I read with concern the report “How to boost rail reliability: Hire ‘rat catchers’” (Oct 27). Let me start with the rat and codes of practice. The rat jumped over the bus bars and caused a short circuit, even though the bars were spaced according to the code. I hope practising engineers will not take that as a free pass to overdesign beyond code requirements. Codes of practice are there for good reason. If not, why do senior members of the profession spend time to produce one? Some engineers do not try to understand the logic behind the requirements of a code. They tend to follow it blindly or, as Advisor on Rail Transformation Tan Gee Paw said, meticulously, without bothering with its basic principles. When there is an engineering problem, we tend to extenuate the fault as a management lapse.... Continue Reading