and water authorities, as well as most railways.

RailCorp uses Ellipse to track every maintenance work order for trains and track.  Everything that the maintenance staff do is controlled by Ellipse.  If you don't have a job programmed in Ellipse, nothing gets done.  This is why I specifically asked for the Ellipse work order number - it's proof that it will be taken care of at some point.  Since Mr Johnson skated over that request and didn't supply a number, I can only assume that someone, somewhere in RailCorp has decided to do nothing - they just don't have the guts to say that to my face.

[I know about Ellipse because I bought the server that ran MIMS for the Rail Access Corporation, participated in the upgrade from MIMS to Ellipse, and had to rollout and support the MIMSMUI, which was the interface that staff used on their PC's to access MIMS.  I also sat a few feet away from the MIMS/Ellipse administrators, and drank beer with them, so I know a little bit about it.  I still run into them from time to time when I walk past the building that I used to work in, as they are generally out the back having a smoke together.]

I then asked for the date of the next closedown of the rail line in question.  Mr Johnson feels that the bridge can only be cleaned up during a closedown, which is true for busy rail lines.  You don't want staff running out between trains with a paint brush - it's too risky.  Much better to close the line to all traffic, then do the work in safety.  If you are a train user and you've heard that buses have replaced trains, then that's because a closedown is in progress and no trains are running.  Closedowns are planned months in advance, and involve a  hell of a lot of work - because they are few and far between, every engineering group wants access to that bit of track to do their maintenance and upgrades.  Co-ordinating all the work is a massive task.  

[I know about that too - just before I left RailCorp, they were looking at rolling out a bit of project management software called Primavera to help with the planning, and I setup the servers that were used for development and testing and installed Primavera on them.  I've spent a small amount of time out in the field with the engineers, watching them planning closedowns.  Unless Mr Johnson comes from a background in rail maintenance, I can safely bet that I know more about them than he does.]

If a closedown is planning for this line, it shouldn't be too hard to find out the date.  And it also shouldn't be too hard to find out whether cleaning this bridge has been put into the bucket of work for that closedown.  But once again, that question was skated over, meaning that no closedowns are planned (because this line is practically unused these days), or one has been planned, but no one has bothered to put cleaning this bridge into the project.

If the line gets next to no traffic - say a train a week - then you don't need a closedown to do the work.  The maintenance crews can organise with train control to block the track off for a while so they can get a clear run at cleaning it up.  If that's the case, then Mr Johnson has been rather disingenuous in his response - the closedown excuse is just a smokescreen for doing nothing.

All track maintenance work at RailCorp is undertaken or managed by the Asset Management Division - this is a huge department with thousands of staff scattered all over the metro area.  I am tempted to FOI the file relating to this case just to see whether anyone in the MCCR has actually bothered to talk to anyone in the Asset Management Division or not.  I'd be pretty ticked off if I discovered that the MCCR had not bothered to talk to the manager responsible for this bit of track and find out whether cleaning this bridge was feasible and a priority or not.  If there is one thing I can't stand, it's being bullshitted to.  

There should be an email conversation between the MCCR staff and the Asset Management Division - and that won't be too hard to find.  For you see, in my last year at RailCorp, I was part of a small team that installed a software product from Veritas called Vault, and Vault has an archiving feature where every single email sent to or from anyone at RailCorp goes into a permanent archive, from which nothing is ever deleted.  I also had to buy several terabytes of storage to cope with all the emails that needed archiving.  

Vault has a nifty enterprise search feature, so doing an FOI search should be a doddle for a Vault administrator with the right access (and that person used to be me).  It's great for doing discovery in legal cases.  If emails have been sent, we'll soon get to the bottom of the story.

I also had a hand in putting in the records management system that RailCorp uses, so I know that retrieving the file should be a piece of cake.

I'll decide what course to take once I get a response from Mr Johnson - assuming I get one by the end of March.  I'll give him 5 weeks to work out what to do, then put in the FOI request.  It's been 16 years since I last saw an MCCR file - I might just FOI mine for old time's sake.

How much does it cost to do nothing?

I have decided to write another letter to RailCorp regarding this bridge in Lilyfield.  I've been trying to get RailCorp to clean it for nearly 7 months, and as you can see, I've failed utterly.

I am going to write to them and ask them to calculate what it has cost to do nothing.  RailCorp employs a number of people to deal with this sort of correspondence - I imagine they are earning $60,000+.  Their manager is probably earning over $100,000.  When you add on-costs of at least 30% (for rent, furniture, computers, phones and so on), they start to get expensive. 

