REX Oct 2019

ISSUE 7 | 2019

Inland Rail has left the station ALL THE NEWS FROM INLAND RAIL 2019

SPECIAL FEATURE: Civil Construction & Heavy Machinery PAGE 33

Pacific National getting its elbows out PAGE 39

SUPPORTED BY:

Hitachi harnessing live data PAGE 48

Talking digitisation with Downer PAGE 50

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ISSUE 07 | 2019

4

From the Editor

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News Up Front

CONTENTS

HEAVY MACHINERY & CIVIL CONSTRUCTION 36 39

42

33

CFCLA talks benefits of leasing

36

Category 5 tackles rail’s unique workforce challenges

FREIGHT RAIL 39

PN’s Huckel: rail should ‘get its elbows out’

42

Benefits, challenges in spotlight at Inland Rail

OPERATIONS & MAINTENANCE 48

48

Hitachi harnesses rail data with dessan Reveal

50

Downer solving problems with digital methods

PRODUCTS & TECHNOLOGY 52

Sekisui’s light, durable FFU sleeper

SAFETY & ASSURANCE

50

55

RISSB Column

58

Pics from Rail Safety Week

INDUSTRY ASSOCIATIONS

55

60

ARA Column

62

Pics from Inland Rail 2019

58

Moving Australia’s Economy

ISSUE 7 | 2019

Inland Rail has left the station ALL THE NEWS FROM INLAND RAIL 2019

SPECIAL FEATURE: Civil Construction & Heavy Machinery PAGE 33

Pacific National getting its elbows out PAGE 39

Level 16, 15 Blue Street, North Sydney NSW 2060 | 02 8484 8000

SUPPORTED BY:

Hitachi harnessing live data PAGE 48

Talking digitisation with Downer PAGE 50

COVER STORY The first major construction project under the Inland Rail program is complete in the same month representatives from local, state and federal governments, and the private sector, met for Inland Rail 2019 in Toowoomba.

See our coverage from Page 42.

RAIL EXPRESS | ISSUE 7 2019

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FROM THE EDITOR

Published by:

Oliver Probert Editor - Rail Express

Apartment crisis a valuable warning for rail

I

N THE ALMOST 20 YEARS between January 2001 and March 2019, more than 667,000 apartments were built in Australia, according to the Australian Bureau of Statistics. The housing construction sector – apartment building in particular – underwent an historic boom in those two decades, swelling into an industry worth more than $141 billion.

Unfortunately, governments and regulators eager to fuel this surge were – it seems – a little too quick to get out of the way.

Encouraged by developers, governments lifted red tape, and allowed private certification to become the norm.

The result has been a slow but alarming realisation by hundreds of thousands of apartment owners that their properties – or at least the buildings they’re in – may be riddled with defects. A joint study by Deakin and Griffith universities earlier this year showed just how deep this issue is: more than 70 per cent of surveyed apartments built in Australia’s east coast states after 2003 had at least one defect.

Some of those defects have been more significant than others.

In late 2018, the 36-storey Opal Tower at Sydney’s Olympic Park was evacuated after cracks were discovered. In June, the Mascot Towers building in Sydney’s south was also evacuated after cracks appeared, and an engineer’s report indicated the building may be “sinking”.

Dr Nicole Johnston, co-author of the university study, told Four Corners the highly-publicised cracked apartment blocks were symptoms of a much larger problem.

“It’s systemic and it’s infecting lots of buildings across the landscape, in all parts of the country,” Johnston said.

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“It’s very clear and it’s very prominent, and we’ve got a serious problem here. I think it’s irresponsible for any government to pretend like this is not happening in their state.”

What’s this got to do with rail?

Passenger rail in Australia finds itself about where the apartment sector was, probably a couple of years into the boom, in around 2003. BIS Oxford Economics estimates rail construction has doubled over the past three years, and will nearly double again over the next five years.

With massive urban rail developments planned or underway in Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, and Perth, and even more in the pipeline, there is about to be a staggering demand for engineering, consulting, and construction work in the rail sector.

Regulation is a necessary burden in a sector like rail. Safety is a top priority for all contractors, operators and manufacturers.

This is not to say regulation should be immune to change, of course: there are a lot of good suggestions coming from the rail sector to improve how it is regulated, and governments would do well to listen to those suggestions, and consider them carefully.

But while competition can cut costs and find other efficiencies, an industry stretched thin can be tempted to cut corners, too.

The apartment construction sector has served as a good example of this, and the impact of its unregulated boom are only beginning to be properly realised.

As the rail sector looks poised to experience a significant boom of its own, it will do well to learn from the past, and maintain its historically high standard for safety.

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Publisher Christine Clancy E: christine.clancy@primecreative.com.au Chief Operating Officer Zelda Tupicoff E: zelda.tupicoff@primecreative.com.au Editor Oliver Probert E: oliver.probert@primecreative.com.au Business Development Manager Ben 0’Brien T: 0427 270 774 E: ben.obrien@primecreative.com.au Client Success Manager Janine Clements E: janine.clements@primecreative.com.au Design Production Manager Michelle Weston E: michelle.weston@primecreative.com.au Art Director Blake Storey E: blake.storey@primecreative.com.au Design Kerry Pert, Madeline McCarty Subscriptions subscriptions@primecreative.com.au

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NTC to develop action plan for skills, harmonisation of standards AUSTRALIA’S TRANSPORT ministers have tasked the National Transport Commission to investigate possible action points to address the skills shortage facing the rail industry.

During the 11th meeting of the Transport and Infrastructure Council – which includes transport and infrastructure ministers from all states and territories and the federal government – a range of senior leaders from rail construction, infrastructure and operations firms had a chance to raise key issues facing the sector.

The ministers subsequently resolved to refer a pair of related challenges to the National Transport Commission (NTC) – the supply of skills and labour, and the harmonisation of rail industry standards.

The council’s communique, published on August 2, said the NTC had been asked “to develop and circulate an action plan ahead of the November council meeting to focus on these priority areas and identify measures to be taken immediately and map out a forward work program that is designed to deliver outcomes that support the unprecedented

level of investment in the rail sector”.

Australasian Railway Association boss, Danny Broad, welcomed the announcement by the council.

“Industry is looking to work with government in a joint partnership to solve these problems. Today’s decision gives us a framework by which to begin to address the issues,” Broad said.

Together state, territory and federal governments are set to spend more than $150 billion on new rail and rollingstock projects over the next 15 years. The ARA late last year released a BIS Oxford Economics report, “Rail Skills Crisis – A Call to Action”, highlighting the growing shortfall of skilled rail workers to meet future demands.

“Governments can’t leave it to a nebulous training ‘market’ to resolve, because it’s just not working,” Broad said.

“These are national issues requiring a national approach, which reinforces the need for jurisdictions to work together to ensure consistency and alignment between jurisdictions.”

Pacific National boss and Freight on Rail

Group chair, Dean Dalla Valle, also addressed the council, to reiterate his concerns over competitive imbalance between road and rail operators in many key Australian freight corridors.

“Sadly, the business of rail freight has allowed itself to be neglected by government policy makers for decades, resulting in costly inefficiencies infecting Australia’s supply chain,” Dalla Valle told the council.

“Delivering new and improved rail freight infrastructure is sorely needed – but it doesn’t solve every problem. Policies must keep pace with new ideas and technologies.”

While the council didn’t reference the road-rail imbalance in its communique, it did finally agree to the National Freight and Supply Chain Strategy and its associated National Action Plan.

“With our freight volumes expected to grow by more than a third by 2040 and online shopping growth at over 20 per cent a year, we need to increase the productivity of our freight system,” federal transport and infrastructure minister, Michael McCormack said.

Australia’s state, territory and federal transport and infrastructure leaders gathered in Adelaide in August.

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Tributes for ‘tireless’ rail advocate Tim Fischer Former deputy prime minister, Tim Fischer, was patron to the TrackSAFE Foundation.

RAIL AND LOGISTICS OFFICIALS joined political figures from both sides of the aisle to pay tribute to former deputy prime minister, Tim Fischer, who has died aged 73.

News of Fischer’s death after a 10-year battle with leukaemia on August 22 caused an outpouring of praise and grief for a man well respected throughout Parliament and the nation.

Fischer, first a soldier, then a state MP, then a federal MP, served as leader of the Nationals for nearly a decade. He was deputy prime minister under John Howard from 1996 to 1999, playing a crucial role in gun control reforms following the Port Arthur massacre.

He retired as deputy PM in 1999, and from Parliament entirely in 2001, but continued to play an active role as a public figure, including as a rail advocate and policy advisor.

His work in the rail sector included being named Special Envoy for the Adelaide to Darwin railway by the South Australian government in 2004. He was also a director of Freightlink, operating trains on the railway.

He wrote a number of books on rail and contributed to advisory reports, including the feasibility study conducted by Labor into high speed rail to connect Australia’s east coast cities. He also served as patron to the

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TrackSAFE Foundation.

TrackSAFE chairman, Bob Herbert, said the rail community was “deeply saddened”

by Fischer’s passing.

“I would like to pay tribute to Tim Fischer; a person of great honour and dignity,” Herbert said. “We are united in our sadness of his loss, but will celebrate the indelible mark Tim Fischer has left on the Foundation and the rail landscape overall.”

Delegates at the Inland Rail conference recognised Fischer and his contributions to rail with a lengthy standing ovation, on an emotional morning in Toowoomba.

“Tim was a tireless and energetic advocate for rail in Australia and was one of the driving forces behind the Inland Rail project,” ARA CEO, Danny Broad, said.

“He leaves a lasting legacy as a visionary leader for the industry who had a unique connection to rural and regional Australians.

His keen appreciation of the role rail can play supporting regional communities and unlocking economic growth will be felt by generations to come, right around Australia.”

“We all owe Tim Fischer an enormous debt of gratitude for his lifetime of dedicated service in the military, in politics, in diplomacy and in community life,” Australian Logistics Council CEO, Kirk Coningham, said.

“As a passionate advocate for regional Australia, Tim well understood the need for freight infrastructure projects like Inland Rail in order to boost productivity and support Australian exporters.”

Nationals leader and deputy PM, Michael McCormack, called Fischer a “giant” of the party.

“He embodied loyalty, kindness and courage,” McCormack said. “Regional Australia had no better friend. Heartfelt thoughts and condolences with Tim’s wife Judy, [and] sons Harrison and Dominic.”

Opposition leader, Anthony Albanese, described Fischer as “an honourable and humble man who served his country in war and peace”.

“Australia has lost our most passionate rail advocate,” Albanese said. “Tim will be missed by all who had the pleasure of spending time with him.”

Crowds gathered to watch a heritage train carrying Fischer’s coffin from The Rock to Albury in southern New South Wales on August 29.

Fischer, a Vietnam veteran, was honoured with a military service at Albury station, before a state funeral at the Albury Entertainment Centre attended by – among many others – Prime Minister Scott Morrison, his deputy, Michael McCormack, opposition leader, Anthony Albanese, governor-general, David Hurley, and former prime ministers John Howard and Kevin Rudd.

Morrison, who addressed the gathering, described Fischer as “a titan of regional Australia”.

“When his country called, Tim Fischer never failed to answer,” he told the service.

“Tim Fischer was one of a kind, and the boy from Boree Creek has left us too soon.

May he rest in peace. As he enters eternity, he will no doubt be greeted with the words, ‘Well done, good and faithful servant.’ And for those who he has left behind here, we can take comfort in the simple fact that we knew and we loved Tim Fischer.”

“It’s often said that in politics you have hundreds of acquaintances but few true friends. That didn’t apply to Tim Fischer,” former Nationals colleague Bill Baxter said.

“He had hundreds of thousands of friends and he was a true friend of mine for over 50 years.”

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‘Dysfunctional’ EPC contracts a threat to infrastructure boom A KEY FIGURE AT ONE OF Australia’s largest financial advisory firms says the “dysfunctional” engineering, procurement and construction model is driving cost blow-outs on a substantial portion of major infrastructure projects.

In an opinion piece published in the Financial Review in August, KordaMentha Restructuring partner Scott Langdon advocated for more of a shift towards Alliance-based models for major project delivery, and a move away from the traditionally “confrontational” EPC model.

“I speak to contractors regularly and they find the contract process to be confrontational, litigious and dispute driven, as opposed to collaborative and outcome driven,” Langdon wrote.

“This modus operandi is baked into our psyche in the way we build mega infrastructure projects and, unfortunately, generations of management in Australia only know this self-defeating, and expensive, way of operating.”

A 2016 report from the Grattan Institute analysed 836 infrastructure projects over a

15-year period worth more than $20 million, and found almost a quarter of them blew out their budget.

Rail is no stranger to this trend, with a notable and recent example being Sydney’s CBD and South East Light Rail project, where the state faced litigation from construction contractor Acciona over a costly contract dispute.

“Problems are inevitable on mega projects – there are, after all, large undertakings and highly challenging constructions, completed over many years with many different stakeholders,” Langdon wrote.

“But the real issue is that these problems are dealt with in a litigious fashion, rather than a consensus-seeking one.”

Describing an Australian culture of ‘fighting your corner’, Langdon says too often sides are heading to their lawyer’s office, rather than the construction site.

He says an Alliance approach to major projects, the kind more often seen in Europe, not only keeps everyone on the same page contractually, but also works better in a practical sense.

“If both the contractor and the principal had an ‘identify-and-remedy-first’ approach, the delays to construction completion would be mitigated alongside cost overruns,” he wrote.

“Alliance-style contracts … will materially mitigate the cost overruns by reducing construction delays. They involve the shared responsibility of bringing a project to fruition, and involve government and the private sector working in partnership on big projects.”

Recent major projects in Victoria have been signed up as Alliances, and the New South Wales Government in 2018 – in the midst of its Light Rail stress – committed to manage projects in a more collaborative way.

But Langdon says governments need to work harder to make procurement “more vibrant and creative”.

“Simply going with cheapest and quickest is not good enough, and condemns mega projects to failure,” he writes.

“The government needs to be a partner in construction with the contractor; not opposition party.”

A less confrontational approach to major contracts could benefit all involved.

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ISSUE 7 2019 | RAIL EXPRESS

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NATIONAL

NEWS

Loram to acquire Aurizon grinding business RAIL MAINTENANCE EQUIPMENT and service provider Loram Maintenance of Way has agreed to buy Aurizon’s rail grinding services business for an undisclosed fee.

The North American business, the original equipment manufacturer of Aurizon’s entire fleet of rail grinders, said on August 12 it would acquire all the assets of the operator’s rail grinding business.

Aurizon has reportedly been working to sell its grinding division since around October 2018.

The move effectively gives Loram four Australian customers for its rail grinding services business.

Loram president and CEO, Phil Homan, said the acquisition conformed to its plan for global technology but local service.

“While drawing upon our global technical expertise, Loram will deliver its unrivalled customer service to Australian customers under the leadership of its Australia-based team from our office in Brisbane and strategic

Loram will acquire all of Aurizon’s grinding assets.

sites interstate,” Homan said.

Loram’s managing director in Australia, Stephen Mannix, said the company recognises “substantial opportunities” in the Australian rail market.

“The acquisition positions Loram for significant growth,” Mannix said. “In addition to expanding this rail grinding business, Loram is committed to listening to customers’ challenges throughout Australia and developing Loram’s entire

suite of innovative solutions to meet their unique needs.”

Mannix said the Aurizon acquisition was a great fit for his team.

“There is a natural affinity between our people because both organisations share a commitment to safety and quality. We are pleased to offer continued employment to each affected employee and are hiring for new positions to support our growth.”

Fullerton to retire from ARTC JOHN FULLERTON WILL RETIRE from his role as chief executive officer of and managing director of the Australian Rail Track Corporation, the federal government’s rail network owner.

Fullerton, CEO of the ARTC since

John Fullerton

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2011, will step down midway through next year, ARTC chairman Warren Truss announced on August 14.

“John has enjoyed a dedicated and successful engineering and business leadership career in the rail industry for 40 years including almost ten years at the head of the ARTC,” Truss said.

Truss, the former leader of the Nationals who himself joined the ARTC in 2018, described Fullerton as one of the iconic figures in the modern Australian rail industry, and a well-regarded and trusted executive “right across the industry”.

“Under his tenure with ARTC [Fullerton] has led a steep change in safety performance, customer focus and asset improvement,” Truss said.

“He has also been instrumental in putting in place the organisation and skills to commence construction on the nation building Inland Rail project.”

Truss said the ARTC Board has already engaged executive search firm Spencer Stuart to assist a global search for the next managing director.

“The Board is grateful that John has given early notice of his wish to retire, and for his willingness to provide continuing leadership of the business to enable a planned and sustainable transition phase to a new CEO,” Truss said.

“We acknowledge John’s desire to move on to the next phase of his life and thank him for his exceptional service to ARTC.” Before he joined the ARTC, Fullerton was the chief executive officer of FreightLink, then the owner-operator of the AdelaideDarwin railway. He was also divisional general manager of operations services at Pacific National. He had joined Pacific National when it acquired the National Rail Corporation, where Fullerton spend eight years as chief operating officer.

RAIL EXPRESS | ISSUE 7 2019

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Infrastructure Australia joins push for more spending INFRASTRUCTURE AUSTRALIA says governments need to spend $600 billion on infrastructure over the next 15 years, with a particular focus on high capacity public transport, to avoid a significant increase in congestion.

Australia’s independent infrastructure

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adviser on August 13 released its first audit of the nation’s infrastructure since 2015. In its release, it joined calls from the Reserve Bank and Labor for the Coalition to accelerate infrastructure project timelines around the country.

“Rather than a short-term boom, the historic level of activity we are seeing in the sector must, and is likely, to continue for the next 15 years and potentially beyond,” Infrastructure Australia chair, Julieanne Alroe said. “This must be the new normal if we are to meet the challenges and opportunities ahead.”

The Australian Infrastructure Audit aims to examine the energy, transport, telecommunications and water infrastructure needs of the Australian community and industry.

Like the 2015 audit, the 2019 report calls for more public transport funding from governments to avoid congestion, as population soars 24 per cent to 31.4 million by 2034. Particular focus is called for in the outer suburbs of Australia’s four largest cities – Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane and Perth.

“Infrastructure in our four largest cities … is failing to keep pace with rapid population growth, particularly on the

urban fringe,” Alroe said.

