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Chief Executive message
In consultation with Transport NSW, over the next 12 months we will be taking on specific responsibilities for bus, taxi and hire car safety regulation. These additional responsibilities will broaden the experience base within ITSR. Specifically:
Rail
ITSR is playing an active role in the national rail safety regulatory reform project, created to establish a national rail safety regulator. Our number one priority is to ensure that the level of safety oversight is in no way reduced in NSW through this reform project.
Until national template law is enacted, the NSW Rail Safety Act 2008 applies and ITSR will be ensuring that rail transport operators and other duty holders meet their obligations under this act and the supporting regulations.
ITSR encourages all duty holders to meet with our authorised officers to discuss any issues or concerns so that we can work together to facilitate a safe outcome. We want to support duty holders in striving for continuous safety improvement in safety management.
Duty holders can also expect to see our authorised officers in the field conducting targeted inspections and programmed audits. Where unacceptable safety risks or breaches in compliance are found, ITSR can be expected to issue notices and or use the full range of options available to enforce compliance.
The safety of the travelling public and the people who work on the rail network in NSW is our number one priority. Everyone should expect to go home safely to their families at the end of each day.
NSW has invested significant resources into systems for ensuring the safety of its rail services. ITSR has a responsibility to be vigilant and proactive in ensuring the rail industry continues to build on those systems and to ensure they effectively review and manage the extant systems. Under the principle-based regulatory system, rail transport operators have the same responsibilities.
I urge rail transport operators to be continuously vigilant in ensuring that their employees and contractors live up to their obligations under the applied safety management systems and strive for continuous improvement in those safety management systems. Remember, ITSR is prepared to step in and help realign your priorities if needed.
Bus, taxi and hire car
Under the Transport Administration Act 1988, the DG Transport NSW can delegate safety management responsibilities under the Passenger Transport Act 1990 to ITSR for bus, taxi and hire car transport services. Once the appropriate administrative and legal instruments are in place, ITSR will commence to build a principle based regulatory framework to ensure continuous improvement in safety risk management in delivery of these transport services.
We look forward to meeting and working with the bus and taxi and hire car industries as ITSR assumes these new safety oversight responsibilities.
Len Neist
Chief Executive
