The report released by the Australian Transport Safety Bureau said a brake fault also contributed to the incident on a wet Saturday in February, 2011.

The Sydney-bound passenger train stopped 95 metres passed the red signal.

The findings in the ATSB report are:

• The driver of the train anticipated and perceived that the Up home signal (09-6) at Henty was displaying a Low Speed indication.

• The driver of train was distracted at a critical point when approaching the Up home signal (09-6) at Henty.

• The driver of train did not apply sufficient braking effort to enable the train to be stopped before passing the Up home signal (09-6) at Henty.

Other key findings

• The brakes on the leading power car were not applying until a step 7 or emergency application was made, however based on information supplied by RailCorp this safety issue was identified/rectified shortly after the SPAD event. Although the brakes on the leading power car were not applying normally, the train braking performance was within the standard set by RailCorp.

Click here to read the full report.