“The dominance of infill development in Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane will require investment in high capacity public transport, enhancements to existing energy and water infrastructure, improved shared spaces and a renewal of inner city health and education services.”

The audit estimates the cost of road congestion will grow by $18.9 billion to $38.7 billion in 2031, if enough is not done to address this issue.

“This impacts quality of life, as well as our economic productivity and competitiveness as a nation.”

Australasian Railway Association (ARA) CEO, Danny Broad, urged governments to absorb the “complex and multi-faceted” challenges presented in the audit.

Broad welcomed the “frank, evidencebased assessment” presented in the report of the infrastructure challenges facing Australia.

“The most considered and challenging finding is that the record investment being made in infrastructure by state, territory and the Commonwealth governments is not a once in a generation aberration, but is in fact, the new normal,” Broad said.

“Governments will be required to

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continue to build more infrastructure needed to keep pace with Australia’s growing population, and more complex and varied needs.”

Broad said many of the findings presented in the Audit aligned with the ARA’s own public policy agenda.

“This audit reinforces the need for Commonwealth and state governments to rise to the challenges, and put in place strategies to address these challenges over the long term,” he said.

Australian Logistics Council CEO, Kirk Coningham, said the audit was “a timely reminder for all governments that the provision of quality freight infrastructure is essential to maintaining Australia’s economic position in the world and enhancing our quality of life”.

“Unless we take concrete action to deal with challenges such as urban congestion, bottlenecks in regional supply chains and reform inconsistent and outdated regulatory regimes, the performance of our freight networks will suffer and Australian consumers will pay the price.”

Labor pressures Coalition

Albanese told a press conference in Wollongong.

“We have economic growth that was downgraded [recently] from 2.75 per cent to 2.5 per cent, putting it below trend. We have productivity that’s gone backwards for four quarters in a row. We have consumer demand that is flatlining and the lowest retail trade figures since the 1990s. We have household debt that is spiralling. We have a national debt that’s being doubled on this Government’s watch.

“All of the economic indicators showed the economy slowing. That’s why the Reserve Bank has reduced interest rates to just 1 percent. One third of what they were under the Global Financial Crisis. And yet, you have a Government that’s complacent.”

The opposition leader said a project nearby his press conference, the MaldonDombarton freight rail link, would be a good example of a project that could accelerate growth and cut congestion.

“The Federal Government and State Government should work with the private sector to make sure this project happens,” Albanese said.

“It’s even more important now because it can link up with passenger movements as well, going to the south-west growth centre that will occur around the Aerotropolis at Badgerys Creek Airport.”

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Labor accused the Coalition of applying a “handbrake” to infrastructure spending after the audit was released, with shadow transport and infrastructure minister

Catherine King saying Australians would have to get used to being stuck in traffic and on long commutes under the Coalition Government.

She pointed not only to the Infrastructure Australia report, but also to a Regional Australia Institute report which recently projected huge blowouts in commute times, and the latest Household, Income and Labour Dynamics in Australia survey which showed weekly commute times have risen from 3.7 hours to 4.5 hours over the past decade.

“These sluggish numbers don’t just harm commuters – they make Australia less attractive to international investment,” King said.

“At this critical time, Australians are demanding the Morrison Government produce a real plan to protect jobs, curb rising congestion and stimulate the economy. Instead, for six years this Government has left the heavy lifting to state governments and ignored calls from the Reserve Bank and Infrastructure Australia to fast-track investment.”

Labor leader, Anthony Albanese, also used the audit to question the government.

“The Business Council of Australia, the union movement, every economist in the country, knows that all of the economic indicators at the moment are flatlining,”

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IA says spending on public transport is crucial to avoiding more congestion in major cities.

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RAIL EXPRESS | ISSUE 7 2019

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Australians are spending longer than ever travelling to and from work.

Labor pressures Coalition as commute times rise THE FEDERAL OPPOSITION HAS reiterated calls for transport spending to be accelerated, after an Australian survey showed commute times have risen 23 per cent since 2002.

Data collected by the University of Melbourne shows average weekly travel times are now 4.5 hours of combined travel to and from work.

That figure is up 23 per cent, from 3.7 hours recorded in 2002, and effectively adds to the typical 38-hour working week by 12 per cent.

Sydney commuters now face an average 71-minute journey to and from work each day, while Melbournians are averaging 65 minutes of workday travel.

One in six Australians now commutes for more than two hours each workday,

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compared to just one in eight in 2002.

Labor’s shadow minister for infrastructure and transport, Catherine King, said the data was more evidence the Morrison Government needs to move forward planned spending on infrastructure.

“The HILDA survey notes longer commute times can reduce worker wellbeing through diminished job satisfaction and flexibility between work and non-work commitments,” King said.

“It’s time for Scott Morrison’s two Ministers for Infrastructure – Michael McCormack and Alan Tudge – to bring forward investment in infrastructure projects to stimulate the Australian economy and actually bust congestion, not just talk about it.

“After talking a big game on infrastructure during the election campaign,

Australians are rightly concerned by McCormack and Tudge’s repeated refusals to bring forward infrastructure investment to stimulate a sluggish economy and bust congestion.”

Rail, Tram and Bus Union NSW secretary, Alex Claassens specifically called on the NSW Government to address long commute times.

“The news that Sydneysiders are spending longer than ever commuting each week will come as no shock to anyone who commutes in Sydney,” Claassens said.

“Rather than attempting to fix the growing problem of long commute times, the Transport Minister is instead focused on privatising our vital public transport assets – a move that’s of no benefit to anyone except a handful of wealthy business shareholders.”

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Aurizon to stay vertically integrated (for now) BULK RAIL OPERATOR AND network owner Aurizon will not separate its above and below rail businesses, and will instead split them into different funding structures.

The ASX-listed rail company detailed findings from a pair of strategic reviews in its Annual Report on August 12.

The first concerned the verticallyintegrated structure of the business, which sees Aurizon own and operate the Central Queensland Coal Network, while also operating a large fleet of bulk and heavy haul locomotives and wagons for mining and agricultural customers around the country – a model carried over from its former status as Queensland’s state-owned rail operator.

This integrated above and below rail approach was deemed viable by the Queensland Government in 2010 in the lead up to Aurizon’s initial public offering, and had been widely accepted until Andrew Harding, who has driven significant change since becoming the company’s CEO in late

2016, ordered a fresh review of the vertical integration during FY19.

Despite suggestions Harding’s desire for a review meant a split was on the cards, for now that review has indicated the company will stay intact.

“The evidence from the review showed the benefits of integration continue to outweigh the benefits of separation at this time,” the company said.

Aurizon won’t keep its structure completely the same, however.

The second review, into optimising the capital structure of the group, proposes a new legal structure facilitating standalone funding structures for both the above rail business and the below rail business.

Aurizon said this option would allow it to establish independent gearing levels for each business, consistent with their different risk profiles. The structure would also allow for around $1.2 billion in extra funding capacity, with debt likely to be added progressively over time, the company said.

Aurizon will remain an integrated above and below rail operation for now.

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Both the above rail and below rail businesses, known as Operations and Network respectively, would target credit ratings of BBB+/Baa1.

The non-Network businesses – Coal, Bulk and Other – which will fall into the Operations structure added $450 million to Aurizon’s EBIT in FY19, above the $390 to $430 million guidance provided in August.

This figure benefited from the $20 million recovery of doubtful debt from Queensland Nickel.

Meanwhile Aurizon Network delivered $400 million to the group’s EBIT, which suffered from a “one-off regulatory true-up” of $60 million to account for the Queensland Competition Authority’s UT5 access undertaking for the Central Queensland Coal Network. Since that finding, Aurizon has come to terms with its mining customers on a deal it says is fairer for all parties.

That $60 million writedown was the largest single contributor to an overall 12 per cent drop in underlying EBIT, to $829 million in FY19 for Aurizon Group as a whole.

Net profit after tax was down 13 per cent, to $473 million.

Aurizon declared a final dividend of 12.4 cents per share (70 per cent franked), down 5 per cent on the 13.1 cents per share final dividend last year. The total FY19 dividend was 23.8 cents per share, down 12 per cent year on year.

Despite the softer financial numbers, Aurizon reported record volumes for its above rail Coal business, and below rail Network business during the 12-month stretch.

Above rail coal volumes rose 1 per cent, to a record 214.3 million tonnes. Lower volumes in Queensland due to weather-related events, supply chain constraints and industrial action were counteracted by the start of a new contract in New South Wales in January 2019.

Below rail volumes on the Central Queensland Coal Network were a record 232.7 million tonnes.

Aurizon said it expects EBIT to bounce back in FY20, announcing guidance in the range of $880 – $930 million. “This assumes increased EBIT across all business units from volume growth, benefits from operational efficiencies and the impact of the UT5 customer agreement in Network,” the company said.

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NEWS

NSW

NSW transport minister, Andrew Constance, (left) and premier, Gladys Berejiklian (centre)..

Metro towers approved in Sydney A PAIR OF NEW OFFICE TOWERS have been approved for development above the future Martin Place Metro station.

New 39-storey and 29-story towers will be built over the future Metro station’s northern and southern entrances, respectively, after the development was signed off by the state government on August 21.

The development is part of the metro precinct being delivered to connect the new Martin Place Metro station, the existing platforms for the T4 Sydney Trains line, and surrounding business and retail precincts.

The whole development is being delivered by the Macquarie Group in an arrangement aimed to provide more funding for the Sydney Metro project itself.

Macquarie Group won the work after submitting an unsolicited proposal to deliver the station and tower precinct in 2017.

NSW premier, Gladys Berejiklian, said the new buildings would support 2,500 jobs during construction, and house almost 9,000 office, retail and hospitality workers once complete.

“Sydney is Australia’s only truly global city and developments like this continue to elevate our status,” the premier said.

“The Martin Place development is a win for the community and a win for taxpayers,

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with Macquarie Group helping pay for the metro station as part of the deal.”

Planning and public spaces minister Rob Stokes said the integrated station and towers was a great example of a well-designed development being built in the right area.

“These towers, which underwent a rigorous assessment by the Department and an independent design review panel, will enhance Martin Place’s position as a jobs and transport hub in the heart of the CBD,” he said.

95 per cent approval for North West The Metro development at Martin Place forms part of the Sydney Metro City & Southwest project, which itself has been buoyed by the successful opening of the first Sydney Metro line, North West. The first passenger survey from the line showed more than nine in every 10 passengers are satisfied with the service.

Transport for NSW’s May 2019 passenger survey, released on August 30, shows 95 per cent of surveyed Metro passengers were happy with the new, driverless metro line, which entered service on May 26.

That compares favourably to the overall train network, which scored 89 per cent satisfaction, up from 86 per cent in the survey taken six months earlier.

Light rail satisfaction was reported at 91 per cent, down just one percentage point from the prior tally. Sydneysiders are happiest with their ferries, with 98 per cent satisfaction recorded for the third consecutive survey.

NSW transport minister, Andrew Constance, said he was “delighted” with the positive response to the new Metro, which has already handled more than 5.6 million trips.

“This is Australia’s first fully accessible railway so it is no surprise that customers are rating this service highly for its accessibility,” Constance noted. “They were also very happy with travel times, safety and security.”

Of the Sydney Trains improvement, he said customers were satisfied with how safe they felt on the train, and the ease of ticketing – but he said there was more work to be done.

“Improvements are already being delivered,” Constance said. “In the last 12 months, we’ve commissioned 24 new Waratah trains, allowing us to retire the older, unreliable S-Sets. As a result the entire Sydney Trains fleet is now air conditioned.”

The customer satisfaction index surveyed more than 15,000 customers across public transport, point-to-point transport and amongst road users. The majority of the survey took place in May, with customers surveyed on the Metro in a two-week period in June.

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NSW

NEWS

Thales successfully delivers CCS for Sydney Metro TECHNOLOGY FIRM, THALES has announced the successful rollout of its Central Control and Communication System for the Sydney Metro North West rail system.

The company detailed its work on the project, which commenced operations in May, on August 21.

The Central Control System ensures seamless rail operations, including real-time control mechanisms and data for various diverse systems, while providing a ‘big picture’ holistic view of the entire network.

Meanwhile the Communications System links up the public address and passenger information systems, CCTV and digital information boards, into a centralised system allowing a fully integrated operation.

“We’re proud to have delivered technology that will contribute to fast, safe and reliable journeys for Sydney commuters,” Thales Ground Transportation Australia Vice President, Peter Bull, said.

“The Sydney Metro project will define our great city for many years to come, encouraging growth and building continued prosperity.”

Thales was selected by the Northwest

Rapid Transit consortium to deliver the technology in 2015. NRT was the lead consortium selected by the state government to deliver work for the $7.3 billion Sydney Metro North West project.

Sydney Metro North West connects to Chatswood station.

The new service has been very popular with residents in newly-serviced suburbs.

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Parramatta Light Rail: Business Chamber wants Stage 2 certainty THE WESTERN SYDNEY BUSINESS Chamber has raised serious concerns over reports the NSW Government may be reconsidering its options for the second stage of Parramatta’s planned light rail network.

A number of outlets reported in August staff working on plans for the proposed second stage connection from Rydalmere to Olympic Park were looking for new work, and there was a level of “uncertainty” about the state government’s plans to continue beyond Stage 1 of the light rail line.

When contacted by Rail Express, a Transport for NSW spokesperson said no decision had been made.

“The Final Business Case for the second stage of Parramatta Light Rail is being considered by the NSW Government, with an investment decision to follow,” the spokesperson said. “On the ground, investigative works continue along the Stage 2 alignment.”

Responding to the reports of uncertainty, Western Sydney Business Chamber executive director, David Borger, called on the state to release the business case and a construction timeline for the project.

He said a cancellation of the project “would challenge the NSW Government’s narrative around public transport delivery”.

“Parramatta Light Rail Stage 2 is an absolutely critical project to link some of the highest-density, fastest-growing neighbourhoods in Australia,” Borger said on August 12.

“Places like Melrose Park, Wentworth Point, Carter Street – Parramatta Light Rail Stage 2 will actually make Sydney Metro West work, by collecting from all these highdensity neighbourhoods and delivering them to the front door of the new Metro station at Olympic Park.”

Borger suggested Parramatta Light Rail Stage 2 was more justified than the CBD and South East project underway in the city’s primary CBD. “The area between Sydney and Parramatta has had the highest population growth of any area in the country – it’s unfair that the eastern city gets a light

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Parramatta will one day have light rail – the question is, how much?

rail with very little increase in population density, and Western Sydney, particularly Parramatta, which has the highest housing completions in New South Wales, could potentially only get half of the light rail system that it needs,” he said.

Former Newcastle lead appointed Anand Thomas was appointed as program director for the $2.4 billion Parramatta project in August. Thomas previously led the successful delivery of the Newcastle Light Rail line.

Thomas replaced Tim Poole, who was program director for the Parramatta project since 2016, but recently took a new role as chief operating officer for the Western City and Aerotropolis Authority.

“Anand has a proven background of delivering a light rail project on time and successfully,” a Transport for NSW spokesperson said.

“His experience will be a valuable asset for the project, which is at a critical juncture as it transitions from planning to building phase.”

Early works are underway on stage one of Parramatta Light Rail, which will link Westmead to Carlingford via Parramatta and Camellia. Major construction is

scheduled to begin next year.

Services are expected to begin in 2023.

Road widening begins Works began in late August at Westmead to prepare for the project, with the widening of Hawkesbury Road between Darcy Road and Jessie Street, to create room for one lane of traffic on each side of the new dual-track light rail.

Work includes the relocation of utilities and parking, the removal of roundabouts and median strips, new street lighting and landscaping, a new footpath and the trimming or removal of some trees, and the planting of others.

Member for Parramatta Dr Geoff Lee said on August 27 the light rail project is being tied in with a $1 billion Westmead Redevelopment project.

“This is a transformative time for the Westmead Precinct, one of Australia’s largest health, education, research and training hubs,” Lee said. “We’re looking at more than 40,000 full-time staff and more than 30,000 students by 2036, and we are building the public infrastructure needed to support this growth.”

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NSW

NEWS

Seventy-five per cent of Sydney’s tram fleet has arrived THE 45TH OF 60 TRAMS BEING delivered by Alstom for the Sydney CBD and South East Light Rail project has arrived at its stabling yards in Randwick, as testing ramps up across the network.

The tram, which arrived in August, will follow the path of the 44 before it, with testing and commissioning to take place before it is launched onto the network, to join the wider testing and driver training programs underway.

“The arrival of this tram is significant as it completes the number of trams required to run passenger services from Randwick to Circular Quay starting in December 2019,” Transport for NSW said.

“The final 15 trams are either in production or on their way to Sydney with all to be received by November ready for the Kingsford line to start carrying passengers from March 2020.”

The Citadis X05 trams, which will

operate in coupled pairs around the network, are being put through their paces with daylight testing now underway in the city from Central Chalmers Street to Circular Quay.

Finishing works are underway in the city, with tree pit protection work, kerb reinstatement, vegetation planting and localised paving.

Outside the CBD, testing is also underway in Surry Hills, between the Randwick terminus and the Chalmers Street stop at Central.

Along that alignment, teams have already completed “a significant amount” of footpath restoration works, and traffic signals have been switched with traffic and trams now operating under new phasing.

The 45th tram is delivered.

Siemens, NSW sign VET agreement Siemens will partner with the NSW state government to develop a vocational education and training (VET) hub to Western Sydney.

Siemens is a major investor in VET.

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NSW premier Gladys Berejiklian on August 17 said the state was finalising a Memorandum of Understanding to bring advanced technologies and innovations in VET to the Western Sydney Aerotropolis, the development surrounding the future Western Sydney Airport.

Berejiklian made the announcement ahead of a tour of a “Smart City” project Siemens is developing in Berlin, where it is aiming to transform a 70-hectare industrial area into a modern, urban district with offices, residences, laboratories and production plants in place by 2030.

“The NSW Government is committed to building a supply of skilled labour to meet the jobs needs of the future,” Berejiklian said.

“I’m excited to learn more about Germany’s dual system of on-the-job and classroom training and see how that works in practice for companies like Siemens.”

The state government noted Germany’s

VET system provides trainees with high-level technical skills, making it especially effective at responding to changes in technology and the employment needs of business.

Siemens, an industrial manufacturer whose portfolio includes rail and signalling systems, is a major investor in VET, training around 8,000 apprentices and students in Germany each year.

