William S Casley

William S Casley
(1937 - )

William S. Casley was born at Parkes NSW on 17 April 1937. His father was employed by the Railways as a carpenter building railway homes between Parkes and Broken Hill. The family moved to Newcastle and then Sydney where Bill attended school at Chapel Street in Marrickville and then Cleveland Street Intermediate Boys High.

He had an interest in the railways as his father, uncle and brother were employed there. His first interest was signalling, with boiler making and carriage builder as secondary interests, but an apprenticeship in carriage building was the only one offered so he took it. He won the Commissioner’s Prize in five consecutive years an in third year won a State Bronze Medallion.

Part of the apprenticeship scheme was a period in the Drawing Office of the Mechanical Branch of the Railways. At this time, he applied for a cadetship to study engineering but was asked to withdraw it to allow a competing apprentice, Warren Bullock to have the position. Nevertheless, he was soon offered a cadetship, without application a few weeks before finishing his apprenticeship. This was to be taken up at the University of NSW, six years part time and led to a Bachelor of Science Technology.

About the time of the beginning of his cadetship Bill married and after living in Dulwich Hill bought a house in Loftus. Two daughters were born in these years. He never took holidays and was totally supported by his wife.

In 1961 he was working as Planning Engineer, Clyde Wagon Works and some of his projects were the prototyping the conversion from plain bearings to roller bearings on bogies, coil sprung wheat wagons and dual-gauge (bogie interchange) wagons.

From October 1964 to June 1965 he was Planning Engineer Carriage Works Eveleigh, Works Assistant (Rolling Stock), and Assistant Manager Carriage Works Eveleigh.

Projects at this time were one piece plywood bodied carriages and vans; "Wallangarra - Brisbane Express" Set 130 - prototype cars; various rebuilds for the Heritage Train, the Ned Kelly film train and the Medical Car, Dental Cars, education vans; James Cook exhibition car; new Commissioners car AAH 9; power van programs and the rebuild of Spirit of Progress car following Mittagong derailment.

Less specific tasks were the introduction of "Critical Path Analysis to Airconditioning overhauls and spray painting of carriages and locomotives.

In November 1977 Casley was made Assistant Manager Elcar Workshops Chullora. Projects there were smash repairs of stainless-steel carriages; critical path analysis for overhaul program for electric cars and a modernisation of the processes in the workshop commenced. Modernisation process commenced.

On 11 July 1979 he was appointed Works Manager Elcar Workshops Chullora. In this position he was wholly responsible for the operation of the workshops. This involved administering and controlling a multi-disciplined workforce of some 1100 staff.

Two years later in July 1980 and for the next three years he was Chief Production Manager, wholly responsible for the production activities of the Workshop Branch and ensuring that Branch performance targets were consistently achieved. During this time he oversighted the introduction of new repair procedures for locomotive hauled rolling stock to overcome excessive workload demands and revised monitoring procedures to ensure locomotive availability was not impaired by material shortages.

In October 1983 until May 1986 Casley was Assistant General Manager, Workshops responsible for providing executive assistance to the General Manager, Workshops predominately in relation to industrial relations, branch development and budgetary control. During the General Manager's absence, he was responsible for administering all Workshop Branch activities.

From May 1986 until December 1987, he was Assistant Chief Mechanical Engineer (Operations), responsible for the management and operation of six regional areas throughout NSW which maintained all the traction and rolling stock used by the State Rail Authority. A key aspect of this role was ongoing negotiations with trade unions to ensure industrial harmony in the workplace. He was also responsible for the development of innovative solutions to improve the cost effectiveness of the maintenance function. In particular he achieved a 20% reduction in locomotives out of service for inspections.

On 17 December 1987 Bill Casley became Chief Mechanical Engineer. This position, with responsibility for a staff of some 7,000 employees, represented one of the three major operational management positions in the State Rail Authority (SRA). The Mechanical Branch at the time consisted of three divisions. A corporate function providing technical support (design and contractual acquisition services) for all traction and rolling stock within the Authority, and two operational divisions, one for locomotives and hauled freight and passenger rolling stock and the other the electric train service of NSW. As head of the Mechanical Branch, he was responsible for the total regulation of the multi-disciplined traction and rolling stock engaged in the service of the Authority. This involved administering and developing professional, clerical and technical staff in setting appropriate engineering and operational standards for the SRA. An integral part of managing the Branch involved establishing and maintaining effective relationships, not only with other Branch Heads, but with the SRA Executive and executives of private sector organisations.

1 July 1989 Bill Casley’s role changed to Project Manager, Traction and Rolling Stock Implementation Team.

With the devolution of the various Branches of the State Rail Authority on 30 June 1989, Casley was given the responsibility of leading a small team of professional engineers charged with the task of developing a master plan to manage the 97 recommendations contained in Booz Allen & Hamilton's report on the restructure of State Rail. The primary objective of this task was to reduce operation costs, and it necessitated individually evaluating and developing an implementation plan for each recommendation. It was also important to establish individual monitoring criteria and mechanisms to enable variations to the program to be made as it progressed.

