Industry Associations
Structures, support, stock and Synergies March and April are notoriously busy times for RISSB and this year is no exception, with the organisation delivering value across multiple areas of its business, including training, projects, programs and Standards development. We’ve boosted our online catalogue of publications, releasing and publishing two new infrastructure Standards on our website. • AS 7639 Track structure and support The Standard outlines requirements that encourage rail organisations to adopt a whole-of-life approach to the management of track structures. This approach includes the requirements in relation to track structure in terms of design, supply, construction, and maintenance of track for a range of operational track gauges used in Australia. It is an overarching document that establishes a roadmap to a suite of other AS standards containing details of various lifecycle stages of track components. • AS 7636 Railway structures This Standard provides the minimum requirements for the design, manufacture, construction, maintenance, decommissioning and disposal of rail structures. The intent of the application of this Standard is that it results in consistent treatment of rail structures across the Australian and New Zealand rail industry. Both of these Standards are now available for our members to download directly from our website. Just go to www.rissb.com.au/products/. HORIZONS PROGRAM 4.0 FIRST FORUM HELD More than 120 young rail professionals from right across Australia gathered in Melbourne and online for the first forum of Horizons 4.0 Program.
The aim of the rolling stock register is to improve transparency, enhance interoperability, and harmonise the registration process.
Held on 23-24 March, over two actionpacked days, attendees watched presentations delivered by some of industry’s biggest names and greatest leaders, immersed themselves in workshops and started collaborating with each other on group projects. We’re proud to be offering this program again to young rail technical professionals and after meeting this year’s cohort, it’s safe to say that the future is in good hands. PROJECTS • Type approvals research project The ARA and RISSB are collaborating on a new research project to quantify type approvals in the rail industry. The research will build on efforts to achieve greater harmonisation in the rail industry and explore how to make improvement while improving safety. Synergies Economic Consulting will lead research to review the range of type approvals across the country and identify opportunities to save time and money by adopting a more nationally consistent, standardised process. The project addresses key actions in the ARA’s Rail Supply Chain Blueprint, will support a national type approvals working group led by Transport for NSW, and will assist in informing RISSB’s review of AS 7702 Rail Equipment Type Approval. A report on the research project’s findings is expected to be released in June. • National Rolling Stock Register on track In partnership with Commonwealth, State and Territory governments (via the National Rail Action Plan), RISSB has commenced
work on the development of the National Rolling Stock Register. The objective of this register is to improve transparency on rolling stock data, enhance interoperability, and harmonise the rolling stock registration process. In the past seven months RISSB has been working with supplier Aquipa, consulting with key industry stakeholders to develop the register, and most recently managing user acceptance testing. TRAINING With the lifting of interstate COVID travel and border restrictions, in April we resumed our face-to-face training, starting with our accredited face to face Apply Safety Critical Communications in the Rail Environment course which we offered in Ipswich at the beginning of April. We’re currently looking at interstate venues to deliver this course later in the year. Our popular three-day Derailment Investigation and Analysis Workshop is on 10-12 May and we’re offering our Investigate Rail Safety Incidents course towards the end of this financial year. Please email training@rissb.com.au if you like to make a course booking or enquire about the availability of courses in your state or territory. More information about RISSB’s range of face to face courses is available on www.rissb.com.au/training-courses/face-toface-courses/. If you’d like to know more about anything in this article, please send an email to info@rissb. com.au with the subject line RXMAY22.
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