NSW minister for jobs and Western Sydney, Stuart Ayres, said a strong VET system will be essential for ensuring the success of the Western Sydney Aerotropolis.

“The key to ensuring that additional jobs created through the Aerotropolis are sustainable is to provide workers with the skills they need for future industries,” Ayres said.

“That’s why the NSW Government will establish a permanent VET facility in the Aerotropolis with a focus on advanced manufacturing, technology and engineering.”

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Canberra light rail team canvassing local businesses ahead of Stage 2 ACT TRANSPORT MINISTER CHRIS Steel says the government will focus on early engagement with local businesses ahead of the next stage of light rail in the nation’s capital.

The planned Civic to Woden section of light rail will wind through the medium density western district of the city’s centre before crossing Lake Burley Griffin and continuing to the south.

Given the number of businesses along the route, Steel recently said it would be important their concerns were considered during planning and construction.

“Early engagement with businesses will help us help them by designing a program of support, advisory and activation that will keep City West vibrant during construction and ready for operations,” Steel said on August 7.

“We can also use the insights from this first round of engagement with businesses to inform construction planning, identify respite periods and to find opportunities for activations and events.”

Members of the government’s light rail team will survey businesses to develop a better understanding of their trading hours and peak times, their customer access and goods and services offerings, signage and marketing considerations, logistics around

deliveries and waste management, parking, and how best to communicate with them moving forward.

“We are building on the program of support provided to businesses when we delivered the first stage of light rail and we have drawn upon insights from other major infrastructure projects throughout Australia,” the minister added.

Many small business owners along planned light rail routes have grown wary of the impact construction will have on their foot traffic and business operations. In Sydney, the NSW Government has compensated business owners along the CBD and South East Light Rail project route for the disruptions caused.

The ACT government plans to deliver Stage 2 in two sections, first to the northern banks of Lake Burley Griffin, then beyond to Woden.

Canberra was designed with light rail in mind, and it’s finally becoming a reality.

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VIC

NEWS

Six new VLocity trains ordered from Dandenong BOMBARDIER’S DANDENONG workshops will build another six VLocity trains for Victoria’s regional railways under a new order placed in early September.

Six new three-carriage trains will be built under the new order, which is part of a $340 million allocation made in the 2019/20 budget. The allocation allows for a total order of 18 new trains.

Victorian public transport minister Melissa Horne said the new trains would help meet growing demand for regional rail

services, operated by V/Line.

“We said we’d deliver new VLocity trains for regional Victoria and that’s exactly what we’re doing,” Horne said. “We’re improving services for passengers and supporting hundreds of Victorian jobs as we continue to build new trains and refurbish our existing fleet.”

The new trains contract is being run alongside a $50 million contract to refurbish V/Line’s 75 existing trains, with new seat coverings and padding, and other minor repairs also taking

place at Dandenong.

The Andrews Labor Government says it has increased V/Line services by 40 per cent, with the operator now running more than 2,000 a week.

Member for Dandenong Gabrielle Williams noted the contract also supported employment in the area.

“Bombardier are a world leader in manufacturing – this new order will support 100 direct jobs and hundreds more throughout the supply chain,” Williams said.

Suburban Rail Loop CEO appointed THE SUBURBAN RAIL LOOP, Victorian premier, Daniel Andrews’ planned 90-kilometre rail ring around Melbourne’s middle suburbs, will be delivered by the Suburban Rail Loop Authority, appointed by Premier Andrews on September 3.

Andrews also further solidified the planned route for the loop, which will run from Cheltenham in the city’s south-east to Werribee in the north-west, interchanging with ten existing stations, including three ‘transport hubs’ at Clayton, Broadmeadows and Sunshine.

There are also five potential new stations planned for the route, including one at Melbourne Airport, which (if all goes according to the government’s plan) will already be connected by rail to the CBD by the time the Loop is built.

Premier Andrews said the new Suburban Rail Loop Authority would start its work this week, headed by incoming chief executive Nick Foa. Foa was most recently a deputy secretary with the Department of Health and Human Services, leading Sport & Recreation and serving as the Director of Housing.

“This dedicated new authority will ensure the biggest public transport project in our state’s history becomes a reality,” Andrews said.

“The Suburban Rail Loop will better connect Victorians to jobs, education and

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each other. We promised to get on with it, and that’s exactly what we’re doing.”

Andrews and his Labor colleagues made the Suburban Rail Loop a key promise ahead of the most recent state election, in November 2018.

The Suburban Rail Loop Authority will start work by consulting local governments, universities and other key institutions and stakeholders along the proposed route.

This consultation, along with geotechnical work already underway, will inform the

development of a business case for the massive project, which has a cost estimate of at least $50 billion.

A registration of interest process for local and global firms has already begun for the project, with a targeted start date of 2022.

“I’m excited to work on this once in a generation project, which will create stronger connections between suburban Melbourne, create more open spaces and provide new opportunities for business in the suburbs,” Foa said.

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Vic outlines Cranbourne Line Upgrade timeline safer and sooner,” transport infrastructure minister Jacinta Allan said.

“Whether it is new stations, duplicated track or level crossing removals – we’re getting on with these essential upgrades to run more trains, more often on the Cranbourne line.”

“This is exciting news for our community – delivering a brand new station and room for more trains, more often,” member for Cranbourne Pauline Richards added.

Reliability upgrades for Upfield line

Level crossings create congestion on the road network and limit service frequency on the rail network.

WORK WILL BEGIN NEXT YEAR ON the $1 billion Cranbourne Line Upgrade, which will remove four level crossings and duplicate track over several stages.

The Victorian government outlined the timetable for the project on September 2. Together with the 11 crossings already removed along the line, the project is aimed at achieving a passenger service every 10 minutes on the line.

The Greens Road level crossing in Dandenong South will be eliminated by building a new rail bridge over the existing road, with work to begin in 2020.

Work will also start in 2020 to build eight kilometres of new track between Dandenong and Cranbourne, removing the single-track

bottlenecks that prevent more frequent passenger services on the line. The duplication works, which also include the rebuilding of Merinda Park station, will be done by 2023.

Three further crossings will be removed by 2025 under the Cranbourne Line Upgrade: Webster Street in Dandenong, Evans Road in Lyndhurst, and Camms Road in Cranbourne.

The project also includes upgrades to Thompsons Road and Hallam Road, and significant power, signalling and platform works to enable the rollout of larger High Capacity Metro Trains.

“This unprecedented investment in rail and road for Melbourne’s booming south east is vital to allow locals to get home

Meanwhile track, signal and electrical upgrades took place on Melbourne’s Upfield line in early September, in an effort to improve reliability for passengers.

Crews worked over three days compacting rock under the tracks, renewing points, and performing upgrades to improve electrical flow across the line, as part of the $330 million spent each year on the network under the contract between operator Metro Trains and the state government.

Work is taking place between North Melbourne and Upfield stations. Buses have replaced trains during the night works.

“The investment in these essential works will deliver more reliable track, signal and overhead equipment,” member for Broadmeadows, Frank McGuire said.

“This will lead to fewer faults and better services on the Upfield line.”

The Upfield line runs from Flinders Street station in Melbourne’s centre, to Upfield north of the city. It caters for more than 262,000 passengers each week.

Rail bridges chosen for pair of crossing removals VICTORIA’S LEVEL CROSSING Removal Authority has unveiled its preferred designs for rail bridges to remove a pair of level crossings in Melbourne’s east.

Rail-over-road bridges will be used to eliminate level crossings at Manchester Road in Mooroolbark, and Maroondah

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Highway in Lilydale.

The preferred designs include new stations at Mooroolbark and Lilydale, and a new multi-deck carpark at Mooroolbark with up to 450 new and upgraded spaces.

The state government said the rail bridge design, in both cases, avoids unnecessary land

acquisition, and will save around 18 months in construction time.

It said the work would also lay groundwork for further line upgrades, including the duplication of sections of the Lilydale line and a potential new station between Mooroolbark and Lilydale.

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QLD

NEWS

Light rail has so far been a major success on the Gold Coast.

Qld commits $351m to next stage of Gold Coast light rail QUEENSLAND PREMIER, Annastacia Palaszczuk, has urged the federalgovernment to “get onboard” and more than double its funding commitmentfor the next stage of the Gold Coast’s light rail line, after the state committed $351 million of its own moneyon August 7.

Stage 3A of the Gold Coast’s light rail line, the G:link, will take it seven kilometres further south, from its existing terminus at Broadbeach South to a new one at Burleigh Heads. The new section of line will add eight new stops.

“We’re all aboard, our funding is now on the table,” the premier said. “All we need now is for the federal government to get onboard too.”

Palaszczuk says she expressed the importance of the next stage of light rail in a recent meeting with the prime minister.

“The Reserve Bank of Australia has called on the Morrison Government to boost infrastructure spending to support the national economy,” she said. “Mr Morrison wants shovel ready projects to fund; we’ve got shovel ready projects galore.”

The estimated cost of Stage 3A of

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the G:link is $709 million. The federal government has so far committed $112 million, but the state wants to see that figure bumped up to $269 million. “[The funding] the federal government has committed falls well short of a fair funding agreement and is just not good enough for the people of the Gold Coast,” the premier said.

“What we’re asking the Morrison Government to do is commit $269 million to the project which is the same proportion funding arrangement (38 per cent) they invested in Stage 1.

“This next stage is vital to creating even more jobs, connecting the southern Gold Coast to the rest of the line and getting even more people onto public transport.”

State transport minister, Mark Bailey, said light rail had proven itself worthy of more investment.

“It’s proven itself as not only a huge positive for locals, but also for the tourism industry, with visitors from across the world getting onboard,” Bailey said.

“Not only has Gold Coast Light Rail revolutionised public transport on the coast, it’s also been a major job-creating project

which is great boost for the local economy.

I know [Gold Coast] Mayor [Tom] Tate is committed to getting this project built, and the City of the Gold Coast has committed to providing its fair share.

“If we can get a fair deal from Canberra, we can get on with it.”

Trips rise again Trips on the G:link rose past one million in the month of July, a new monthly record.

Member for Gaven Meaghan Scanlon announced the record patronage on August 14, saying it appeared the G:link may average more than a million trips a month for the 2019 calendar year, once all is said and done.

“The fact we’re still seeing strong and consistent passenger growth five years after light rail started shows what a valued and dependable public transport service it has become for the Coast,” Scanlon said.

“More than 42 million trips have been taken on the ‘G’ over that full five-year journey and the latest monthly record just confirms how important it is to get a fair deal from Canberra to help us get on with the next stage to Burleigh.”

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Canavan bitter after Aurecon severs ties with Adani FEDERAL RESOURCES MINISTER Matt Canavan has lambasted engineer Aurecon’s decision to cut ties with Adani and its controversial mine and rail project, following significant pressure from environmental activists.

Adani Australia on August 21 said Aurecon had given notice of its intentions to end its working association with the energy giant.

Aurecon has worked as an engineer on the

Abbot Point coal terminal for 20 years, which is now owned by Adani. The terminal is the planned export site for Adani’s Carmichael coal mine and rail project.

Aurecon’s decision comes after increased pressure from environmental groups who, having failed to halt the development of the Carmichael Project in the courts, have begun to campaign against Adani’s key contractors.

Speaking at a resources conference after Resources minister, Matt Canavan with Adani founder, Guatam Adani.

Adani confirmed the engineer was cutting ties, Minister Canavan reportedly labelled the decision “weak as piss,” and said Aurecon had failed to “stand up to a bunch of hippies”.

Adani was more civil in its response, saying it was “surprised” by the decision, but would have no trouble finding a new partner for the work Aurecon had left on the table.

“We are already in conversations with other businesses and a number of companies have eagerly expressed their interest in taking up this portfolio of work, along with other current opportunities to work with our Australian port business, the Carmichael Project, and our renewables business,” a spokesperson said.

“There has been a concerted campaign by extremists against our Carmichael Project and businesses that partner with us. It has not succeeded, and construction of the Carmichael Project is well and truly underway.”

The Carmichael Project incorporates a 10 million tonne per annum open cut thermal coal mine in the Galilee Basin, and a new, 200-kilometre narrow gauge rail line to connect it to Aurizon’s Central Queensland Coal Network.

More services for SEQ as patronage climbs THE PALASZCZUK GOVERNMENT has announced more train services after rail patronage soared to record levels in South East Queensland 2018/19.

Close to 190 million trips were taken on buses, trains, trams and ferries, an annual increase of seven million across all modes.

Rail patronage hit 55 million, up 4.3 per cent, and the Gold Coast Light Rail exceeded the overall growth figure with journeys rising 13.2 per cent to 10.7 million.

“Here we have Australia’s sixth-largest city moving with their feet on light rail, and it’s time the Federal LNP got serious about a fair funding offer,” state transport minister, Mark Bailey said. “We know that for every person taking public transport, it means less cars on our roads, benefitting everyone.”

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Bailey said the construction of Cross River Rail would soon mean even more growth for public transport in the sunshine state.

He also noted the significant growth in passenger numbers had come before the rollout of the state’s new $371 million smart ticketing system, which will let commuters use their smartphone, smartwatch, credit card or debit card to use public transport.

“Together with our fares initiative, which has saved Queenslanders more than $178 million, we’re embarking on major public transport projects to make sure Queenslanders can continue to work, home and where they want by bus, train, ferry or tram,” he said.

The state also added 430 more weekly train services to the timetable in August, including 85 additional trains in peak times

each week. It is also upgrading 59 existing three-carriage services to six carriages. In total these initiatives will add 200,000 extra seats to the weekly timetable.

“We’re looking forward to seeing customers across the region benefiting from these additional trains and seats,” Queensland Rail boss, Nick Easy said.

“These improvements have been underpinned by the largest traincrew recruitment campaign in Queensland Rail’s history, which has seen 177 new drivers and 314 new guards enter supply since October 2016. A further 74 trainee drivers and 58 trainee guards are currently in training, with more driver and guard schools planned to commence later this year to ensure we deliver a pipeline of talent.”

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WA

NEWS

Alstom to build Metronet fleet, Australind railcars in WA ALSTOM HAS BEEN NAMED THE preferred bidder to build 246 new railcars for Perth’s growing rail network, and six new Australind railcars, under a 50 per cent local content deal funded by the state government.

WA premier, Mark McGowan, announced on August 18 Alstom had been selected as the preferred bidder to build the Metronet fleet, almost a year after a trio of hopefuls were shortlisted for the work.

Budgeted at $1.6 billion over 10 years, the contract is for 102 railcars for new rail links and extensions, and another 144 to replace the ageing A-series fleet.

Together, the railcars will operate in 41 six-car sets, making up TransPerth’s C-series fleet.

At least 50 per cent of the trains’ construction will take place at a new plant in Bellevue, in Perth’s east. The plant is currently being designed, with a construction contract to be awarded in early 2020, and initial construction completion targeted for 2021.

The railcar contract also includes 30 years of maintenance, which Alstom would deliver using its HealthHub solution.

HealthHub, already in use on the Sydney Metro, is designed to combine a range of condition monitoring systems to coordinate an ideal predictive maintenance schedule.

Premier McGowan said new trains would hit the Mandurah and Joondalup lines starting from 2022, supporting more than 200 direct and long-term jobs.

“These are WA trains, so they should be

The Railcar Program is a core component of the WA government’s Metronet program.

WA jobs,” McGowan said. “When people ride on a new Metronet train, everyone will know that it was built in Western Australia,

by Western Australians.”

He noted since the Midland Railway Workshops were closed in 1994, work carried out in WA was limited to window tinting and passenger seating, just two per cent of the work that goes into building a train.

“WA can do so much more than that,” he said.

WA transport minister Rita Saffioti addresses an industry session.

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An Alstom spokesperson said the company was “delighted” to be selected as preferred bidder.

“We look forward to building on our existing local footprint and partnering with the State of WA in this exciting new phase of local railway manufacturing,” the spokesperson said.

WA transport minister, Rita Saffioti, said the tender process had confirmed it was more cost-effective to build the trains locally.

“This has been an important project of mine since I was Shadow transport minister and travelled over east to learn how the Victorian Government locally manufactured their trains,” Saffioti said.

“I knew that WA had the workforce and the skills to make this happen and I am proud that the Premier and I are able to deliver on this important election commitment.”

The new C-series fleet will replace the A-series fleet, which entered service throughout the 1990s. The last of the B-series fleet, manufactured in Queensland

by EDI Rail-Bombardier, was delivered to Perth in June 2019.

Alstom is also the preferred bidder to build six new diesel railcars for the state’s Australind service, with a target delivery

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WA Thornlie-Cockburn Link

WA premier, Mark McGowan, has made Metronet one of his biggest initiatives.

date of 2022-23.

Saffioti said the Australind services was “an important train service for residents in the south-west”.

“The Australind service has been neglected for too long, but will finally get the attention it deserves under the McGowan Labor Government,” she said.

Morley-Ellenbrook route revealed The WA government’s Metronet team has also been busy planning the route for the urban rail extension to the growing Ellenbrook town centre in Perth’s northeast.

The 21-kilometre rail extension will run from Ellenbrook, down the western side of New Lord Street, through land north of Marshall Road and then down the middle of Tonkin Highway, to connect with the Midland Line at Bayswater station.

Five stations will be built along the route: Ellenbrook, Whiteman Park, Malaga, Noranda and Morley. Measures will also be taken to facilitate a future station at Bennett Springs East, once population growth justifies its construction.

McGowan said on August 4 the state was finalising a business case for the line, ahead of its submission to Infrastructure Australia.

“The rail line to Ellenbrook is the signature Metronet project. We promised to build it, and we’re delivering on that promise,” McGowan said.

“This is a transformational project for our rail network – delivering world-class public transport to residents of Ellenbrook and the north-eastern suburbs. It is another job-creating Metronet project and will also help reduce congestion on local roads.”

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The state says Perth’s north-eastern suburbs are some of Australia’s fastestgrowing, with the population there expected to almost double in the 25 years to 2031, to more than 415,000.

With travel times from the area already unacceptable, Saffioti said the major project was needed ahead of further growth.

“Currently, it takes residents in Ellenbrook around one hour to get to the CBD when using public transport,” Saffioti said. “The Morley-Ellenbrook Line will halve that journey time.”