All key performance indicators of this project were achieved within a period of five months, including:

Preparation of the Master Plan Closure of the Train Equipment Workshops, Redfern

Utilisation of surplus stores inventory in the acquisition of additional 81 Class locomotives.

With this phase complete Casley’s role, on 29 November 1989 changed to Manager, Rolling Stock System Safety

As this was a newly created position it presented unique challenges. In particular there was a need to ensure its important role achieved appropriate recognition with State Rail swiftly, and at the same time develop a safety policy for the rolling stock system to address identified safety deficiencies, predict future problems for remedial action and implement remedial measures to overcome these.

The primary focus of this position was to ensure that the various business groups of State Rail adhered to proper safety standards and operations which balanced their commercial needs against appropriate satisfactory levels of safety for their staff and customers. This was achieved by instituting a system of safety audits designed to check all facets of State Rail Rolling Stock operations, including engineering design, construction, operation and maintenance to ensure that all practicable measures were being taken to protect the public and property on or adjacent to State Rail's railway.

A further major role was to identify and eliminate potential hazards in State Rail's rolling stock and, where necessary, recommend urgent capital expenditure to allow for the safe running of the State Rail system.

As Manager Rolling Stock System Safety Casley possessed total freedom to investigate, recommend and report to the Chief Executive and the SRA Board on any aspect of State Rail's operation which impacted on passenger or operational safety in relation to rolling stock. He was also required to provide advice, based on formal audits, on the safety of the State Rail system and make recommendations to the Chief Executive and the SRA Board to establish appropriate policies and improvements to the safety of the system. A significant challenge of this position was the need to achieve a dramatic change in the culture of the State Rail organisation in relation to rail safety from that of "getting trains through at all costs" to that of "operating SRA safely".

After two and a half years in this role, in August 1992, Casley’s proven and extensive knowledge and depth of experience in the Rail Industry led to his being seconded from State Rail to the Department of Transport to the comprehensive role of formulating and establishing major new legislation to ensure that all railways within NSW are operated safely. His job title was now Director of Rail Safety.

The development of this new legislation represented a significant personal challenge as little precedent existed within Australia for the independent regulation of railways either on a statewide or a national basis. It involved extensive consultation within the Rail Industry including Government, commercial and heritage operators, international railway representatives, affected, Government Departments, and members of the Government and Opposition.

This task involved overcoming conflicting interests and opinions within the Rail Industry of NSW and was successfully completed when the commencement date for the NSW Rail Safety Act, was gazetted as 24 September 1993. The legislation established a significant landmark in the operation of railways in NSW and is served as a national benchmark for similar legislation throughout Australia.

A Directorate of Rail Safety was also established concurrently with the formulation and development of the new legislation, and Casley held full responsibility for managing this unit, such that in July 1995 the role was described as Executive Director, Transport Safety Bureau. The establishment of the Transport Safety Bureau in July 1995 was a major Government initiative in the continuing process of improving Transport Safety in NSW. This initiative represented a significant personal challenge as this role had no precedent within Australia. It involved establishing a new Division within the Department of Transport, for which he had full responsibility for managing.

This Division not only was responsible for the technical safety of railways, but oversaw strategic safety issues on all transport modes. A further challenge was the assumption of responsibility for passenger security performance standards. Concurrently with the task of establishment the Bureau, he had continued extensive consultation within the Rail Industry including Government, commercial and heritage operators, international railway representatives, affected State Government Departments, Commonwealth and other State Jurisdictions in relation to the establishment of an Australian Standard for Railway Safety. This standard AS4292 draws extensively on the work done to establish the NSW Rail Safety Act and Casley’s experience in administering this Act.

The Transport Administration Amendment (Rail Corporatisation and Restructuring) Act 1996 (TAA) resulted in the formation of four new business groups to replace the former State Rail Authority. This resulted in, from 1 July 1996, further responsibility being placed upon the Transport Safety Bureau. In effect the Bureau was now responsible for ensuring that all parties involved in the conduct of track and/or rolling stock maintenance under the terms of the TAA Act are accredited under the Rail Safety Act as suitable persons for their respective tasks. This task involved overcoming conflicting interests and opinions within not only the existing Rail Industry of NSW but also a range of new participants with little or no pre-existing experience in railway safety management.

Early major achievements in regard to new and innovative rail projects were the granting of formal accreditation for the construction and commissioning of the 10 kilometre New Southern Railway and the Ultimo Pyrmont Light Rail Transit System. Both these projects required extensive negotiation regarding the acceptability of appropriate safety standards and became the continuing subject of ongoing review by the Transport Safety Bureau.

To access an oral history interview with William S Casley please use this link:'

https://heritage.engineersaustralia.org.au/wiki/Oral_Histories_Sydney