I'll try to calculate an hourly rate for a letter writer.

Start with 52 weeks, then subtract 4 for leave, 1 for sick leave, then 2 more for RDO's (rostered days off) and 1 for training.  That leaves you with 44 useable weeks per year.  Assuming a 35 hour week, that means a letter writer "writes" for 1540 hours per year (which is not really true, since 30-40% of the working day is lost in meetings, coffee breaks, going to the toilet, staring out the window and so on).  If we leave that "wastage rate" out for the moment, and assume a $60,000 salary plus 30% on-costs, and then divide that by 1540 hours, we get an hourly rate of $50.  The manager of the unit would cost double that - $100 per hour.  

If you add in a wastage factor, then the hourly rate for a letter writer goes up to $80 an hour (the amount of time they actually have to write, rather than their total time at work), and the manager is costing $160 per hour.

I have written 3 letters to RailCorp, and had a considered response to each.  Every letter had to be read, entered into the records management system, a response drafted, the draft checked and perhaps rewritten several times before finally being signed and posted.  You could be talking anywhere from 1 to 4 hours per letter, depending on how much wriggling and squirming and non-answering is required.  If we assume that a response to each letter took 4 hours in total, that gives us 12 hours of staff time, or nearly $1,000 in staff costs (assuming $80 per hour).  By the time they give a non-answer to my next letter, the cost will be well over $1,000.

How much would it cost to arrange for a painting contractor to stand on the footpath with a long pole and a roller in order to paint over the worst of the graffiti?  Less than that?

Consider by comparison the approach of the RTA, who have painted and repainted this wall next door perhaps half a dozen times.  The RTA doesn't shirk its responsibility and make excuses - it just takes action and sends out a short email afterwards saying, "Done", which is all I want.

As you can see in the above photo, graffiti has already started reappearing after the most recent coat of RTA paint, and the vandals did their bit for the environment by leaving the empty spray can behind.

They always seem to leave their cans behind - the place is littered with them, and they're so old, they're rusting.  Whilst the RTA is doing a great job of painting over graffiti, it is not doing such a splendid job of picking up after the littering vandals.  But that still puts them a long way in front of RailCorp.

Thomas the Tank Engine never looked like this

Another rail bridge covered in graffiti - this time in Tempe.  This one is definitely on a running line - a goods train rumbled over it just after I took this photo, and it's also used by lots of passenger trains.

Surely you don't need a closedown to paint under the running lines?  I don't know about you, but I'm starting to see a pattern here - a pattern of not cleaning rail bridges.

As for the trains, a freight train went through the station when I was there.  I took 10 photos of the wagons, each photo showing 2 different wagons.  Every wagon had graffiti on it, and I didn't see the whole train.  You get the picture though - the train was a big mess.

These wagons are neither cheap nor easy to repaint.  What you are looking at here is tens of thousands of dollars damage - if not hundreds of thousands.  I don't know what the company policy is with regard to graffiti (the wagons seemed to be owned by the Manildra Group) - whether they bother to report this sort of thing to the Police, and estimate the cost of the damage.

This sort of thing just adds to the cost of a packet of flour.  Graffiti is not a "victimless crime" when the cost of it flows through to the consumer and hits the poor in the hip pocket.

Ferals spoil Sidney Kitchener Money memorial garden

Just outside Concord West railway station, there is a lovely little park that Rotary has put in to honour Sidney Kitchener Money.  Last night, it was trashed.  Someone had a party there, and failed to pick up their rubbish after the drinking was done.

There are cans and bottles everywhere - at least 3 cartons worth.  

I don't know if this shopping trolley was part of the festivities, but it shouldn't be in that garden, and it shouldn't be smashed up.

I don't know who owns this bit of land - RailCorp, Council or someone else.  I've left a message with a rotary member that I know to see if they can figure it out.  If Council does own it, they really can't do much about it until Tuesday morning.

There is a small brick building in the park with graffiti on it - I didn't look that closely, so I don't know if it is a RailCorp building or not.  However, the building to the left (behind the tree) is definitely part of the station, and the side facing the park also has graffiti on it.  RailCorp should not baulk at removing this graffiti, given it is part of a station.

This was the only bit of broken glass that I saw.

The interesting thing that I noted about the behaviour of these ferals is that not one bottle that they drank from made it into one of the nearby bins.  I could understand it (slightly) if they put their initial half dozen bottles in the bin, and then as they got drunker and drunker, decided against doing it.  But they didn't even do that - from the word go, they dropped their rubbish on the ground.