Byford extension business case The McGowan Government has also submitted its business case for the Byford rail extension to Infrastructure Australia, and aims to start work on the project in 2021.

The project would upgrade the existing regional rail corridor south of Armadale to facilitate passenger services to Byford, where population is set to double to more than 35,000 by 2036.

Saffioti noted the Serpentine-Jarrahdale area south of Byford had almost tripled in population since 2011, to 27,000, and growth rates in this area are expected to continue.

“Extending the Armadale line will give those living in Byford and beyond a real alternative to travelling around Perth by car, with travel times that can vary due to road congestion,” Saffioti said. “This is an important step forward on the project, with construction on track with our commitment at the election.”

The business case for the extension also includes futureproofing for a staged extension further south, to Mundijong.

Work has begun to widen and lengthen the Karel Avenue Bridge in Perth’s south, in a project to help facilitate the future eastwest railway connecting the Mandurah and Armadale lines.

Saffioti joined federal population, cities and urban infrastructure minister Alan Tudge to launch construction on the project on August 8.

Under the joint state-federal project, Karel Avenue Bridge over the Roe Highway and freight railway lines will be widened to create a dual carriageway, connecting at the roundabouts for on- and off-ramps.

The widening and lengthening of the bridge over the railway lines will be a key factor when the state government’s Metronet urban rail program is ready to deliver the Thornlie-Cockburn Link later this year.

Minister Saffioti noted the Karel Avenue Upgrade was one of seven new road projects in Perth’s south targeting enhanced transport efficiency.

“These projects support other major transport infrastructure improvements such as the Metronet Thornlie-Cockburn Link, to provide better options for commuters and those travelling in the southern suburbs on a daily basis,” Saffioti said.

Drivers sought The state government has opened recruitment for 60 new Transperth drivers, with training to align with key Metronet projects set to expand the network.

The first of the new recruits should be ready in time for the opening of the Forrestfield-Airport Link, due for late 2021, Saffioti said on August 16.

“There are plenty of us who would have held childhood dreams of driving a train.

With applications now open for the next round of Transperth train drivers, now could be the time to turn these dreams into reality,” the minister said.

To drive for Transperth, one must first complete a 25-week paid training period, as well as on-the-job training as a trainee railcar driver, to achieve a Certificate IV in Train Driving.

Training includes 11 weeks in the classroom learning theory, including electrical safety, customer service, signalling and communications, before 14 weeks of on-thejob training onboard trains.

“Once the training is complete, these drivers will literally take front seat in witnessing the Transperth network’s Metronet transformation, being among the first in the world to drive on the Forrestfield-Airport Link,” Saffioti said.

“Other Metronet projects are tracking

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WA ahead at full steam, with the recent announcement of the route for the MorleyEllenbrook line and confirmation that construction on the project will start in late 2019 with upgrades to Bayswater station.”

Two shortlisted for Bayswater station The WA government has also shortlisted two alliances to potentially build the new Bayswater station in north-east Perth, to handle future services on the ForrestfieldAirport Link and the Morley-Ellenbrook line.

A team of Georgiou Group and Lendlease will compete with a team of Coleman Rail and Decmil for the contract.

Bayswater, currently a one-island, two-platform station serving the Up and Down tracks on the Midland line, will mark the start of the future rail line to connect Morley and Ellenbrook. The in-construction extension out to Forrestfield via Perth Airport will also connect to the existing network just north of Bayswater.

The successful bidder will be required to design and construct the new rail bridge and station while minimising impacts to Midland line traffic.

The team will also complete track, signalling, civil, drainage and overhead line works along with building retaining walls, delivering electrical works, communications and control systems, and public spaces.

“The new Metronet Bayswater station will become a major hub of our worldclass rail network, with connections to the Forrestfield-Airport Link and MorleyEllenbrook line,” Saffioti said.

“With multiple Metronet projects on track, it’s an incredible time for the public transport industry in WA, as we see our future network constructed.”

Forrestfield station is being built as part of the Forrestfield-Airport Link, a passenger rail spur off the Midland line near Bayswater station, connecting to three new stations – Redcliffe, Airport Central and, of course, Forrestfield. The project is the first infrastructure built under Metronet.

First trains are expected to run by late 2021.

“Standing on the platform where the first train on the Forrestfield-Airport Link will depart from, it’s not hard to imagine how this station will look in just two years’ time when it is bustling with passengers,” Saffioti said.

As part of the Metronet program, a new Metronet East Redevelopment Area is being defined around Forrestfield.

“This area around the station will be transformed into a lively hub, creating more opportunities for residential and commercial development,” the transport minister said.

“The Forrestfield-Airport Link will be a game changer for eastern foothills residents, linking us to the wider public transport network and giving us more travel options,” Stephen Price, the local member for Forrestfield, added.

“Using local content, including bricks from the nearby Midland Brick, demonstrates the high quality of Western Australian materials and craftsmanship. I’m looking forward to seeing the train station and precinct develop further and create more opportunities for local workers, businesses and residents.”

NEWS

Patronage up The government credited a strong PR campaign as a key driver for the first growth in public transport patronage in Perth since 2015.

Patronage across Perth’s buses, trains and ferries grew 1.15 per cent to 141.5 million boardings in 2018/19. This followed three consecutive years of declines from the 148.8 million boardings recorded in 2014/15.

Train boardings grew 1.55 per cent to 61.5 million, with increases on the Armadale, Joondalup, Mandurah and Midland lines outweighing a mild decrease on the Fremantle line.

Saffioti said the patronage increase – particularly the increase in rail patronage – showed the value of a joint campaign by the Public Transport Authority and the government’s Metronet authority.

Metronet is delivering the state’s range of urban rail projects, which includes new rail lines, stations, extensions, and rollingstock.

“We are building Metronet because we recognise first-class public transport and well-connected homes are integral to a vibrant and sustainable city,” Saffioti said.

“A number of factors led to last year’s increase in passengers, including a patronage ad campaign from January, improving economic conditions and positive take up of services to Optus Stadium.”

Forrestfield station half complete An excited Premier McGowan visited the Forrestfield station worksite to mark the halfway point in its construction, as part of the rail line to Perth Airport set to open in 2021.

“This station is proof that Western Australians can manufacture quality products, build world-class infrastructure and innovate with the best of them,” McGowan said. “The roof steel is local, the fabricators are local, the bricks are local and the concrete is local – all being manufactured by local people, creating local jobs and training opportunities.”

Thirty-six concrete walls which will make up the station’s 150-metre platform have now been cast, and the installation of the station’s lower roof is complete. Two 16-tonne escalators and adjacent lift frames have also been installed.

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Premier Mark McGowan (left) and transport minister Rita Saffioti (right) at Forrestfield.

RAIL EXPRESS | ISSUE 7 2019

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NEWS

NEW ZEALAND

KiwiRail operates New Zealand’s railways.

KiwiRail boosts operating surplus NEW ZEALAND’S STATE-OWNED operator KiwiRail achieved $55 million in earnings in FY19, up $6 million.

KiwiRail, which owns New Zealand’s freight railways and operates both passenger and freight services, reported an 11 per cent increase in revenue in FY19 on August 30.

That drove an increase to its operating surplus – earnings before depreciation & amortisation, interest, impairment, capital grants and fair value changes – of $6 million, to $55 million for the full financial year.

Improved revenue was driven by a $39 million increase in rail freight revenue and increased utilisation of the Main North Line following its restoration after the Kaikoura Earthquake.

KiwiRail acting chair Bob Major said the profit growth was an achievement during a transitional year for the operator.

KiwiRail in May moved chairman Greg Miller to the role of CEO. Major also noted a ‘transformational’ amount of funding committed over the next two years by the government would help drive further growth.

“Not only did KiwiRail deliver a solid result, we are also very grateful to our Government shareholders for securing the future of rail for New Zealand. The Government’s commitment of $1 billion in this year’s budget will enable us to bring our service up to standard over future years,” Major said.

The NZ budget in May committed $375 million for new wagons and

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ISSUE 7 2019 | RAIL EXPRESS

locomotives, $331 million for track and infrastructure, and funding for KiwiRail to begin replacing its Interislander ferry fleet.

It also provisioned $300 million from the Provincial Growth Fund for regional rail projects.

Major said KiwiRail had also had a successful year with its people.

“KiwiRail’s engagement survey achieved a highly satisfying response, at 87 per cent of all workers despite many being on shifts or unwired in remote locations,” he said.

“We are particularly proud of the way our South Island teams pulled together in Christchurch on March 15 [after the Christchurch mosque shootings] to ensure all our team members were accounted for, counselling was engaged promptly and a week of site visits ensued to ensure the wellbeing of our people.”

Earthquake signs back at Wellington Meanwhile, the operator has told the public there is no increased risk at Wellington station despite the reinstatement of earthquake warning signs in the building.

Under pressure from Wellington City Council, KiwiRail posted Earthquake Prone Building (EPB) notices around the station in early September, two years after they were removed.

But KiwiRail assured the public nothing had changed about the building itself; instead citing a change in technical

guidelines for Engineering Assessments.

“If [the station] were a normal office building the overall building structure would be rated at 65-75 per cent New Building Standard (NBS),” KiwiRail chief operating officer for capital projects and asset development David Gordon said.

“But because the office is part of a public building it has to meet a higher standard than a normal office building.”

KiwiRail’s engineering assessment in 2015 found the station to be rated between 45 and 55 per cent NBS – a building is considered earthquake prone if it falls below 34 per cent NBS. The operator posted EPB notices around the station at that time and undertook work to strengthen the building.

“This included work strengthening the atrium roof trusses, and removal unreinforced masonry from the building to bring these elements up to the standard of the rest of the building. Additional work was also undertaken post the November 2016 earthquake to address other earthquake risk elements.”

Now that the EPB signs have been reinstated, new engineering assessments will take place.

“We are now having the building reassessed following the latest guidelines and will be putting up EPB notices in the interim. It is no different to many other public buildings around Wellington,” Gordon said.

KiwiRail expects the new assessment process to take around eight months.

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NEW ZEALAND

NEWS

City Rail Link: Timeline released for next phase of works PLANNING DETAILS HAVE BEEN released for the biggest phase of work on the City Rail Link beneath Auckland.

The Link Alliance delivering the CRL in August outlined three phases of work for the Aotea underground station: early works including the relocation of utilities, main works including construction of the station, and finally landscaping and public realm improvements.

It was announced the first phase of the Aotea work would begin in September, during which time canopies will be removed from buildings to create space for piling works.

“

I want to assure people that CRL Ltd and the Link Alliance will together do all we can to minimise disruption but a project as big and as complex as CRL presents many challenges that will, unavoidably, impact on life in the city centre for some time.

”

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Additionally, main works to extend the twin tunnels already built under Albert Street further south to Mayoral Drive, are expected to start in the first quarter of next year. The cut and cover trench will include extensive station excavations along Albert Street.

“Work is quickly ramping up for a project that is going to give an international city like Auckland the modern rail network it needs,” City Rail Link chief executive, Dr Sean Sweeney, said. “But there is no easy way to deliver a job like this in the middle of a busy CBD.” Vehicle access will be restricted along the key stretch of Albert Street, while footpaths will remain open for access to homes, shops and offices. Albert Street intersections with Victoria Street and Wellesley Street will also need to be closed for stretches of time.

“I want to assure people that CRL Ltd and the Link Alliance will together do all we can to minimise disruption but a project as big and as complex as CRL presents many challenges that will, unavoidably, impact on life in the city centre for some time,” Sweeney said.

First contract complete Rail tunnels can now be built at Mt Eden as part of the CRL, after a massive new stormwater main was built under the project’s first complete contract.

The NZ$16.5 million ($15.25 million) contract saw the construction of a 423-metre stormwater main, 17 metres below ground. The work also connected new and old mains, to allow for the removal of the existing stormwater main obstructing the planned path for the rail tunnels.

The new main was bored by a microtunnel boring machine called Jeffie, which took just 7 weeks to do the work expected to take 15.

Sweeney said the completion of the relatively small contract was a significant step for the NZ$4.4 billion passenger rail project.

“The contract was a small but

Jeffie working below Auckland’s streets.

important step and its completion marks the start of huge strides we’re about to take as our main work ramps up to deliver CRL for Auckland in 2024,” Sweeney said.

“Jeffie went superbly well and did a fantastic job for us building the new main.”

Jeffie used technology not seen before in New Zealand during its boring journey. In order to navigate a tight underground curve around some hard volcanic rock, hydraulic joints were used to spread the pressure evenly between each segment, to avoid damaging the pipes around the curve.

Jeffie has since moved on to Ecuador for a new tunnelling project.

CRL is to be a 3.45-kilometre, twintunnel underground rail link at depths of up to 42 metres below Auckland’s city centre. The new rail link will connect Britomart to the existing Western Line at a re-developed Mt Eden station, to “complete the loop” for passenger rail in New Zealand’s most populous city.

RAIL EXPRESS | ISSUE 7 2019

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NEWS

NEW ZEALAND

NZTA, NZ Infra to develop competing proposals for Auckland light rail

Light rail is aimed at supporting Auckland’s sustainable growth plan.

THE NEW ZEALAND GOVERNMENT will consider separate proposals from a private consortium and its own transport agency, for the City Centre to Mãngere Light Rail Project in Auckland.

NZ Infra, a joint venture between the New Zealand Super Fund and Canada’s CDPQ Infra group, has been asked to refine an unsolicited proposal it tabled in May 2018 for the light rail project. The proposal would see the project co-designed with the government but with NZ Infra majority funding the work and taking on the risk.

Meanwhile, the government has also asked the New Zealand Transport Agency – the stateowned transport entity – to develop a more traditional proposal for light rail link.

Transport minister, Phil Twyford, on August 22 told an Infrastructure New

Auckland’s population is expected to reach almost 2 million by 2029.

Zealand conference the two proposals were “significantly different”.

“What NZ Infra is proposing has never been considered before in New Zealand,” he said. “[Meanwhile] the NZTA is exploring a range of procurement, financing and delivery models, including alliances and publicprivate partnerships, and will continue to deliver these.”

NZ Super Fund CEO, Matt Whineray, said the NZ Infra team was preparing a range of information to provide to the ministry.

“We are pleased to be taking part in the new process being led by the Ministry of Transport to advance light rail in Auckland,” he said.

The NZ Transport Agency said it would also prepare a range of information for the government.

“The Transport Agency has made good progress on the Indicative Business Case for City Centre to Mãngere,” NZTA said in a statement.

“While the Transport Agency acknowledges previous market engagement processes undertaken as part of the IBC development, the Agency is now taking part in a new process, and as such will look to engage with advisors and consultants as is appropriate for that process.”

The City Centre to Mãngere is planned to connect two of Auckland’s fastest-growing employment centres – the city centre and the airport – and alleviate current and forecat bus capacity constraints in the city centre.

Minister Twyford said a final decision would be made on the project early next year.

Hamilton-Auckland rail services to get cars off roads FOUR PASSENGER SERVICES will operate each day between Auckland and Hamilton on New Zealand’s North Island. $79.8 million from the Transport Agency and $12.6 million from local authorities will pay for construction and operation of the service, expected to roll midway through 2020.

The service will initially use a four-carriage train to carry up to 150 passengers, with two services each day in either direction.

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ISSUE 7 2019 | RAIL EXPRESS

The train will leave Frankton in Hamilton, stop at The Base in Rotokauri, then Huntly, before finishing its journey at Papakura in Auckland, where passengers can change onto the city’s transport network. Future stops may include Te Kauwhata, Pokeno and Tuakau.

“More and more people are commuting between Hamilton and Auckland, and this service will give them a real choice between being stuck in traffic or relaxing on the train,”

transport minister Phil Twyford said.

“An important part of our transport policy is giving people options so they don’t always have to take their car, freeing up the roads for those that have to drive.”

Twyford said the Transport Agency was looking to further entice commuters onto the train by enabling it with Wi-Fi for passengers.

There were 241,000 people living in Hamilton as of a 2018 government survey.

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CIVIL CONSTRUCTION & HEAVY MACHINERY

Construction teams benefit from leasing model CFCL Australia’s Matthew Roberts says more construction consortiums are relying on leasing the equipment they need to deliver projects on time and under budget.

C

FCL AUSTRALIA (CFCLA) has fingers in many pies when it comes to rail asset leasing.

From a large fleet of locomotives, to wagons servicing a range of industries, to heavy machinery capable of laying and maintaining track, CFCLA can service the needs of just about any rail owner or operator.

One thing CFCLA is not, however, is a rail operator. “We don’t want to compete with our customers,” CFCLA Rollingstock Operations Manager, Matthew Roberts, explains to Rail Express.

“We want to work with them and provide them with a stakeholder who’ll take a long-term approach to the rollingstock they rely on.”

Supplying rail operators with locomotives and wagons has been a core business for CFCLA for more than 20 years. Its fleet in Australia includes 78

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locomotives and roughly 1,700 wagons, including intermodal, grain, and bulk. Its core business is leasing those pieces of rollingstock to operators and shippers, so they can do their business without taking on the burden of long-term ownership.

But Roberts says an increasing source of work for CFCLA in recent years has been large consortiums and construction firms who are bidding for major contracts to build new infrastructure.

“There are more companies coming to us that aren’t rail operators; they’re the people going out to try to win big projects,” he says. “Obviously, we think everyone should lease, but in the past, it would have just been the rail operators. Now, it’s the consortiums coming to us.”

The benefits of leasing to these firms are simple: it means they don’t actually need to own all the

CFCLA’s fleet includes a wide range of wagons.

RAIL EXPRESS | ISSUE 7 2019

33

CIVIL CONSTRUCTION & HEAVY MACHINERY

ABOVE: CFCLA maintains all the locomotives and wagons it leases out as part of its standard contract.

RIGHT: The company’s fleet of heavy machinery can help construction firms stay agile when it comes to major rail projects.

34

equipment they need to bid for any given project, and once they win such a project, they don’t need to buy it.

“The thing is, jobs of that scale might only come up every few years for any given company,” Roberts explains. “Between jobs you’ve got to be able to store the equipment for long periods. When we buy a locomotive, it’s got to have over a 35- to 50-year life cycle, maybe even longer. Wagons are the same.

Whenever we buy anything, we always take the long-term ownership view.

“When a project consortium comes together, they want to get that job done and then disperse.

