Two train operators have been fined a total of more than $500,000 over a Victorian derailment that killed two men.
NSW Trains and the Australian Rail Track Corporation were charged with breaching the state’s rail safety laws after the XPT passenger train came off tracks north of Melbourne on February 20, 2020.
Experienced driver John Kennedy, 54, and rail worker Sam Meintanis, 49, were killed, while eight passengers were seriously hurt and 58 others sustained minor injuries.
NSW Trains and the ARTC in February pleaded guilty over the derailment, with their sentences handed down in the Melbourne Magistrates Court this morning.
The maximum penalty available to Magistrate Brett Sonnet was a fine of $413,000.
But Sonnet instead sentenced NSW Trains to a $150,000 fine, while ARTC has been ordered to pay $375,000.