From the Editor

Published by:

Oliver Probert Editor - Rail Express

Complexity, scale of Inland Rail presents exciting challenges

This issue of Rail Express takes a particularly close look at one of the largest rail projects in Australia’s history: Inland Rail.

With work and planning progressing across all 13 sections of the planned 1,700-kilometre inland route between Brisbane and Melbourne, the Australasian Railway Association and Australian Logistics Council are teaming up for their second annual Inland Rail conference, which takes place in Toowoomba in July. Rail Express will be in attendance. Toowoomba is an appropriate setting for the event, given Inland Rail’s largest and most complex task is to navigate the Toowoomba Ranges, with a massive new tunnel and more than 50 bridges planned for this section alone.

Inland Rail CEO Richard Wankmuller in June gave a preview of the discussion we can expect at the Toowoomba event, when he presented the key challenges for Inland Rail to the AFR National Infrastructure Summit in Melbourne.

One theme which stands out from Wankmuller’s presentation is his reframing of major challenges not as hurdles which must be cleared, but as opportunities for innovation and growth. A competitive tender process is combining the best and brightest from local and overseas markets to deliver the $3.6 billion public private partnership to cross the Ranges, and Wankmuller’s enthusiasm for the potential of this process is clear. See more on page 34. Innovation isn’t just a future goal for Inland Rail, however: it has already begun.

Saved from the brink of total collapse just a few years ago, the Whyalla steelworks in South Australia will now churn out thousands of tonnes of innovative steel rail specially-designed for Inland Rail.

Developed via collaboration between the steelworks, the Inland Rail team, and Monash University, the rail is expected to optimise the wheel-rail interface along the route. That story is on page 36. Also in our feature is some innovation from Australian signalling technology firm Aldridge. If Inland Rail is successful it will make regional railways busier. Aldridge’s new design for safer and more reliable level crossings are perfectly suited for remote locations, where crossings are typically controlled by unpowered passive warning signs. That story is on page 32. As always I hope you enjoy this edition of Rail Express. Please don’t hesitate to get in touch if you’d like your story told.

oliver.probert@primecreative.com.au

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