Through a leasing model we essentially hold the equipment, and then bring it out again for the next job. That also means we’ll keep the expertise we need to maintain that fleet.”

Further simplifying things, CFCLA has its own accreditation with the Office of the National Rail Safety Regulator, so customers know a high standard is being maintained across the fleet.

“That means when they take our equipment, and we sign off to say it’s ready to go, they can be sure that it’s ready to go.”

A typical contract will include, in CFCLA’s fee, all

ISSUE 7 2019 | RAIL EXPRESS

the necessary maintenance on the locomotives and the wagons. Lessors can find comfort knowing it’s in CFCLA’s best interest to do a good job of that, too, and CFCLA will even activate its flexible workforce to set up shop in close proximity to a project, if it’s being done in a remote place.

One example of this was for John Holland’s construction of the Roy Hill railway in the Pilbara.

CFCLA supplied heavy equipment for that work, and supported that contract with a team on the ground to keep the equipment maintained.

CFCLA recently put together two locomotives and a ballast rake for work on the Inland Rail construction project from Parkes to Narromine, and Roberts says the company is well-equipped to do more of that work as the project ticks along.

“We’ve got the rail equipment that was used to make the Roy Hill line a couple of years ago,” he says, “equipment that can build a greenfield railway.

We’d anticipate that could help assist with the Inland Rail project.”

Growing business Increased interest from construction teams is a welcome growth area for CFCLA, but the company

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the freight market, Roberts doesn’t expect a sudden increase in demand for CFCLA’s services; instead he expects steady growth over time.

“I think it will take time,” he says. “The way freight transport works, it might take three years for contracts to end and more freight to move from roads to rail. But we’re there to help with that transition, and to take on the role of rollingstock supplier in the long-term. Should an operator or shipper need to ramp up slowly to multiple trains or locomotives and wagons we are there to help a business as it grows.”

CFCLA’s newest locomotives are the CM Class, built by Motive Power (Wabtec) in Boise, Idaho.

The fleet also includes locomotives from other North American firms EMD and GE. The key benefit of this, Roberts explains, is the US-built machines are already accredited for use in Australia.

“Ours were out running the moment they arrived,” he says.

Notably, a significant portion of CFCLA’s wagon fleet was built in Adelaide, the site of the larger of two CFLCA Maintenance workshops – the other being in Goulburn.

CFCLA Maintenance is not only used to maintain CFCLA’s fleet but also services locomotives and wagons owned by other companies, including passenger rollingstock like The Ghan and the Indian Pacific, which are worked on in Adelaide.

“We do passenger car work, locomotive work, wagon work, track maintenance equipment work.

Being positioned in Adelaide, in particular, means we’re able to work on rollingstock being used on the east-west and the north-south corridors,” Roberts concludes.

“

Between jobs you’ve got to be able to store the equipment for long periods.

When we buy a locomotive, it’s got to have over a 35- to 50-year life cycle, maybe even longer.

Wagons are the same. Whenever we buy anything, we always take the long-term ownership view.

”

Contact: cfcla.com.au still does well with its core business leasing locomotives and wagons to shippers and operators.

The CFCLA fleet operates across the national standard gauge network, including locomotives and rail maintenance trains in the Pilbara Region, servicing iron ore rail operators.

When it comes to general freight, Roberts notes some specific contracts are shorter build, such as solar power station construction or other project work. While CFCLA can handle these short term contracts, he says it can also offer improved economies to customers in the longer term.

“When it comes to general rail freight, contracts can be shorter, or they can be a five- or a seven-year contract,” Roberts says.

“Regardless of contract length, it’s better for them to come and lease it from us. At the end of the contract, if they don’t win it again, we’ll take the assets back, for them to be maintained in the long-term.”

The synergy then for CFCLA is if a contract changes hands from one rail operator to another, CFCLA can simply offer the assets to the new contract holder, and an easy transition can be made.

In terms of the impact Inland Rail will have on

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RAIL EXPRESS | ISSUE 7 2019

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CIVIL CONSTRUCTION & HEAVY MACHINERY

Specialised skills approach to service rail’s construction boom With work ramping up across the rail sector, labour hire, recruitment, managed labour and safety management firm Category 5 is focusing on its unique, specialised offering for a stretched skills market.

T

BELOW: Working on the rail can be a tough, physically challenging environment.

36

HE PIPELINE OF RAIL CONSTRUCTION and maintenance work is estimated at more than $100 billion over the next decade.

After construction work rose 56 per cent in FY18 and another 5 per cent in FY19, BIS Oxford Economics estimates it will almost double over the next five years.

One of the sector’s biggest concerns as work ramps up in cities and regions all around the country, is the supply of skilled labour to meet this surging demand.

The Australasian Railway Associationcommissioned Skills Crisis report, conducted

by BIS Oxford Economics at the end of 2018, estimated that by the expected peak for rail construction in 2023, the sector could be left more than 70,000 workers short of the jobs needed.

Paul Tobin, Category 5 Labour Management’s General Manager for Australia’s East Coast and New Zealand, tells Rail Express the skills shortage is the single greatest challenge facing the sector in both countries as a result of the infrastructure boom.

ISSUE 7 2019 | RAIL EXPRESS

“Although rewarding, working on the rail can be a tough, physically challenging working environment,” Tobin says. “In recent times people have been steered toward careers requiring university degrees rather than these labour/tradebased roles.”

While the trend has been towards university degrees, Tobin says more and more rail construction projects are valuing workers with qualifications and skillsets that might commonly be seen as less prestigious and sought after than a university degree.

“Specific rail skills and experience have largely gone unrecognised in the past, but I think the industry is really shifting toward rail specialists, and understanding the value they can bring to a project,” he says. “The rail and infrastructure boom is going to be a game changer, and I think we are going to be left short of that specialist labour.”

Understanding where those gaps will emerge in the labour market is key to Category 5’s business.

In recent years, the company has already responded to growth in demand in a number of key sectors, focusing on a deeper understanding of the needs of specific operators. Its Cat 5 Rail business has established teams serving a number of segments of the rail sector.

“Roles like traction overhead lineman, signalling technician and the like have come under real demand and set to continue,” Tobin says, citing an example. With the significant growth in the traction overhead line sector, the company focused on providing highly skilled and experienced personnel for this part of the market.

Subsequently, Cat 5 Rail has built specialty teams which have worked on the removal projects for nine level crossings on Melbourne’s CranbournePackenham line. Cat 5 Rail also supplies specialist hi-rail plant and equipment for overhead wiring construction and maintenance.

“All our linesmen are nationally accredited and hold the competency on the Rail Industry Worker system,” Tobin says. “We have some of the most experienced and capable overhead support staff known throughout Australia and New Zealand.”

Cat 5 Rail has taken a similar approach to

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LEFT: More and more rail construction projects are valuing workers with qualifications and skillsets that might be commonly seen as “less prestigious” than a university degree.

provide specialist support for signalling work, welding and track, as well as the supply of rail safeworking staff for a range of projects.

Tobin says the Cat 5 Rail team has become one of the most renowned, specifically for track work, in the Port Hedland and wider Pilbara Region. Across Australia and New Zealand, Cat 5 Rail’s track crews have worked with blue chip clients like BHP, Rio Tinto, Lend Lease, John Holland, Laing O’Rourke and Downer.

Training and education While sourcing the right people for existing work, a critical element of solving the skills shortage for rail will be training and up-skilling workers.

“For the industry to survive and excel throughout the boom, investment in training and education is going to be key,” Tobin says. As a registered training organisation, Tobin says Category 5 is ready to help the industry meet these challenges.

Sam Sycamore, Category 5’s CEO and owner, was born in Port Hedland and founded his business there after more than 15 years in senior mining and resources, oil and gas and industrial management positions.

Gaining perspective from the customer side of the labour market, Sycamore identified a need for a more tailored solution than that offered by the biggest recruitment companies. He says seeing workers learn specific skills and develop into more specialised roles is one of the best aspects of the business.

“Someone might start off as a labourer, but some of these people who have worked for us for three years have become leading hands, machine operators, track machine operators,” Sycamore says.

“They’re becoming specialists in their field, and that’s one of the joys of the job; seeing someone that

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has reached their potential or is beginning to reach their potential.”

Cat 5 Rail’s training business is partnered with Hedland High School and other organisations, to provide students the ability to undertake a Cert 2 in Rail Infrastructure.

Boosting presence Looking to take advantage of its valuable offering for the rail sector, Category 5 has launched a new website and increased its social media presence on LinkedIn, Instagram and Facebook.

Tobin says the company has an excellent reputation among its existing customers, and has managed to thrive since it was founded in 2009 by focusing on the needs of its customers.

“Good old-fashioned customer service, a sense of urgency and a passion for what we do has been the fuel to our growth and success,” he says. “Our work in the Pilbara has provided the opportunity to work with a number of tier-one companies and we have been able to replicate this across the country.”

Over 10 years, the company has grown from a sole operator to a team of more than 20 dedicated professionals within Cat 5 Rail alone, servicing markets in Western Australia, Victoria and New Zealand, and soon in other states across Australia.

While Category 5 works across several sectors, Tobin says rail represents the “roots” of the business.

“Cat 5 has been built from our work in the rail sector and the business has been built from a real personalised family, local type atmosphere whereby we know our clients and employees as our family and friends,” he says.

“A lot of the Cat 5 clients are long term clients that have been with us from the start. We have varying lengths of contract, but our relationships continue on for the long term.”

“

Roles like traction overhead lineman, signalling technician and the like have come under real demand and set to continue.

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RAIL EXPRESS | ISSUE 7 2019

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FREIGHT RAIL

Rail urged to ‘get its elbows out’ On a sunny day in Toowoomba in August, Pacific National’s Andrew Huckel interrupted a justifiably optimistic Inland Rail conference with a harsh reality check: much more work needs to be done before rail gets its fair share.

“W

E HAVEN’T BEEN THE squeakiest wheel, and hence the grease hasn’t flowed our way.”

That was the frank assessment given to the rail sector by Pacific National Head of Corporate Affairs Andrew Huckel at the Inland Rail conference on August 21.

Huckel, who took part in a panel alongside leaders from other freight rail operators, provided perhaps the most colourful commentary on day one of the event, with his honest and direct view on the challenges rail faces competing with the road sector.

“In terms of government; the current rhetoric doesn’t meet the reality,” Huckel said. “We’re living in a parallel universe. Something this sector has failed to do over 20 or 30 years is we haven’t had our elbows out. We haven’t been screaming.”

Huckel’s comments drew murmurs from some pockets of the delegation; chuckles of pleasant surprise from others. His direct message and refreshing tone stood out at an event where much of the discourse was spent praising current levels of collaboration, bipartisanship and optimism around the Inland Rail project.

That was no accident.

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“If it’s not in the media, it’s just not an issue,” Huckel told the crowd of more than 400, gathered in Toowoomba’s historic Empire Theatre.

“Politicians are incredibly busy, as are their staff.

And if an issue is not being talked about in the media, it’s not an issue. They just don’t have time for it.”

The issue Huckel wants front and centre in the minds of federal, state and local politicians is facilitating a significant modal shift: getting more freight off roads, and onto railways. Pacific National, and other freight operators like it, face substantial barriers to driving this change.

“There’s a lack of alignment in government strategy,” Seaway Group CEO and fellow panellist, Craig McElvaney, weighed in.

“As an example, the Victorian government has a modal shift incentive scheme which drives more containers into the Port of Melbourne by rail. It’s a great initiative, and it should be continued. But at the same time, other sides of government are approving larger road vehicles. Now, that’s counterintuitive to what the government in Victoria is trying to achieve, to get more trucks off the roads especially in the major cities.

ABOVE: PN’s Andrew Huckel says freight rail needs to put up a stronger fight to even the access charge imbalance enjoyed by the road transport sector.

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FREIGHT RAIL

“

Australia’s busiest freight corridor by volume has become a conveyor belt of 700,000 B-double equivalent return truck trips each year along the Hume Highway.

”

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“It’s a lack of alignment, and it’s very frustrating for us.”

The lack of a concerted, uniform effort towards a better freight sector is something Huckel’s boss, Pacific National CEO Dean Dalla Valle, has been very vocal about for some time.

In July, Dalla Valle – also chair of the Freight on Rail Group (FORG) of Australia – urged rail access charges be abolished between Melbourne and Sydney, saying rail freight along the corridor was “on its deathbed”. While the number of big trucks moving freight between the country’s two largest cities continues to grow, rail now represents just one per cent of freight traffic on the corridor.

“Australia’s busiest freight corridor by volume has become a conveyor belt of 700,000 B-double equivalent return truck trips each year along the Hume Highway,” Dalla Valle said.

“Now the Hume Highway is fully duplicated, I suspect governments in the future will allow access for even bigger trucks on the freeway, including A-doubles and B-triples.”

McElvaney said the recent trend of governments approving larger, wider and longer trucks has increased uncertainty for Inland Rail, as well.

“With the Inland Rail route, we’re not sure whether they’ll be running B-Quads or six-trailer combinations in the next five years; it’s very unpredictable,” he said.

“That’s where the road industry does a very good job compared to the rail industry, that is for certain, and we get very frustrated by the lack of initiative for rail. It’s almost like they’re on different planets.”

Huckel agrees the road sector has secured itself a good position.

“The comparative benefits of rail – safety, lower emissions, reduced traffic congestion, less pollution in cities, reduced wear and tear on highways and

ISSUE 7 2019 | RAIL EXPRESS

freeways – none of those beneficial externalities are adequately built into existing land freight pricing models,” Huckel said.

“This is making it very, very difficult for rail operators to compete with road freight. I’m pretty sure the public don’t want that, and I’m pretty sure they’d want more of an equal policy playing field.”

Red tape a challenge One trend hoped to improve the share of freight on rail has been the range of intermodal terminals being developed in the outer suburbs of Australia’s largest cities.

In Sydney, the most notable storyline for several years has been the Moorebank Intermodal Terminal, being developed by Qube. Earlier this year, Pacific National announced plans for another new intermodal terminal at St Marys, in Western Sydney.

But these developments don’t happen easily. Qube has had to clear multiple time-consuming hurdles to get Moorebank off the ground, and Huckel believes this is another area where governments need to do more to help.

“We’ve seen the process Qube’s had to go through with Moorebank, and our proposal at St Marys will be challenging as well, just in terms of that same bureaucracy,” Huckel said.

“You’ve got to deal with Transport, the EPA, the Department of Planning, local government and sometimes the left hand doesn’t know what the right hand is doing.

“Politicians – ministers – have got to keep a keen eye on these issues.”

Without that leadership, a good project like St Marys Freight Hub could struggle to make reasonable progress.

“We’ve got a situation where this is a $100 million investment, providing 60 construction jobs, 175 full

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time jobs in phase one, and at the moment we’ve pretty much got zero interest from government,” Huckel said.

The St Marys hub would be connected to Port Botany via a linkup to the T1 Western Rail Line, providing for 58-kilometre port shuttles.

Pacific National says the site’s 43-hectare size and surrounding land uses give it an effective buffer to noise-sensitive residential zones further afield, making it ideal for an intermodal terminal.

“That particular project will help take [annually] 70-80 thousand trucks off the M4 motorway and Great Western Highway, which both suffer heavy congestion each day,” Huckel said.

“Intermodal freight hubs are critical to help with that mode shift; to get rail closer to catchments – cities, warehouses and retailers.

“We want to make these investments, but it’s hard. I look at a lot of org structures for these government agencies, and these people don’t call us. If they’re not speaking to us, I don’t know who they’re talking to. Because we’re here to invest, and we’re here to help streamline – to move freight more efficiently – and to provide jobs. Wouldn’t that be a wonderful thing for Australia?”

Parkes setting good example Huckel said intermodal terminals need as much support from local governments as they do from the higher levels, and he said Parkes – the future intersection of the Inland Rail route and Australia’s east-west railway – is setting a great example.

Pacific National is formally opening its new Parkes intermodal terminal on October 30. Dalla Valle has previously praised the development of the National Logistics Hub program by Parkes Shire Council – and he’s put his money where his mouth is, with $35 million invested in

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Pacific National’s site in that hub.

“The last mile is critical, and this is where councils play a big role, particularly regionally,” Huckel said. “When you look at a council like Parkes, they’re progressive, they’ve got commercial acumen. They actually get stuff done, and they work closely with industry and the private sector.”

The sector needs to push for that kind of engagement from all levels of government if Inland Rail and intermodal projects are to drive any real shift in the freight sector, from road to rail – a shift Huckel says has been neglected for too long.

“It’s partly our fault,” he said. “We’ve been too gentlemanly, too silent. That’s going to change. I think we’re starting to articulate these messages a little bit better, and hopefully that moves the dial.”

ABOVE: Just one per cent of freight between Melbourne and Sydney goes by train.

BELOW: Pacific National will capitalise on Inland Rail with an investment in Parkes.

RAIL EXPRESS | ISSUE 7 2019

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FREIGHT RAIL

Inland Rail team ‘owning’ community challenges as Labor pushes for inquiry The second annual Inland Rail conference was in many ways a celebration of a project finally underway after years of half-hearted commitments and empty speculation. But while construction has begun on the nation-building railway, the project is not without its speedbumps. Oliver Probert reports.

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AFR Weekend in April. “But we don’t think due process has been followed.”

Judd is the chairman of the Millmerran Rail Group, formed in 2016 by local farmers to challenge the chosen route for Inland Rail – especially the 16km stretch over the Condamine floodplain. The group says the planned route over the floodplain was underwater as recently as the 2011 floods, and they don’t trust the ARTC to build a project that can withstand that environment without damaging the landscape itself.

“It is open to a potential disaster, cost blowouts and ongoing maintenance costs,” Judd was quoted.

“What they have managed to do is alienate their biggest support base.”

It’s farmers like Judd who present the biggest

CREDIT: ALC

BELOW: The second Inland Rail conference under way.

ARMERS IN QUEENSLAND’S Darling Downs are unhappy. They say they’ve been ignored by the federal government, which they say has gone against their wishes in planning the Inland Rail route, particularly in South East Queensland and northern New South Wales.

Inland Rail, a $10 billion freight railway to connect Brisbane and Melbourne via regional Queensland, New South Wales and Victoria, is destined to provide better access to export markets for farmers living and working along the route.

But it’s some of those very farmers who are most opposed to the work of the Inland Rail team, a division of the federal government’s Australian Rail Track Corporation (ARTC).

