Rio investigates third derailment of one of its driverless iron ore trains

Original article by Brad Thompson
The Australian Financial Review – Page: 20 : 14-May-24

Rio Tinto has notified rail safety authorities of an incident in which an autonomous iron ore train was derailed about 80km from Karratha early on Monday morning. It is believed to have occurred when the driverless train collided with a set of stationary wagons while it was enroute to port with a shipment of iron ore. Rio Tinto will also commence an internal investigation into the incident. Rio Tinto’s driverless trains have now been derailed three times in the last year. The company began operating autonomous trains in the Pilbara in 2019.

CORPORATES
RIO TINTO LIMITED – ASX RIO

BHP’s epic rail fail: crew on wrong train

Original article by Paul Garvey
The Australian – Page: 19 & 22 : 13-Mar-19

The Australian Transport Safety Bureau has released its preliminary report into a November 2018 incident in which BHP was forced to deliberately derail an iron ore train in the Pilbara. It has revealed that BHP dispatched a maintenance crew to the train after its emergency braking system failed. However, the maintenance team went to a second train that had been stopped as a precaution, so the manual handbrake on the faulty train was not engaged. BHP contends that it would not have prevented the "roll-away", which is estimated to have cost the company about $300m in lost revenue.

CORPORATES
BHP GROUP LIMITED – ASX BHP, AUSTRALIAN TRANSPORT SAFETY BUREAU