The derailment on new works under the recently completed railway overpass on Range Rd at Wittingham has highlighted how exposed Scone is to such an incident.

The railway line at the site was closed for several days while the clean-up of the diesel engines, haulage carriages and damage repair was undertaken.

Should a similar incident happen in Scone, the town and the New England Highway would also be cut for several days, without considering any flow on effects to other town infrastructure or personal injuries.

The two level crossings in Scone are only 580 metres apart so an incident such as the one on the weekend could see the closure of both crossings.

The Upper Hunter Shire Council has said this was a foreseeable risk and if both of these crossings were closed, there would be no access for State Emergency Services, police, hospital, NSW Fire Brigade, Rural Fire Service or ambulance from the east of Scone to the west of Scone, or north on the New England Highway.

The council has said doubling the length of trains and increasing the number of trains five fold over the period of 2008 to 2013, increases the likelihood of such an event and is totally unacceptable when there is a simple solution.

The council has been beating the drum with the Federal Government, the State Government and the Australian Rail Track Corporation since the coal trains increased from 42 units to 72 units in 2008.

The solution is to construct a railway overpass on the New England Highway on the northern side of Scone to replace the only remaining level crossing on the National Highway from Sydney to Brisbane.

The council asked when the governments and the ARTC will listen and do something about it and would it take a similar incident as last Saturdays or an accident at one of the level crossings, before anything is done?