“They are hell-bent on doing this,” Wes Judd told

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ISSUE 7 2019 | RAIL EXPRESS

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CREDIT: ARTC

challenge to the federal government, the ARTC, and its Inland Rail team. Protest signs posted by the Millmerran group and others like it are hard to miss, even on the 30-minute drive from Toowoomba’s Wellcamp Airport to the city centre, where the Australasian Railway Association and the Australian Logistics Council recently co-hosted the second annual Inland Rail conference.

“The time is now for government, industry and community to work together to build a stronger, more resilient, and more prosperous nation,” the Coalition’s minister for regional services, decentralisation and local government Mark Coulton told the conference on its opening morning.

“We cannot do that if we don’t own our mistakes, and learn from our mistakes. We must reflect on how we’ve engaged the community in the past, and commit to work harder and do better to ensure our ongoing work is built on mutual respect and understanding.”

The mistakes Coulton refers do not relate to the route itself, however. He – and the Inland Rail team – concede the major mistake so far has been in how the community has been engaged.

Coulton, who was speaking on behalf of an under-the-weather Nationals leader Michael McCormack, said he himself hears concerns from farmers and communities in his own electorate of Parkes, which will host around 300 kilometres of the Inland Rail route.

“Inevitably, Inland Rail will touch on people’s land,” Coulton said. “Much of this land has social value, economic value, and even cultural heritage, and we don’t take this lightly, which is why the alignment has been based on multiple studies and analyses. I’m confident we have the right study corridor for this project, but that does not mean we can ignore concerns from communities and landholders, about how they were consulted about Inland Rail route selection.”

Speaking outside to a media gathering, Coulton said he believed the route was “pretty well set,” but “what we need to do now is work through engineering solutions to the route we’ve chosen”.

“I’m very well aware that Inland Rail will cross some of Australia’s most diverse country,” he told the conference. “Hills, valleys, black soil and granite.

Some of it right here in South East Queensland. All of the engineering is challenging, but we are very conscious that decision about floodplain crossings raise legitimate concerns around flooding impacts.

“I know our farmers understand their own land better than anyone else – they have to, their livelihoods depend upon it. But at the same time that’s why Inland Rail is so vital: we share the [agricultural] sector’s vision for growth, which relies deeply on having the right infrastructure in place.

“Make no mistake: we will work the man hours to continue learning about their land, about the machinery and dams and movement of stock that they know so well as the back of their hands, to

provide certainty. We do care, we are listening, and we will do our best to minimise the disruption of their businesses.”

Key to driving an improved relationship with farmers and communities is the Inland Rail team, and Coulton said he has “really seen a shift” in community engagement since the formal appointment of a leader for Inland Rail in CEO, Richard Wankmuller.

Wankmuller, who also spoke at the Inland Rail event, said his team was working hard to deliver the seamless, efficient project that was promised, and not an “engineering monstrosity”.

“We have some very difficult areas,” he conceded, “which some of you here in the audience know I’m very concerned about, and that’s crossing the floodplains.

“Floodplains in Australia are significant. But if you’re going to have a flat line in this country, you’re probably going to be dealing with a floodplain.”

Wankmuller said the Inland Rail team includes several experts with extensive experience building railways across floodplains in places like Northern Queensland, Africa, and the Mississippi Delta in the United States.

“We have to make sure we do the right thing; we have to tap into the knowledge on hand to find the solutions that will work,” he said. “We have some of those same people [from other floodplain crossings], with some of the same knowledge, working with us to take these designs and modify them for the soils here, and we have to reassure ourselves that we can do the same thing. And we have to be able to communicate that to the community.”

Wankmuller conceded the community outreach program for Inland Rail got off on the wrong foot.

“We probably got out there a little too early,” he said. “We got out there without enough information,

ABOVE: (L to R) Richard Wankmuller, Warren Truss and John Fullerton.

“

Floodplains in Australia are significant. But if you’re going to have a flat line in this country, you’re probably going to be dealing with a floodplain.

”

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CREDIT: ARTC

CREDIT: ALC

FREIGHT RAIL

TOP LEFT: (L to R) Ian Macfarlane, CEO, Queensland Resources Council; Heath Baker, Acting CEO, Export Council of Australia; Ben Newton, Head of Transport Development, Woolworths Group Supply Chain; Simon Ormsby, Group Executive Strategy and Corporate Development, ARTC.

TOP RIGHT: Deputy prime minister Michael McCormack speaking at an Inland Rail ceremony earlier this year.

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and it’s only just now that we have field investigation work and some of the reference design information, and you need that to answer the questions that some people have.

“In the past we gave our people too little information for the questions they were going to get, so it looked like they were withholding information, when in reality they just didn’t have it.

“I’m very sensitive to the fact that when you go out into a floodplain area, generations have grown up knowing everything they’ve ever seen built there has failed to some degree. It’s very difficult for them to believe we can do anything different, and it’s our job to explain to them how we’re going to do it.”

The Opposition disagrees with the sentiment that disputes over the chosen route for Inland Rail can be solved with better community consultation.

Shadow transport and infrastructure minister Catherine King told the Toowoomba conference an inquiry into Inland Rail – promised by Labor before the election – was dearly needed and other solutions should still be on the table.

“While we support this project, we are deeply concerned that when it comes to many of the fundamental details, the government – frankly – has not got it right,” King said.

“As you are well aware, in some parts of the route, farmers and affected communities have become openly hostile to Inland Rail. Just in the past few weeks we’ve seen farmer against farmer, and community against community, on a project that if delivered properly is a positive for our regions, and the nation as a whole. I take those concerns very seriously.”

King said the Labor inquiry would have been a top priority had it won the election in May. Under Labor’s plan, an eminent person with an extensive background in large infrastructure project delivery would conduct an independent, transparent inquiry with Infrastructure Australia as its secretariat.

The inquiry would be given access to government departments and external consulting, and would have a strong focus on public submissions.

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“The inquiry would have been one of our first orders of business, with a reporting date by the end of this year,” King said. “It would have had a strong remit to identify solutions to get the project back on track, both with the community and in terms of the project’s finances.

“Since the election, there have continued to be tensions between communities along the route, but we are not seeing any evidence that the government is working in a meaningful way to actively address these issues.”

Disappointment over Queensland’s Inland Rail delays Another of Inland Rail 2019’s biggest talking points was the government which decided not to show up.

Opening the conference, Australian Logistics Council chair Philip Davies, formerly the CEO of Infrastructure Australia, thanked the more than 450 representatives from the private sector, local and federal governments, and from NSW and Victorian state governments for their support.

But he said the lack of representation from Queensland – the only state yet to sign an intergovernmental deal for Inland Rail – was cause for concern.

“Despite this week being a sitting week in Queensland, it’s very disappointing to not have representation from either the Queensland government or officials,” Davies said. “We hope [the inter-governmental agreement] will be addressed in coming weeks.”

Despite not sending a representative to Toowoomba, the state government did use the event as an opportunity to reiterate its desire for more federal funding as a condition of its participation in the Inland Rail project.

Transport and main roads minister Mark Bailey on August 21 said he had written to Canberra, calling on Scott Morrison and Michael McCormack to increase and fast-track funding for projects across the state as part of an Inland Rail agreement.

Bailey wants funding to increase by $857 million,

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sure that in the interests of this project, the interests of Queensland are coming first. As I understand, there are negotiations being undertaken between the Commonwealth and the state at the moment and the state has put a number of asks on the table … I am encouraged that the Commonwealth is taking a much more conciliatory approach to those negotiations, and I hope they are successful.”

$44m for Inland Rail connections

and for the Commonwealth to bring forward $650 million of existing commitments, so the state can deliver a number of highway and regional road upgrades.

“We have plenty of transport infrastructure needs in Queensland that need better support from the Morrison Government,” Bailey said.

“Scott Morrison promised billions of dollars for Queensland before the election, but much of that funding won’t flow for a number of years. We’re having collaborative discussions with the Federal Government on Inland Rail, and we want to make sure other rail and road projects in Queensland are not neglected.”

Bailey also said he would work to ensure concerns raised by farmers over the impact of the rail line would be addressed by the ARTC if Queensland was to be involved with Inland Rail.

“Farmers have personally raised these concerns with me and our government for more than a year but feel they are not being listened to,” he said.

Back in Toowoomba, Minister Coulton and federal member for Groom, Dr John McVeigh said it was a positive that Queensland and the Commonwealth were negotiating a deal.

“South East Queensland is a region with endless opportunities for future growth,” Coulton told the conference. “That is why our government committed in February this year to a South East Queensland City Deal.

We want to make sure that the future growth for South East Queensland means the region gets better, not just bigger.”

King was supportive of the Queensland government’s decision to negotiate a deal, rather than just sign up without question.

“I met with [Mark Bailey] yesterday, and I think it is incredibly important that the Queensland government is doing exactly what it should do,” King said. “It is making

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One major positive from the Toowoomba conference was the federal government’s announcement of a $44 million program to improve connectivity between country rail lines and the future Inland Rail route.

McCormack, while unable to visit the conference in person, said on August 21 the Inland Rail Interface Improvement Program (the II Program) would help ensure the Inland Rail project forms a fast, reliable and cost-competitive solution for regional freight customers.

“It’s vitally important we invest in infrastructure, such as Inland Rail, to reduce costs and meet the growing freight task,” McCormack said.

“We’re serious about helping regional supply chains reduce their costs to connect to new markets and the opportunities that Inland Rail provides. It is truly the backbone of the national freight network.”

Under the program, $24 million will be spent to assess the costs and benefits of proposed improvements to country lines that will interact with Inland Rail. Another $20 million will be set aside for business cases looking at ways to further enhance supply chain productivity.

The Department of Infrastructure, Transport, Cities and Regional Development will work with state and local governments, community, track operators and supply chain managers to canvass ideas and identify industry preferences for projects funded for consideration under the II Program.

Facilitating this process is a larger network of regional offices, with sites now in Dubbo, Toowoomba, Wodonga and, soon, Moree.

Coulton said an ongoing interface with regional communities and industry was vital to the program.

“These departmental staff, living and working in our regions, provide a way for local people to talk to the Australian Government face-to-face about the suite of opportunities and benefits that Inland Rail will deliver,” he said.

“These local connections are especially important as we deliver the $44 million Interface Improvement Program over the next two years. The II Program is one of many pathways for communities, industry

and local government to drive further freight and agriculture productivity from Inland Rail and put the case forward for connecting their region.”

Skills Academy to tackle shortage The ARTC announced at the conference its plans for a new Inland Rail Skills Academy to forge partnerships between organisations to create education, training, skills development and employment opportunities to support the massive project.

The initiative is aimed at creating opportunities for communities along the alignment of the route.

“The Inland Rail Skills Academy will focus on building the skills needed for the next generation of rail workers, many of which will be based in regional communities ensuring the operation and maintenance of our new networks as they come online,” Wankmuller said.

The aim of the academy will be to partner with other expert organisations to deliver 20 undergraduate scholarships for courses at the University of Southern Queensland, Charles Sturt University and La Trobe University, and Science, Technology, Engineering and Maths (STEM) education programs in primary and secondary schools.

It also aims to develop rail employee capability, upgrading ARTC employees’ skills and qualifications to deliver Inland Rail.

The ARTC said it has signed a Memorandum of Understanding to work with the Australasian Railway Association, combining their expertise to address skilled labour shortages in rail construction.

This follows the ARA releasing a report at the end of 2018 detailing a forecast shortfall in rail skills of more than 70,000 workers throughout the rail construction boom.

Under the MoU, the ARTC and ARA agreed to develop programs that offer apprenticeships and traineeships in rail related disciplines in regions along the alignment.

Another objective is to build the capacity of small to medium enterprises in regional communities to participate in the Inland Rail supply chain.

“ARA welcomes ARTC’s commitment to create education, training, skills development and employment opportunities to support the Inland Rail project and we look forward to working to ensure the Academy is developing real training opportunities for skilled labour in rail construction, operations and maintenance,” ARA chief executive, Danny Broad said.

“We are seeing a renaissance in new rail in Australia, with an estimated $150 billion invested by governments in new freight and passenger projects all around Australia.”

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FREIGHT RAIL

North-West Connection complete Completion of the first Inland Rail project has given operators renewed confidence to invest along the route, Freight on Rail Group of Australia chair and Pacific National CEO, Dean Dalla Valle, has said.

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BELOW: The newlycompleted North-West Connection will eventually form the junction between Inland Rail and Australia’s east-west railway.

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HE NORTH-WEST CONNECTION, a newly-completed 5.3km section of track to join the existing Broken Hill Line to rail track south of Henry Parkes Way, will eventually form the junction between Australia’s east-west railway and Inland Rail.

Dalla Valle congratulated deputy prime minister and leader of the Nationals, Michael McCormack, on the project milestone.

“MicMac has rapidly built up a head of steam behind Inland Rail,” Dalla Valle said. “He is like a moving freight train; giving companies like Pacific National and SCT Logistics confidence to invest in freight terminals at Parkes.”

SCT Logistics managing director and Freight on Rail Group member, Geoff Smith, said the connection between the north-south Inland Rail and the east-west Transcontinental Railway means Parkes can become the epicentre of Australia’s freight and logistics network.

“Rail freight operators can consolidate shipping

ISSUE 7 2019 | RAIL EXPRESS

containers at their terminals in the Parkes National Logistics Hub, before hauling them double-stacked across the Nullarbor to Perth or single-stacked to the ports of Botany, Brisbane or Melbourne,” he explained.

“Parkes becomes a launch pad for freight volumes to all corners of our continent.”

McCormack visited the project on August 30 with finance minister Mathias Cormann and regional services, decentralisation and local government minister, Mark Coulton.

“Inland Rail is already expanding the national freight network and the opening of this section will also create a much-needed link that improves access between the Melbourne to Brisbane Inland Rail Interstate railway line,” McCormack said.

“While Inland Rail is a multi-year project, the build schedule allows for individual components to be released into the national network, providing incremental benefit as sections are completed which means regional producers will have earlier access to the national capability of Inland Rail.”

Inland Rail CEO, Richard Wankmuller, said the project was representative of the project’s focus on connectivity.

“People can start to see how Inland Rail will link into other rail networks and facilitate the movement of products more efficiently and at a lower cost, which is a boon for producers, consumers, and the Australian economy,” Wankmuller said.

The ARTC, coordinating Inland Rail, says around 72 local businesses supplied the NorthWest Connection project, which provided around 700 people with work.

“Last month, a peak daily workforce of 598 was recorded,” Wankmuller said.

“Around the Central West region, the range of businesses tapping into the flow of work from Inland Rail involve concrete supply, transportation, fencing, earthmoving, drainage, electrical works, security and geotechnical services. Accommodation providers and the hospitality industry are also reaping the benefits, as are retail outlets, with an influx of workers living and spending locally.

“This is what we can expect to be replicated along the length of Inland Rail as the different projects making up the corridor progress into construction.”

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Brisbane Port boss calls for Inland Rail link Brisbane Port’s CEO wants to see Inland Rail extended all the way to the waterfront.

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ORT OF BRISBANE CEO ROY Cummins has delivered a public demand for Inland Rail to be extended all the way to the port, calling the dedicated freight link “crucial” to a successful port.

In a column published in The Australian on September 6, Cummins says he believes the Port of Brisbane has all the potential to grow into a substantial freight and bulk port.

But if that’s to happen, he said more containers need to arrive by rail.

“Just two per cent of our containers move on rail,” Cummins wrote.

“In 2018, our 1.3 million containers required around 4 million truck movements. By 2050, that number could increase to 13 million truck movements.”

Inland Rail – the Federal Government’s $10 billion freight rail line to connect Brisbane and Melbourne via a dedicated regional railway – currently will only extend to Acacia Ridge, 25km away from the Port of Brisbane.

While Inland Rail is being built to handle 1.8km-long, double-stacked container trains, containers moving between Acacia Ridge and the Port of Brisbane would have to be on single-stacked shuttles using the existing network, which is shared with passenger trains.

In April, the Commonwealth and Queensland governments agreed to jointly-fund a $1.5 million study for a dedicated freight link to extend Inland Rail all the way to the port.

Cummins, in his very public column, made his opinion clear on the matter.

“When freight trains share the passenger network, freight always loses out, which is understandable,” he said. “There are shutdowns during peak periods, delays during maintenance periods, sub-optimal scheduling to avoid passenger trains interaction, and over time, less and less capacity devoted to freight.

“If Queensland is to truly reach its potential as an export powerhouse, it needs to get all the foundations in place, and that means a dedicated rail connection from Inland Rail to the Port of Brisbane.”

The governments’ joint survey into a dedicated rail link launched in April and was expected to take 12 months.

A fresh funding injection would be needed to extend Inland Rail to the Port of Brisbane.

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OPERATIONS & MAINTENANCE

The big Reveal: Hitachi harnessing rail data Tom Ross from Hitachi Information Control Systems tells Rail Express about the latest addition to the technology firm’s rail software suite.

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TOP RIGHT: Reveal looks to capitalise on the huge volume of data captured around a rail network.

BELOW: Rail is undergoing a digital revolution.

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HE ONGOING DIGITAL TECHNOLOGY revolution has driven significant change across every aspect of modern-day life. It’s created new go-to-market models and enabled a new generation of disruptors to challenge traditional approaches. Data application, the key to digitalisation, is creating novel ways of solving issues and delivering new services that promise further change.

Rail has been at the forefront of data generation and capture with trains, assets and infrastructure, and control centres generating vast quantities as part of the day to day operations.

With each asset change, signal renewal, electrification and maintenance program huge volumes of data are generated.

The challenge presented by this, however, is that much of this data is independently owned and can be managed by multiple stakeholders across any given operation. As a result, it is not fully accessible to add value to any one business. Sometimes, this sheer volume of data is actually a problem which leads to data being used purely to highlight major problems for a reactive fix.

“The effect this has on the industry as a whole is significant as data collection and management is

ISSUE 7 2019 | RAIL EXPRESS

duplicated multiple times which is both inefficient and expensive,” Hitachi Information Control Systems’ Tom Ross tells Rail Express. “Often there are multiple iterations of the ‘same’ data with no single source of the truth.”

