No time like the present for high-speed rail in Australia

Australia’s Federal and State Governments have an opportunity now to make high-speed rail in Australia a reality.

That’s according to DB E.C.O. Group Executive Regional Director Australia and New Zealand Tilo Franz, who addressed the recent AusRAIL 2022 conference about the benefits of highspeed rail in Germany since the first locomotive sped down the tracks 30 years ago.

The wheels are already literally in motion to establish the High-Speed Rail Authority that will guide the development of a high-speed rail network in this country. The organisation will provide independent and impartial advice on the policy and standards of high-speed rail; and plan, identify and secure corridors.

It will also oversee the construction and operation of the high-speed rail network, and coordinate with state and territory governments, industry, business and communities to enhance Australia’s long-term rail investment.

While welcoming the move, Franz said Australia would need close collaboration between State and Federal Governments for high-speed rail to happen.

“And the Federal Government must take the lead from the start. High-speed rail needs a national approach. If every state does its own thing, then it will not work,” he said.

Franz drew on the success of Germany’s InterCity Express (ICE) high-speed-rail fleet as an example.

“In Germany, rail was always a national issue. It was always dealt with by the Federal Government, with the national Deutsche Bahn (DB) as a consolidated operator under its control,” he said.

“The advantage of that system was there was a country-wide harmonisation of standards introduced … and this goes back to the whole history of German railways starting in 1835, when the first tracks were laid on a route between Nuremberg and Fürth.

“So that means if anyone in Germany wants to design, operate, maintain, whatever kind of railway, it needs to comply with the national standard, there’s no alternative.”

Franz said this was important when dealing with lack of harmonisation, for example in coping with different track gauges from state to state.

“We have different gauges in Germany too. We have a standard gauge on the main network, but we also have smaller ones throughout the country and that’s mostly tourist attractions and some vintage steam engine railways in mountainous regions,” he said.

“They are all still regulated under the same federal law. This consistency allowed highspeed rail to be introduced and achieve its goal of providing long distance mobility, typically everything more than 200 to 300 kilometres.

“So, in the early days, we used existing corridors and tracks, which we upgraded gradually step by step, and started the operation in some sections with a limited speed, because the signalling system and tracks weren’t upgraded at the time. But the big advantage was that because standards in the network were harmonised, the ICE trains could still run on the tracks as other normal trains.”

Franz said the Australian government needs to develop a plan for harmonisation of railway standards in Australia and roll this standard out for the whole nation to use as part of the plan to introduce high-speed rail.

“It needs to define the best suitable standard gauge to use, for example,” he said.

The other major benefit of high-speed rail of course, apart from making the commute quicker, is that it lessens use of travel by air and road, both big contributors to carbon emissions.

“The Government should use high-speed rail as an enabler for the reduction of the carbon dioxide footprint, because all transportation on road today can be reduced significantly if more rail is used: passenger transportation in particular, but also in freight,” Franz said.

Comparing emissions between Berlin to Munich (comparable to Melbourne to Canberra), for example, Franz noted that:

• A plane trip takes about 1 hour 5 minutes for travel, 2 hours and 30 mins to check in, and results in 138kg of CO2 being released

• A car drive takes 6 hours and 10 mins and emits 65kg of CO2

• A high-speed ICE journey takes three hours 55 minutes, provides passengers with more travel comfort, and puts out only 17kg of CO2.

“Germany started out very early to consider rail as an enabler for carbon dioxide reduction and environmental protection,” Franz said.

“Rail is already the most efficient form of land transportation. Why not strive and push ahead for high-speed rail in Australia to provide long distance mobility instead of just counting on air transportation, which is, as we all know, the most inefficient form of transportation in terms of energy.”

Earlier this year, DB and Australia’s Fortescue Future Industries signed a project term sheet to develop an emission-free ammonia hydrogen engine.

Working on modifying diesel engines for locomotives and other rail vehicles so that they can be operated with ammonia and hydrogen without producing CO2 emissions, both sides have also agreed to develop other emissionfree propulsion technologies, and cooperate in developing logistic solutions and supply chains for green fuels.

GERMAN HIGH-SPEED RAIL

Deutsche Bahn carries around 4.6 million passengers a day on trains and busses throughout Germany, across 33,300 kilometres via 25,000 bridges and 750 tunnels.

The DB network control centre manages seven regional sites and coordinates about 800 long-distance trains and about 1200 freight trains a day.

“Thirty years ago, the first ICE took off in in Germany and travelled from Hamburg to Munich,” Franz said.

“Today we still have a mixed network operation. We don’t necessarily have only dedicated high-speed lines, because there are always arguments such as not enough land for a dedicated high-speed line, or that it’s too expensive for too little demand potential, for example.

“What we’ve done is upgrade existing corridors and operate ICE trains in these upgraded corridors; in some sections the speeds are about 200 km per hour, in some other sections, around 140-160kph.

“And then gradually we work to further upgrade lines and add some line sections with dedicated high-speed operation where ICE trains would run up to around 230kph.

“So, between Frankfurt and Cologne there is a dedicated high-speed line which commercially operates today up to 300kph. These lines are of particular importance due

• New Couth Wales: Transport for NSW, Sydney Metro Northwest

• New Zealand: Auckland Light Rail

“Our local Australia-based workforce leverages know-how from Germany and international experience,” Franz said.

“We support the development of Australian technical standards with the experience of how it’s been done in Germany – through the evolution of rail and learning from our experience.”

In particular, Franz said the success DB has had in the past 30 years provides a template and model for Australia to look at for highspeed rail.

“We are here to share our word-leading railway expertise and to support Australia’s vision of becoming an industry leader in railway technology and high-speed rail,” he said.

DB is participating in a current call for Transport for NSW tenders for parties to register their interest to participate in the procurement process for high-speed rail development activities.

The first phase of any high-speed rail network in Australia is expected to be on the Sydney to Newcastle section.

“Other densely populated regions would also suit faster rail. Geelong to Melbourne would certainly be another good possibility for highspeed rail, as would Sydney to Canberra. The Central Coast could be another one, linking up Queensland, NSW and Victoria,” Franz said.

“Then stretch it further to Adelaide and then as the last step, link Perth up with the southeast coast. And then of course the future will determine where there are other points of interest.”

E.C.O. Group.

It serves as an independent technical advisor for the establishment of rail manufacturing capability, and provides education and training to upskill and transform the technical workforce and technical management.

Since entering the Australian market in 2015, DB has been building long-term relationships both with industry partners and decision-makers in Australia.

With projects in more than 100 countries since 1966, it boosts an impressive pipeline of contracts in the Australian region, including clients such as:

• Victoria: Melbourne Airport Rail Link, Metro Tunnel, Level Crossing Removal Project, V/Line

• ACT: Canberra Light Rail Stage 1

• Queensland: Queensland Rail, Cross River Rail, Aurizon

Franz said he strongly believes current rail corridors should be used to limit cost of acquisition for extra land.

“Where those corridors wouldn’t be available, like for example for the Sydney central coastline, there is a suggestion to drill tunnels instead,” he said.

“We are ready to support all governments to develop a plan for harmonisation of railway standards across Australia.”

Australia has a strong rail industry already for construction. It has a good and growing industry for all kinds of rail equipment, which can be upgraded where needed.

And there is certainly operator expertise existing in Australia to run railways up to 200 kilometres per hour and higher.

“Ultimately, the Federal Government should find a way to bring everyone to the table for high-speed rail and find the best compromise to define an Australian standard.”