Issue 3
Australiasia’s rail networks plays a significant role in keeping the country connected, supporting the movement of people, products and services both locally and nationally. As an industry, the rail sector contributes around $30 billion to the country’s economy; provides employment for over 165,000 workers, enabling more than 960 million passenger trips; and transports close to 760 billion net tonne-kilometres of freight (Australasian Railway Association 2020a).
With $155 billion in the pipeline for investment in rail infrastructure across Australia and New Zealand for the next 15 years (Australasian Railway Association 2020b), and a large proportion of that funded by agencies and public sector organisations, there is a need to get it right first time. To achieve this, the sector needs to both attract people to the industry and to ensure the skill sets developed are cultivated across Australia and New Zealand. Complementing this, the sector must also have processes and systems that foster rather than hamper the much-needed innovation in the sector.
A major component in being able to make effective and well-informed decisions for the delivery of improvements in any sector is to have a consistency in function and approach across the industry. Part of this includes up-to-date and consistent industry methods and standards, which are both fundamental to ensuring that successful future progress can be achieved across the network.
While acknowledging that the complexity and fragmentation of the 29 networks across Australia – with its three gauges and 11 separate signaling systems – makes national alignment and integration across the industry difficult, it is still important to seek improvement. By focusing on the possible economic benefits of a more cost effective, efficient and sustainable rail system, this interoperability challenge can begin to be addressed.
However, in seeking to improve the integration and operation of the rail network, the skills shortage also needs to be tended to. Without ways to either attract skills into the industry, effectively train up current employees and/or foster a culture looking at different ways of doing things, the sector will continue to rely on disappearing skill sets. This will present an additional barrier to improvement and innovation in the rail sector.
Further to the above, rail must also consider, plan for and enact improvements for a best approach to achieving the net-zero emission target for the transport sector by 2050, as well as accommodating the predicted increase in the freight task by 35% between 2018 and 2040 (Transport and Infrastructure Council 2019). To remain the mode of choice, keeping up with these increasing societal and economic demands is essential.
Known as the source of independent, reliable and robust guidance for the delivery of next generation infrastructure for the transport sector, NTRO is a for-purpose organisation and registered research provider, collaborating with all levels of government, transport agencies, consultants, academia and private sector organisations in the transport and mobility space.
With a core focus of the business on integrated mobility, seeking to provide innovative and impactful mobility solutions to all Australians and New Zealanders, the NTRO pulls together multi-modal transport expertise and solutions to facilitate the adoption of new technologies and materials, and ensure meaningful progress across road, rail, ports and airports.
In mid-2022, NTRO combined the expertise of both the Australian Road Research Board (ARRB) and the Australian Centre for Rail Innovation (ACRI) to form NTRO Rail. This combination provides Australia and New Zealand with its first dedicated innovation and solutions hub focused on addressing current and future challenges in the rail sector, including those of recognised national importance mentioned earlier in the article.
In August 2023, I joined NTRO as the Executive Director, Rail, seeking to step up and consider what the challenges are in rail and what is needed for future progress, to help solve the challenges of tomorrow, today.
I bring an extensive background in public transport delivery to this role, having worked in heavy rail, light rail, ferries and buses, across both national and international contexts. As in all roles I have held, I am committed to designing an exceptional customer experience for end users within the transport space. As the Executive Director, Rail, I will be focused on delivering an innovation pathway for the rail sector by drawing on the wealth of knowledge and expertise held by NTRO across asset performance, sustainability and material performance, next-generation transport systems, and data analytics and infrastructure measurement (NTRO n.d.).
For the challenges the rail industry faces, any decision-making process needs to be informed by robust, up-to-date data. Systematic processes to continuously collect data on the rail network, applied to rail using the rich, sixty years of experience employed by the NTRO in road mapping, will enable a deep and well-informed understanding of any network issues. Subsequently, this knowledge can drive effective solutions and outcomes through evidence-based decision making. Further to this, it is especially important to consider how new methods and technologies – such as AI and digital twins that can provide more advanced, real-time feedback/data – can be utilised to benefit current and future operations.
The flow-on effect of ensuring decisions are based on sound and consistent data will be delivery of a long-lasting, sustainable and more cost-effective network. However, for these decisions to be implemented effectively, it is crucial that there is consistency within the applicable standards and approaches.
Alongside addressing consistency across the sector, developments and changes in standards and approaches should also be considered through a lens of innovation and opportunity to progress the industry. Consider, for example, the developments now coming to fruition from the Hansford Review that Network Rail (UK) commissioned in 2017 (Network Rail 2017). Within this review, encouraging innovation balanced with improving cost efficiency, through the development of partnerships with commercial suppliers and manufacturers, were key principles. The review has really tested the industry in moving away from a stagnating approach, opening up and allowing greater competition in the UK rail market. This review, in conjunction with the Network Rail Standards Challenge (Network Rail 2023), encourages innovation and broader industry involvement whilst protecting the integrity and ability to trace any changes to scope and standards.
In a much earlier stage, Australia’s National Rail Action Plan (NRAP) from the National Transport Commission (NTC) affords Australia’s rail industry much opportunity for encouraging innovation in the sector as it seeks to improve efficiency and sustainability through national alignment of new technologies, standards and skills training (NTC n.d.). With the NRAP, and the previously mentioned $155 billion investment in rail, this is an opportune time to prioritise and work on the interoperability challenge of Australiasia’s rail networks.
Further, as the plan also seeks to address the rail skills shortage, it is crucial this is supported by ensuring that effective training and resources are available for shortage areas, as well as investigating new or different ways of doing things. To achieve this, educators and broader rail industry representatives and bodies need to work together to determine the existing training gaps and opportunities, and formulate a plan for the best way forward. In this area, an independent organisation and training provider such as NTRO would be well-placed to take a step back, work with agencies who already have been formally given a remit in this space (such as the Australasian Railway Association), and consider the industry training needs from an objective point of view.
Finally, in keeping rail the mode of choice, the industry must keep up with the requirements and demands placed on it from both environmental and economic perspectives.
From the sustainability viewpoint, the carbon footprint of rail must be reduced in accordance with the net zero by 2050 emissions target for the transport sector. This will require all network assets, materials and energy uses to be scientifically assessed and considered from a whole-of-life perspective. These assessments are ones NTRO has extensive experience in for both the road and rail sectors. For testing, the NTRO’s world-class laboratory in Port Melbourne provides a full range of engineering and performance testing services for surfaces and materials, and the organisation’s Accelerated Loading Facility (ALF) can carry out true commercial-scale research testing and modelling. As for sustainability and whole-of-life assessments, NTRO has developed a sustainability overlay model for the materials used in the road and rail sectors. This model is a cloud-based tool for comparing material profiles and greenhouse gas contributions, and for calculating benefit-cost ratio outcomes from the selections made.
Meanwhile, to meet the significant and growing freight task, particularly following the impact of the pandemic and significant severe weather events, it is clear that Australia needs a resilient, reliable and efficient national rail freight network. The national freight and supply chain strategy five-year review commissioned in 2023 considers the requirements and opportunities for improvement to achieve meeting this demand. The outcomes of this review will produce a revitalised position for the industry and one that NTRO will respond to.
This is the perfect time in the transport sector for putting rail at the forefront of getting it right first time, with truly evidence-based decisions. Never has there been a more exciting time to be part of the future of a multi-modal approach to the strategic direction for transport, alongside the opportunity to take rail forwards with the breadth already applied in the road, ports and airports spaces.