The challenge, therefore, is to find a way to enable industry partners to work together as a collaborative community by integrating data into a collective, accessible environment. The result of this would be to create information led processes and systems which enable companies to work and operate independently while also focusing on collaboration and data sharing. In this way we ensure the way rail utilises its data is transformed to become a strategic business asset.

That’s the line of thinking behind dessan Reveal, the latest addition to Hitachi’s dessan rail software suite. dessan Reveal is an analytics engine designed to digitally capture complex data from a live railway, and provide intelligent analysis to deliver valuable insight into what’s happening across the network.

“A key component and differentiator is the ability to integrate, enrich and activate large complex data sets from multiple sources,” Ross says.

“This can include data from train timetables, track possessions, supply chain operations, traffic

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highlight problem areas, and machine learning to reduce future delays.

• Strategic Outline Business Case, which is utilised to quickly model and test proposed changes to the infrastructure, rolling stock or timetable to maximise the value of every dollar spent.

Hitachi’s IoT approach management systems, digital signalling and asset conditioning monitoring to name just a few.” dessan Reveal takes feeds from data generation sources and becomes the single data pool for the railway business. The data can then be validated and managed within the analytics core, which creates efficiency for IT resources, networks and hardware.

“The data is now in a state where it is valuable and trusted information for key stakeholders across the railway. This information is also now available to be used by tools to carry out specific tasks around the real-time delivery and enhancement in the operation of the railway,” Ross says.

Open architecture Ross says the dessan Reveal system has been designed to facilitate third party utilisation of data once it’s in this trusted, central hub.

“Our philosophy is that the data belongs to the customer,” he says. “dessan Reveal is the enabling technology to create management information from your data.

In this way data is transformed into a catalyst for focussed, specific and targeted business change.

“Experience shows that an ecosystem of suppliers will spring up offering services and apps to both rail professionals and customers.

“We strongly believe that dessan Reveal offers value in ways we have not yet envisaged. At a macro-economic level we now have the ability to bring projects through Strategic and Outline Business Cases more quickly and with data led decision support we can bring benefits beyond our organisations to our larger community.”

Some examples of tools and services Hitachi already recognises as being enabled by dessan Reveal are: • Possession Conflict Manager, to remove potential issues in the timetable in advance of any delays on the live railway.

• Digital Design, linking core railway data to 2D and 3D BIM tools.

• Delay Manager, enabling a real-time analysis of delays, heatmap outputs to

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Hitachi was founded in 1910. Combining 109 years of operational technology experience with 59 years in IT has positioned it perfectly to embrace digitalisation and the Internet of Things (IoT), and it is the world leader in terms of patent applications in big data analysis foundation technology.

Ross says the development of dessan Reveal is supported by the deep data and IoT expertise of Hitachi Vantara, the group company focused on the management and analysis of big data. “dessan Reveal has the ability to seamlessly integrate huge amounts of operational data and is able to produce advanced outcomes and provide validation in areas such as railway infrastructure enhancement, possession management and strategic business case development,” Ross says.

“The Hitachi approach to IoT is focused on the outcomes not the ‘how to’. We use technology as the tool to drive results into your business. Collaboration has always been a strength of Hitachi and we will continue to build on our successes in this area.”

Another of Hitachi’s major subsidiaries, Hitachi Consulting, provides another element of the company’s approach.

“We understand the need for targeted and controlled business change to maintain the integrity of the data. To support our customers through this process we have built on our experiences working on complex projects both within our own organisations and those of our clients to develop our own engagement methodology that provides for consistent, complete and repeatable results for our clients.”

With that said, Ross outlines four key concepts behind Hitachi’s methodology: • “Start with the end in mind”: This means that all the deliverables are completed with the project goals in mind, including focusing on strategic and business needs vs. system needs, focusing early on defining the desired end result and building knowledge and team for eventual support.

• “Go slow to go fast”: Up front planning is not only efficient but helps to manage costs and works as an accelerator in the long term for projects in which great emphasis is spent on the definition and

design phases in order to efficiently and effectively move through the development phase.

• Recognise Hitachi must be flexible: This means that tailoring its methods to meet the client’s business and IT needs to develop solutions that are right for the organisation, rather than attempting to force-fit pre-developed solutions.

• Work in a manner that is people-oriented and facilitative: This involves working collaboratively, blending internal and external resources across project roles, focusing on change management, and being sensitive to client culture.

“The methodology is flexible enough to be tailored to any project’s needs, while at the same time robust enough to encompass all aspects of a project,” Ross explains.

“By breaking down project aspects into deliverable phases and workstreams while managing compliance with the project management discipline, our project teams implement successful solutions which consistently leads us to the desired outcome.”

Rail knowledge While Hitachi has become a digitalisation leader across multiple sectors, Ross reiterates the company’s mature understanding and deep knowledge of the rail sector.

“Our experience in building and maintaining trains, controlling the network, simulation and modelling is central to dessan Reveal,” he says.

“In order for the rail industry to achieve its long-term future goals there is a need to reduce the capacity crunch and become a more reliable service. This exciting new development from Hitachi will help to reduce the number of acceptable risks, cut maintenance costs and enable accurate, targeted deployment of resources and assets within general infrastructure planning and maintenance, ultimately improving user experience and ensuring passenger demands are met.”

The same qualities demonstrated across multiple sectors for the validation and management of data, can similarly offer railway companies a way to improve the passenger experience, improve safety and improve reliability.

“The world’s largest and most profitable businesses are data driven,” Ross concludes.

“However, data has true value only when turned into management information to enable more validated, more timely, more measured decision making. Data into information is a step change for any business – we believe dessan Reveal is the enabler for the rail industry.”

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OPERATIONS & MAINTENANCE

Digitising our future: Improving passenger experience through innovation Downer’s Tim Young takes Rail Express through the company’s latest innovations in rail, and how modern data collection and analysis can drive passenger growth.

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ITH GOVERNMENTS AT LOCAL, state and federal levels gradually approaching a consensus on the importance of growing public transport, Australia is on the cusp of an urban rail construction, operations and maintenance boom.

While rail patronage will undoubtedly rise when new connections are opened to growing areas, the addition of new services to already busy networks can compound challenges already faced getting stubborn road users to shift to public transport. Unplanned rail delays and congestion at busy stations are common excuses for commuters to continue driving to and from work, even if it is the more expensive, more stressful and – on the average day – more timeconsuming option.

For Tim Young, Executive General Manager Rollingstock Services at Downer, answering these challenges will require modern, digital solutions.

“80 per cent of the world’s data has been created in the last five years,” Young tells Rail Express. “If you look at where we’ll be in 10 to 20 years, there will be a huge focus on ecosystem integration – integration between assets and people, and a huge focus on customer experience.”

Young wouldn’t always have been so optimistic about that rate of change. Over more than 20 years in the rail, aviation, safety, mining and manufacturing sectors, Young has witnessed, and taken part in rail’s digital journey, and says the sector has gotten better in its approach to change.

“My experience in the rail game has gone from staff and ticket operations and block limit boards to fully automated signals and points that are being set by Advanced Train Control Management Systems,” he says.

“Over that history the rail industry has, at times, been very slow to move and evolve. Its culture has at times been slow to adapt to the introduction of new technologies and new processes.”

Young recognises that part of the sector’s trepidation over the years has been well-founded. Rail operators bear a high level of safety responsibility, and all change must be with safety kept paramount.

“We need to understand how we play in this sphere that we don’t actually have 100 per cent control of.

Because we’re dealing with commuters and their lives,

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we don’t take these decisions lightly – so more often than not this is also a precursor to why technology deployment in our industry is so slow,” he says.

With safety in mind, Young says change has become more rapid in the rail sector. But there are still barriers that could be lifted.

“The pace of change has certainly picked up, particularly when you look at the introduction of new technology in the rail industry in Australia. In the last decade we’ve seen advancements in signalling technology, we’ve seen advancements in onboard train technology, train control management systems. I think the evolution of digitalisation in the last decade has certainly been enhanced – the degree of introduction has increased,” he says.

“However, there are a number of constraints, particularly around the sense of urgency for those changes. Regulations and policies are things that constrain technology elasticity, and digitalisation in the rail industry more broadly.”

Another key hurdle for innovators is simple: capital cost.

“There’s a degree of risk associated with unknown applications, unknown technologies, and whether

RIGHT: TrainDNA captures and analyses data from Sydney’s fleet of Waratah trains to highlight maintenance issues before they cause delays.

BELOW: Dwell Track is roughly halfway through a planned eight week trial.

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they’re actually going to deliver a tangible return, so capital is always going to be a question mark,” Young explains.

To ameliorate some of these concerns, Downer been looking to partner with more of its suppliers, and to collaborate with other technology firms and research bodies, with the aim of increasing the rate of development, and the success of project delivery.

In one example, Downer is working with the CSIRO to improve control battery technology, addressing issues like thermal runaway, and the potential of better battery solutions for improved life expectancy on Downer’s trainsets.

Collaboration is also taking place internally within Downer. Video analytics developments being made by Downer’s Defence business could have an application in public transport.

“This is leading-edge technology at the moment,” Young explains. “Technology that is able to detect either an incident that has occurred, or is about to occur, based on certain algorithms that are put into a database … We’re looking at whether that technology has applications, particularly from a safety perspective, within our industry, because there’s plenty of opportunities there as well.

Obviously with surveillance-based technology there are privacy concerns to address, but that is something we’re working through with our Defence colleagues; working with that type of legislation.”

Ultimately, Young says the end customer is likely to be the biggest beneficiary of rail’s digital growth.

“We’re trying to deal to hyper global issues, with hyper local content experience,” he says.

“Everybody carries a mobile device, and through it they’re connected globally. Well, we’re trying to take a local experience, like an urban rail service, and provide consumers with a global solution. We’re trying to solve today’s problems with some of today’s technology, but also trying to develop tomorrow’s technology today.”

How Downer is taking rail digital Talking again about how the industry is set to become even more focused on the customer, Young says one example for Downer has been reducing delays and improving uptime for passenger rollingstock, through a reliabilitycentred approach to maintenance.

At the forefront of this is TrainDNA, which puts large volumes of data through an array of algorithms to highlight issues for maintenance before they cause delays.

Built on Downer’s Neuroverse platform, and based on the Microsoft Azure software stack, TrainDNA was developed over 18 months using in-house expertise and a strategic

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“

We’re trying to solve today’s problems with some of today’s technology, but also trying to develop tomorrow’s technology today.

”

partnership with Deakin University.

The platform is now deployed on Sydney’s fleet of Downer-built Waratah trains, and will be rolled out across the rest of the fleet maintained by Downer by April next year.

“This is a data analytics platform on steroids,” Young says. “Analysing such volumes of data will allow our team to establish trends in relative real time, enabling us to proactively predict failures and calculate the remaining life of an asset more effectively.

“The advantage to our customers is that all of this takes place whilst the train is in service without interrupting the operation.

At the same time, it enhances worker safety through the potential of removing high-risk inspections.”

Young expects TrainDNA to boost Downer’s ability to predict failure rates, and reduce unscheduled train downtime.

“TrainDNA demonstrates our capability as a world-class maintainer and asset management partner of choice. While we are still in the early stages of the solution, TrainDNA is a step in the right direction in our journey towards predictive maintenance.”

Mirroring this is TrackDNA, the equivalent platform for monitoring track for predictive maintenance purposes. “It will hang off some of the Waratah trains so we can extract information from the track,” Young explains.

“We can then put that data through a raft of algorithms, with the intent to understand not only track conditions for preventative maintenance activities, but also for further insight into the wheel-rail interface, something that no operator has at this time.

“It’s bringing the data from the train and the data from the track together, so you can understand the broader ecosystem health as it relates to the vehicle.”

Customers the focus of Wynyard trial Another digital innovation Young says can improve the appeal of public transport comes in the form of a trial underway at Wynyard station in the heart of Sydney’s CBD, where Downer has installed its Dwell Track system to analyse and help manage movement through the busy station.

Developed by Downer and the University of Technology Sydney (UTS), and supported by the Rail Manufacturing CRC, the trial involves the installation of 16 infra-red and digital devices which sense customer movement, without identifying individuals.

“It allows station staff to understand the movements of consumers on and off the train, so they can try to position those consumers well on the platform,” Young explains.

“The passenger information display systems on the platform can also show passengers where seats are available onboard the approaching train coming to Wynyard station, through the airbag sensors. That culminates in allowing Sydney Trains to better manage the ease and speed of their consumers, through Wynyard train station, which has a direct consequence in managing dwell time more effectively, allowing for a better customer experience, and an improved ability to maintain their timetable.”

Dwell Track is roughly halfway through a planned eight-week trial. Based on its performance, Sydney Trains will decide whether it will deploy it elsewhere on the network.

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PRODUCTS & TECHNOLOGY

Fiber reinforced sleepers aim to achieve best track quality Sekisui Chemical Co., Ltd. (SEKISUI) has refined its Fiber reinforced Foamed Urethane synthetic railway sleeper, designed to provide the best qualities of wood and high performing synthetic technology in a single product.

A

S FREIGHT, HEAVY HAUL AND passenger rail networks have grown in Australia and New Zealand, the sector has become more focused on not only the capital cost, but also the ongoing cost of maintaining its fixed assets.

Track owners take upfront and ongoing costs, along with a range of other factors, into account when choosing railway sleepers. While the choice has primarily been between wooden and concrete sleepers, a growing market for alternative materials has emerged over time.

One manufacturer operating in this space is Sekisui. Sekisui uses Fiber reinforced Foamed Urethane (FFU) to manufacture a synthetic railway sleeper, designed to be light and workable like a wooden sleeper, but consistent and durable, making it far more resistant to wear and tear and environmental factors over the long term.

The core design feature of an FFU sleeper is its collection of continuous glass fibres which run from one end to another. These fibres reinforce the thermosetting resin foam comprised of rigid urethane resin, which is poured over the glass fibres and then sets during the manufacturing process.

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The aim of using FFU is to combine the best features of a wooden sleeper with those of a high performing synthetic sleeper. The FFU synthetic sleepers are a similar weight to natural lumber.

Bending strength is stronger than natural lumber, and maintains this strength for a long period, and the FFU manufacturing process means sleepers can be fabricated to a specific height, width, and length.

“The light weight makes it easy to work on site,” Sekisui’s Yuri Otsuka tells Rail Express. “Like a wooden sleeper, we can also do pre-drilling of holes or grooves for cable protection, for example, and we can paint it a specific colour as well.”

Meanwhile, the glass fibre used gives the FFU sleepers high durability.

Sekisui says the anti-corrosive material that constitutes the sleepers is extremely resistant to acids, alkalis, chlorine and sea water. Also like composites, the FFU sleepers are uniform in their quality, and the continuous pultrusion method used makes it possible to manufacture FFU sleepers up to 10 metres long, providing an ideal and reliable solution for transoms and other large and complex pieces of rail infrastructure.

ABOVE: FFU sleepers installed at a Shinkansen platform at Shin-Osaka station in Japan.

RIGHT: An FFU sleeper installation site on the Queensland Rail network.

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Ongoing cost savings The overall benefit, Sekisui Marketing Manager for Asia Pacific and the Americas Masaki Hayashi says, is in ongoing costs for the operator.

“The difference between timber and FFU is that FFU has longevity,” Hayashi says. “FFU doesn’t rot like timber, and it comes with uniform quality.

When you work with timber it’s very difficult to obtain uniform quality over a large batch.”

According to the test report ‘Follow-up Survey on FFU Synthetic Sleepers after 30 Years in Service’ in 2011 by Railway Technical Research Institute (Japan), the expected life of an FFU sleeper is around 50 years.

“While timber might last that long under specific circumstances. A natural unprotected timber sleeper in some environments may have to be replaced up to seven times during the lifetime of an FFU sleeper,” Hayashi says. “Installation costs including labour, track equipment and safety measures are generally higher than material costs, so with 50 years without replacement, FFU works out much better than natural timber in many applications.

FFU also allows for very precise sleeper dimensions compared to wood, making the sleepers even easier to install exactly.”

Proven life cycle FFU was originally developed in 1974; the railway sleeper application was not developed until 1980.

Since then, FFU synthetic sleepers have been used in more than 1,500 kilometres of track. All are still in service after 39 years. Since 1988, they have been used on Japan’s high speed lines, a.k.a. Shinkansen, with service speeds increasing year by year, and currently around 300km/h on FFU sleepers.

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“The sleeper has been installed in both passenger and freight applications,” Otsuka says.

Australian operators using the FFU sleepers include Queensland Rail, Sydney Trains, CRN John Holland, WA’s PTA and TasRail. It is approved

by Queensland Rail and Transport for NSW, and has provisional type approval from CRN John Holland. “It has been specified in transom design by Transport for NSW since December 2018, meaning during sleeper replacement on bridges, operators can use FFU sleepers,” Otsuka adds.

The FFU sleeper has been approved by many other railways, including EBA and Deutsche Bahn in Germany, Network Rail in the UK, and more.

Surveys of the FFU sleeper in the field show the same density (0.74g per cubic centimetre) when the product is manufactured, and after 10 years, 15 years and 30 years of use. The follow-up testing also showed FFU sleepers were much above Japanese Industrial Standard levels for a range of strength and flexibility measurements, even after 30 years.

Another technical element Hayashi says separates the FFU sleeper from alternative options is its low thermal expansion coefficient.

“There are different composite sleepers in the world,” Hayashi says. “One greatly unique advantage of FFU is very low thermal expansion due to the continuous long glass fibre pultrusion technology. Many composite sleepers have much larger thermal expansions – so they will change length/gauge as the temperature gets much higher or lower. This makes it difficult to keep the correct gauge – a very important aspect. An FFU sleeper is very reliable for maintaining gauge width.”

Contact: contact@sekisui-rail.com Web: sekisui-rail.com

“

FFU has longevity. FFU doesn’t rot like timber, and it comes with uniform quality.

When you work with timber, it’s very difficult to obtain uniform quality over a large batch.

”

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Delivering Growth; Creating Opportunity; Embracing Technology

THE LARGEST RAIL EVENT IN THE SOUTHERN HEMISPHERE RETURNS TO SYDNEY WHAT TO EXPECT, BESIDES THREE DAYS OF HIGHLY BENEFICIAL ENGAGEMENT WITH YOUR PEERS, SUPPLIERS AND SERVICE PROVIDERS: • 1000+ senior rail sector, government and academic leaders participating in the conference • Plenary and technical streams across three informative days • 400+ exhibiting organisations from a diverse range of suppliers and service providers • 13 catered functions for attendees over three days of premium networking including: Welcome Reception, Networking Drinks, 2 major Gala Dinners and Luncheons • And more

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SAFETY & ASSURANCE

RISSB’s human factors October is Safe Work Month and an ideal time to consider what you can be doing to build a safe and healthy workplace. Applying human factors principles is just one way that an organisation can simultaneously improve their safety performance and manage safety risks.