As I said - ferals.  

And what about the people that live just across the road?  Did they not hear any commotion in the park as booze was swigged and bottles were smashed?  Did they just close their ears to it, and hope that somebody else would take care of it?

Irony

Irony.  

"an outcome of events contrary to what was, or might have been, expected."

I got a letter from RailCorp today.  I thought it might have had something to do with this vandalised rail bridge in Lilyfield, which I first contacted them about back in May 2008.  Numerous letters and phone calls have been sent or made to RailCorp about this bridge, and this is how it looked last week - pretty much the same as it looked in May last year.

The letter had nothing to do with the bridge.  It was a customer feedback form.  Was I satisfied with their feedback service?

I think my laughter woke the neighbours.

Antique graffiti, celebrating 25 years on a bridge

These photos just go to show that if you don't remove graffiti, it can hang around for a long, long time.  These were taken at the railway bridge over the Parramatta River at Rhodes.  Some of the graffiti on the bridge must be 25 years old at least.  How do I know?  The last one has a date on it - 1984.

Besides, how many youthful vandals today would be fans of Black Sabbath and Deep Purple, and how many would stoop to using house paint instead of a spray can?

The Metallica 1984 European Offensive.

RailCorp.  Failing to properly clean its property since 1984.

It makes me wonder whether we'll see this bridge cleaned up before I retire.

Railroaded

The last letter that I received from RailCorp suggested that I report their graffiti covered bridge to the local council for cleanup.  I've done that - I rang Leichhardt Council this week and told them about this bridge over Charles St in Lilyfield.  I'm not sure they can do much about it, but they might start annoying RailCorp now as well.  

If you go to this site on Google Maps and have a look at the street view, you'll see this graffiti.  I don't know when Google had the photos taken, but the graffiti has clearly been there for a long time.  

A busted bike has been dumped into the rail reservation.  I'd guess this bike was stolen.  Both tyres and rims and wrecked and the frame is bent.  To those who say that graffiti is a harmless past time, I say this - come and have a look at the mess left behind at this site by vandals.  It is littered with rubbish - beer bottles, paint cans and all sorts of other detritus.  

Here's another view of the bridge.

Just down the line, there is this pedestrian underpass.  I don't know if this is the responsibility of RailCorp or the local council, but I've reported this to Leichhardt Council as well.  I did it over the phone and didn't get a reference number, so I hope something comes of it.

RailCorp, North Strathfield and other assorted messes

There is a "dead zone" where Parramatta Road goes under the motorway and railway line at North Strathfield.  It is one of those bleak, unloved dumps that has very little pedestrian and car traffic, and is thus a haven for graffiti.  The buildings backing onto the rail corridor at this point are thickly coated in graffiti, as is every brick wall and bridge abutment.  

The photo below shows a stairway that leads from Queen St down to Parramatta Raod - this is next to the "Arnott's Bridge" on Parramatta Road.  

The brick walls of the stairway and almost invisible under coat after coat of graffiti.

Some of it is not very polite.

The concrete traffic barriers that line Queen St at this spot are also covered in graffiti.

The roadsides are littered with beer bottles - there are 8 in this photo.  I've reported all of this to council using their web based reporting system.  I am not sure if this is a council problem or not, but they will send it on to the RTA if it is their problem.

This photo shows graffiti on equipment cabinets within the rail reservation - these cabinets probably have something to do with the signalling system.  There is also graffiti all over the back of the large grey sign - I am not sure if that is within railway property or not.

The last letter that I received from RailCorp said that they normally need to undertake a closedown to remove graffiti.  That might be true of difficult to access structures such as bridges, but surely it shouldn't apply to equipment cabinets?  In the photo below, taken about 300m up the line, the red arrow is pointing to a large patch of graffiti that is well away from the rail lines, and on the right, you can see a cluster of 8 or so rail staff in orange vests, standing beside the rail line - a very busy rail line.  

Here we have another view of the rail staff and some of their vehicles - note their proximity to the rail lines.

This photo shows the exact spot (the gate location is on the sign on the right), with the staff in the background.

I put these photos up to show that RailCorp staff can work alongside active rail lines in the middle of the day, so long as there is sufficient clearance from the track and overhead lines and they've done their risk analysis and so on.  If these staff can work beside the track, undertaking surveys or maintenance inspections or whatever, then why can't someone go into the same location with a bucket of paint and clean up graffiti?