collaborative effort between DIT and RIA and consisted of two days in Auckland, one day in Melbourne and one day in Sydney. The programme was organised by DIT and involved meeting with High Commissioner in New Zealand, Consuls General in both Melbourne and Sydney, local rail company site tours, speaking with manufacturers, meeting with industry experts and UK companies who had already established themselves in the market and many roundtable discussions with government departments who are securing large infrastructure projects. For example, in Melbourne the companies met with Rail Projects Victoria, Public Transport for Victoria and Melbourne Metro who run the train system. DIT provided the delegates the opportunity to meet with these government departments who are not only procuring the projects and bringing them to market but also the chance to meet with the contractors and designers who are responsible for these projects. This included meeting with UK companies such as Lendlease who are in Melbourne building part of the new Melbourne Metro and similar work in Sydney. These meetings were a very important part of the programme as it gave the delegation the opportunity to speak directly to the people who would be buying their products or using their services to work in the country and to see how companies similar to theirs had already gone through the process of entering the Australian market. If we return to the comment that Australia has not built a new underground rail system in the past 50 years – the UK has, and it has developed a dense ecosystem of skills alongside this which has gone into developing infrastructure projects
Signing of the MOU between RIA and ARA
Zealand’s residence, Michael Ward. At this reception, a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) was officially signed between RIA in the UK and the Australasian Railway Association (ARA). It was announced last year that the two industry bodies were looking to sign an MoU at InnoTrans in Berlin. This In Sydney the group went on a site understanding recognises the mutuality of how rail works in the visit of the new Central Station UK and in Australasia and is a which is very similar to King’s wonderful step towards Cross Station in London. The reinforcing the already strong architect John McAslan who relationship the two countries designed King’s Cross Station is also working on rebuilding Central have within the rail sector. Station. The mission further went on a tour of the brand-new This was a very comprehensive multimillion-dollar Rail Operations programme that gave UK Centre in Sydney which has only companies valuable insight into been open for several weeks and the tremendous opportunities to is managed by Sydney Trains. Here invest in both the Australia and they had presentations with New Zealand rail infrastructure Sydney Trains and Transport for markets and gave visibility to the New South Wales. A clear UK supply chain. It is a very highlight of the programme was the evening reception in Sydney at exciting time ahead for the rail industry. the British Consul General and Director General of Trade and Additional writing by Zoe Cunningham Investment in Australia and New like Crossrail, also known as the Elizabeth line in London. In Australia and New Zealand these skills are needed to fill in the gaps in areas such as systems and engineering to successfully and efficiently complete these new rail projects, and the UK is very capable of providing those resources.
24