What are human factors?

Human factors is focused on understanding human capabilities, and then applying this knowledge to the design of equipment, tools, systems, and processes of work. Considered part psychology, part biology and part engineering, the ultimate goals of human factors are to: reduce human error, enhance safety, usability and comfort, and increase productivity. Human factors practitioners collaborate with and use input from many associated professionals (e.g. designers, engineers, psychologists and managers) to optimise the fit between people and the systems in which they work.

Organisations that address human factors ensure that all systems (which include equipment, vehicles, facilities, services, tools and assets) can be used safely and effectively by their workers and end users (including customers). Applying human factors means designing with the user in mind, taking account of both human capabilities and human limitations. This enables people to work, or to use services, to the best of their ability without exceeding their limits.

By contrast, not integrating human factors into the design of systems, work processes and services may decrease productivity, increase error rates and the risk

of injury, illness and accidents, and produce unsatisfactory experiences for workers, customers or other users.

Human error is often identified as the main factor contributing to major accidents in the rail industry. However, what is often not realised is that, while error is a contributor to incidents, it is often a consequence of poor design. If physical assets, together with their accompanying procedures, instructions and other information, are not designed to take account of human capabilities, employees may attempt potentially dangerous workarounds to “get the job done,” leading to even greater risk of incidents or accidents in the future.

What are human factors integration?

Human factors integration involves applying a systematic and scientific approach to the identification, tracking, and resolution of issues related to human-system interactions to minimise the impact or occurrence of human errors. Effective human factors integration ensures the balanced development of both the technological and human aspects of a system and delivers the desired safety and operational capability. Human factors integration in safety risk management activities provides an important contribution to safety assurance arguments.

How RISSB can help rail organisations

ABOVE: Applying human factors means designing with the user in mind, taking into account both human capabilities and limitations.

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RISSB has produced a Standard and Guideline on engineering design processes and a Guideline on the integration of human factors across the project lifecycle.

AS 7470 - Human Factors Integration in Engineering Design - General Requirements This Standard describes the requirements for organisations conducting or procuring engineering design activities, services or products to: • Integrate human factors within their engineering design processes • Ensure their products comply with the generic human factors requirements set out in this Standard • Use the human factors integration process to identify the specific human factors requirements of the system or asset being designed, procured or modified.

Adequate integration of human factors in all phases of a system’s development lifecycle ensures its safety, performance and fitness for purpose.

A supplier of engineered assets to the Australian rail industry is responsible for ensuring that the assets and systems they provide are safe to operate and maintain, and that all safety risks have either been eliminated or managed so far as is reasonably practicable (SFAIRP). Supporting evidence, demonstrating human factors integration in safety risk management activities, will provide an important contribution to an overall safety and operational assurance argument for most assets.

Integrating human factors with the design process will also assist in ensuring what you design is efficient and effective, meets its intended performance levels and is able to deliver the expected benefits to users and customers.

Integration of human factors in Engineering Design Guideline This document aims to ensure that human factors considerations form an integral and meaningful part of the specification, design, and development process, rather than being an add-on, a review or as an afterthought following design and development activity.

This Guideline is a companion document to the Standard AS 7470: 2016 Human Factors Integration in Engineering Design – General Requirements and is intended to provide guidance on meeting the requirements of this standard.

Integration of human factors across the Project Lifecycle Guideline The purpose of this Guideline is to assist organisations to improve the implementation and effectiveness of human factors Integration into projects by providing guidance on scaling and managing human factors activities across a project lifecycle – concept, design, development, validation, in-service and decommissioning.

If you would like to know more about RISSB’s human factors products, visit www.rissb.com.au/ products/ or join the Human Factors Managers Group RISSB coordinates on behalf of industry.

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SAFETY & ASSURANCE

Companies, organisations observe Rail Safety Week 2019 Rail Safety Week took place across Australia and New Zealand with more than 80 rail, police and government organisations taking part from August 12 to 18.

R

AIL SAFETY WEEK IS administrated by the TrackSAFE Foundation in Australia and New Zealand to create heightened awareness of the importance of rail safety. TrackSAFE executive director Naomi Frauenfelder said the Foundation was proud to coordinate the event in its 14th consecutive year.

“We as a community need to be responsible, dependable and forthright when it comes to rail safety,” Frauenfelder said at a ceremony at Parliament House in Canberra.

“When anywhere near the rail network, we need to take ownership and accountability for the outcome of everything we do. From popping mobile devices away, taking out earphones, standing behind platform lines and obeying the signs and signals, we all have a role to play when it comes to rail safety.”

“I commend rail safety week to everybody, right across the nation,” deputy prime minister and transport and infrastructure minister Michael McCormack said.

“What we want to see is more freight on rail, to take more of the trucks off the roads because that just makes good sense for supply chain efficiencies, for productivity, for getting goods to port quicker and obviously on then to the markets that we’ve opened up. But also easing the congestion burden on our roads, which of course makes them safer.”

Canberrans urged to pay attention One city still getting used to rail safety is Canberra, where light rail opened between Gungahlin and Civic in April. An unfortunate but timely reminder was provided when a pedestrian was taken to hospital after being hit by a light rail vehicle on Northbourne Avenue on the first morning of Rail Safety Week.

“Safety is everyone’s responsibility, and we can all work harder to reduce the risk of someone getting hurt,” ACT transport and city services minister, Chris Steel said.

“It is important that we all take steps to be safe.

This includes staying behind the yellow line at the light rail stop, stopping to look both ways before you cross, and paying attention around the tracks and stops. These steps apply to all road users, including pedestrians, cyclists and motorists.”

collision hotspots to remind motorists to take extra care around the tracks.

Melbourne is home to five of the ten hotspots, with 226 motorist-tram collisions recorded in 2018, including 77 on Collins Street, 42 each on Flinders Street and Elizabeth Street, 37 on Bourke Street and 28 on La Trobe Street.

Outside the CBD, hotspots included St Kilda Road, where 52 crashes were recorded in 2018. 40 more were recorded on Nicholson Street, along with 34 each on Toorak Road and Bridge Road, and 28 on Clarendon Street.

The figures showed 97 per cent of collisions were the fault of motorists. 70 per cent of incidents were caused by motorists not looking for trams when making a right turn, a U-turn, or merging.

“With more trams on the road than ever before, it’s now more important than ever to pay attention when driving near trams or crossing roads where trams operate,” public transport minister Melissa Horne said.

“Trams don’t have the ability to swerve out of the way of danger, motorists and pedestrians play an important part in helping to reduce collisions with trams.”

Yarra Trams CEO Nicolas Gindt said the 1,100 collisions in 2018 was up from 970 in 2017, and resulted in 20 people suffering serious injuries.

There were also 500 near misses were reported in 2018.

He noted such incidents severely disrupt the tram network and impact traffic flow, with an average of

BELOW: According to ACT transport and city services minister, Chris Steel, safety is everyone’s responsibility.

Vic’s collision hotspots highlighted The Victorian government marked Rail Safety Week by releasing the state’s top ten tram and vehicle

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LEFT: Improving safety at rail crossings is an important way to stop kids getting hurt or keilled when they’re getting around.

BELOW: TrackSAFE Foundation executive director, Naomi Frauenfelder, (left) with Office of the National Rail Safety Regulator chief executive, Sue McCarrey, at Parliament House.

10 trams out of service at any one time because of a collision.

“We encourage all motorists to ‘think tram’ when driving along shared roads, and always check before merging or turning right over tram tracks,” Gindt said.

More gates for Auckland Across the Tasman, New Zealand transport minister Phil Twyford used Rail Safety Week to announce 15 more sets of gates on the South and West Auckland lines will be installed by mid-2020, in an effort to keep commuters and pedestrians safe.

“There have been too many stories of people getting hurt or killed by trains in Auckland.

Improving the safety at rail crossings is an important way to stop kids getting hurt or killed when they’re getting around,” the minister said.

“We know that installing automatic gates at rail crossings saves lives. Since the introduction of automatic pedestrian gates at the site where Keenan Matthes was tragically killed in 2017, there have been no further reported near misses.”

Matthes, a 16-year-old student from Massey High School, was tragically killed when he jogged into the path of an oncoming train in West Auckland on the morning of April 20, 2017. His family has since reported he was listening to music on headphones while he jogged, and advocated for gates at crossings like the one in question to avoid such incidents in the future.

“I’d like to pay tribute to the Matthes family for their advocacy,” Twyford sayd. “Together we’re trying to make sure that no other family experiences the same heartbreak. Installing safety gates at level crossings is a crucial part of improving safety around rail tracks.”

There were 415 near misses recorded on railway lines across New Zealand in 2018.

TrackSAFE New Zealand marked Rail Safety Week by urging motorists and pedestrians to understand the toll near misses and collisions take on train drivers.

“These close calls are happening daily and they take a huge toll on our locomotive engineers and everyone involved,” Greg Miller, CEO of TrackSAFE New Zealand partner KiwiRail said.

“In a lot of cases, people are missing death or

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serious injury by seconds. Although no one gets physically hurt in a near miss, the driver, other rail staff, witnesses and of course the pedestrian or motorist all experience a level of trauma.

“Near misses can be one of the hardest parts of locomotive engineers’ jobs. And tragically some of our drivers have been involved in collisions that have resulted in deaths and they don’t want to repeat the experience so that’s why we are calling on people to cross with care.”

TrackSAFE NZ Foundation manager, Megan Drayton, said 299 of the 415 near misses recorded in 2018 occurred at public level crossings, and the majority of these crossings had flashing lights, bells or barrier arms installed.

That drove the thinking behind this year’s campaign for Rail Safety Week, which saw the installation of ‘near miss memorials’ around the country at near miss hotspots.

“The ‘near miss memorials’ are a half white cross and represent the hundreds of New Zealanders who have narrowly avoided a serious or fatal collision on the railway tracks in the past year,” Drayton said.

“We hope that these memorials will cause people to take greater care around trains and recognise that with growing populations, more trains services and faster and quieter trains, there’s no room for complacency.”

“

It is important that we all take steps to be safe.

This includes staying behind the yellow line at the light rail stop, stopping to look both ways before you cross, and paying attention around the tracks and stops.

These steps apply to all road users, including pedestrians, cyclists and motorists.

”

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INDUSTRY ASSOCIATIONS

ARA/ALC Inland Rail Conference 2019 In his monthly column, Australasian Railway Association CEO, Danny Broad, discusses a busy few weeks for the ARA, and a continued focus on driving youth towards jobs in the rail sector.

O

ARA CEO, Danny Broad.

TOP RIGHT: Accessibility was shown to not only be a concern for people with disability, but for a very large, and growing part of society.

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VER 460 DELEGATES ATTENDED the second Inland Rail Conference held in Toowoomba on 21-22 August, organised jointly with the Australian Logistics Council.

The conference presentations and panel discussions considered a range of potential benefits the project can deliver throughout the national freight supply chain - for exporters, ports, businesses, local councils, state governments and also suppliers, contractors and regional communities themselves.

Project construction is now well underway, with track work near Parkes in progress as part of the Parkes to Narromine contract, which will form the vital link between the Inland Rail and the interstate east-west Sydney to Perth network, and a number of intermodal facilities along the corridor under development.

This 1700km long railway, providing a direct rail freight connection between Melbourne and Brisbane, will revolutionise freight transport in Australia, opening up the transit of double-stacked trains between these two capital cities in less than 24 hours.

The conference featured keynote speeches, presentations and expert panels. Of particular interest was the “End to End” panel featuring representatives from the four major eastern seaboard ports. Panellists highlighted that Inland Rail presents opportunities not just for the two ports at either end of the alignment, but also offers opportunities for significantly improving the freight task to other hubs and ports.

Industry is eagerly awaiting the release of the joint study undertaken by the Commonwealth and Queensland governments into freight rail links between Acacia Ridge and the Port of Brisbane.

Of particular note at the Conference this year was the attendance of a large representation of mayors and councillors from along the corridor, providing delegates with a timely reminder that Inland rail can offer positive long term legacies broader than just the infrastructure project itself, including opportunities for regional growth as well as revitalisation for communities, businesses, partnerships, jobs, and prosperity. Such outcomes are reliant upon proactive measures taken by such councils working with the Inland Rail team and other key stakeholders.

The Hon Mark Coulton MP, Minister for Regional

ISSUE 7 2019 | RAIL EXPRESS

Services, Decentralisation and Local Government, represented the Commonwealth government and spoke about Australia’s growing population and its impact on the urban freight task, set to increase by 60 per cent in 20 years. He spoke about the freight effort required to service our growing population and how Inland Rail will be the centrepiece of our future freight network and the backbone of our broader network that must work in harmony as an integrated multi-modal solution through targeted, innovative and sustainable investment.

Opposition spokesperson the Hon Catherine King MP offered the federal opposition’s support for the project, but noted concerns of some landowners, and committed to hold the government to account.

During the conference, I signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the Inland Rail project team to assist with their newly formed Inland Rail Skills Academy, aimed to create opportunities for education, training, skills development and employment for communities along the project alignment. We look forward to working to ensure the Academy is developing real training opportunities for local skilled labour.

Sadly, as the conference drew to a close, we learnt of the passing of the former Deputy Prime Minister, the Hon Tim Fischer AC. Not only was Tim a unique and authentic politician, with a real connection to rural and regional Australia, he was also a passionate advocate of rail transport and was the patron of the TrackSAFE Foundation. He was a strong supporter of rail projects such as the Ghan, High Speed Rail and Inland Rail. Fittingly, for someone known to many of the delegates and so closely aligned with the causes under discussion, he was given a standing ovation from the entire conference. Vale Tim Fischer.

We look forward to Albury Wodonga hosting the third ARA/ALC Inland Rail Conference in 2020.

ARA Rail Accessibility Forum On Tuesday 13th August, more than 80 individuals including people with lived experience, representatives from disability sector organisations, Commonwealth, State and Territory Governments and industry gathered in Melbourne to discuss accessibility in

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rail transport at the inaugural ARA Rail Accessibility Forum.

Attendees shared insights regarding how to progress toward fully accessible passenger rail in the future and the importance of doing so.

Accessibility was shown to not only be a concern for people with disability, but for a very large, and growing part of society. A resounding message was that accessibility upgrades benefit all including families, the elderly, the young, injured and non-English speakers, as well people with disability and vulnerable travellers.

By improving accessibility in all areas, we improve society, and this is especially evident in transportation, which allows people to stay connected, employed and mobile.

Industry representatives shared initiatives and current progress occurring in organisations and jurisdictions so as to demonstrate the industry’s genuine commitment to provide accessible transport, as well as planning for future actions.

ARA study to drive Attraction, Recruitment and Retention of Young People to the Rail Industry The ARA engaged Polity Research & Consulting in May this year to undertake a market research study of the drivers and barriers to attraction, recruitment and retention of younger people to the rail industry. Qualitative research was undertaken with focus groups including our Y-LAB, university Science, Technical, Engineering

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and Mathematics (STEM) students, trades apprentices and industry representatives, as well as engaging with other industry bodies such as mining, civil construction, and careers advisers. The results were very interesting.

For university STEM students, key drivers of interest to working in rail were the opportunity to work in highly complex interconnected systems presenting complex challenges, and on innovative projects utilizing modern research and development.

Students reported not being aware of the breadth and complexity of technologies at play. In many ways, steam-age perceptions of rail are still prevalent. Students reported that when they were made aware, they were far more receptive to considering opportunities in rail.

Another key driver was the significant social purpose of rail – its positive impact on people’s daily lives, the functioning of modern cities and modern economies moving people and freight. Students felt this was a theme that should be given greater prominence by industry when promoting opportunities to younger jobseekers.

A third key driver was the importance of supportive, inclusive and progressive workplaces, where flexibility and support were built into the culture.

Students reported that traditional hierarchical “old school” workplace cultures were a distinct barrier to participation.

Command and control jobs without variety were cited as examples. They were wary of

industries that claimed to be progressive when the reality didn’t always match the rhetoric.

Similarly students were concerned with the use of neutral, generic descriptors in job specifications and duty statements in job-filling processes. Students were interested in getting specific information about what programs they would be working on and with whom.

Trades apprentices reported similar perspectives, but with some nuanced differences.

The wide range of career opportunities and exposure to different business units, and the comradery of multiple roles and common goals were motivating and empowering for apprentices.

And importantly, professional, respectful workplaces that offer flexibility, that encouraged training and career development were highly valued.

Apprentices reported that workplace culture that tolerates bullying and the belittling of apprentices, and making them “earn their stripes because that’s how we’ve always done it’”were a distinct negative.

The findings reinforced our belief of the need for targeted, well-crafted communication to challenge the high level of ignorance and misconceptions about our industry. But we also need to ensure we are offering the types of workplaces that younger workers want.

This research will be disseminated to our member companies so as to improve our efforts to attract, recruit and retain sought after young workers into the rail industry.

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OUT & ABOUT

450+ visit Inland Rail 2019 PHOTOS COURTESY OF AUSTRALIAN LOGISTICS COUNCIL AND AUSTRALASIAN RAILWAY ASSOCIATION.

Toowoomba played host to this year’s Inland Rail conference, hosted by the Australasian Railway Association and the Australian Logistics Council. Delegates and exhibitors enjoyed two sunny days at the heritage-listed Empire Theatre, listening and taking part in presentations, panel sessions and Q&As discussing the $10 billion Inland Rail project.

CLOCKWISE FROM TOP: The conference program included a customer-focused panel session titled ‘For whom the train rolls’.

Exhibitors engaged with more than 450 delegates.

Guests enjoying afternoon tea.

Australasian Railway Association CEO Danny Broad and Inland Rail CEO Richard Wankmuller shake hands to seal a Memorandum of Understanding towards the Inland Rail skills academy.

Minister for regional services, decentralisation and local government, Mark Coulton, talks with the media.

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ISSUE 7 2019 | RAIL EXPRESS

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