I S S U E 8 | S E P T E M B E R 2020
W W W. R A I L E X P R E S S . C O M . A U
Building a national network The NRAP is setting a roadmap for reform - SEE PAGE 22
Thales deploys its global security expertise to rail
How Siemens is ensuring rail is cyber secure
National Protocol sets terms for cross-border freight
PAGE 37
PAGE 30
PAGE 42
SUPPORTED BY:
Melbourne’s fleet of FLEXITY Swift E-Class trams will soon total 100, making the world’s largest tram network even bigger.
Bombardier and Together we move are trademarks of Bombardier Inc. or its subsidiaries.
More trams made in Melbourne for Melbourne
C
M
Y
CM
MY
CY
CMY
K
200+ passengers per tram
500+ local jobs
100% low-floor design
Made in Melbourne for Melbourne
www.bombardier.com
Contents Issue 08 - September 2020
22
4
From the Editor
6
News up front
R E G U LAT I O N & R E F O R M
22
The National Rail Action Plan
C Y B E R S E C U R I TY
28
30
26 How the Australian rail industry is responding to the cyber threat 28
T hales explains why the solution to cyber threats is not always digital
30
Siemens delivering ‘defence in depth’
WO M E N I N I N D U S T RY
34 Women in Industry Awards showcase value of diversity 40
S U P P LY C H A I N & LO G I S T I C S
36
ASCI2021: Engaging with the Decade For Action
S A F E TY & A S S U R A N C E
39
RISSB’s work program for 2020/2021
I N D U S T R Y A S S O C I AT I O N S I S S U E 8 | S E P T E M B E R 2020
W W W. R A I L E X P R E S S . C O M . A U
Building a national network The NRAP is setting a roadmap for reform - SEE PAGE 22
COVER STORY
40
ARA: Rail can be the career for young people
42
ALC: Ensuring freight remains COVIDsafe
The opportunity for reform as part of the National Rail Action Plan will enable rail to make the most of the current funding pipeline. Thales deploys its global security expertise to rail
How Siemens is ensuring rail is cyber secure
National Protocol sets terms for cross-border freight
PAGE 37
PAGE 30
PAGE 42
See page 22.
SUPPORTED BY:
WWW.RAILEXPRESS.COM.AU | 3
From the Editor Issue 08 - September 2020 Published by:
Connor Pearce 11-15 Buckhurst St South Melbourne VIC 3205 T: 03 9690 8766 www.primecreativemedia.com.au
Publisher Christine Clancy E: christine.clancy@primecreative.com.au Chief Operating Officer Zelda Tupicoff E: zelda.tupicoff@primecreative.com.au Group Managing Editor (Northern) Syed Shah E: syed.shah@primecreative.com.au Assistant Editor Connor Pearce E: connor.pearce@primecreative.com.au Business Development Manager Oliver Probert T: 0435 946 869 E: oliver.probert@primecreative.com.au Client Success Manager Janine Clements E: janine.clements@primecreative.com.au Design Production Manager Michelle Weston E: michelle.weston@primecreative.com.au Art Director Blake Storey E: blake.storey@primecreative.com.au Design Kerry Pert, Madeline McCarty Subscriptions subscriptions@primecreative.com.au Front Cover Credit: Natalie Board / Shutterstock.com
www.RailExpress.com.au The Publisher reserves the right to alter or omit any article or advertisement submitted and requires indemnity from the advertisers and contributors against damages or liabilities that may arise from material published. © Copyright – No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any means electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise without the permission of the Publisher.
4 | ISSUE 8 - SEPTEMBER 2020 | RAIL EXPRESS
Assistant Editor - Rail Express
Riding the waves
B
Y EARLY JULY IT BECAME clear that Australia was not going to avoid a second wave of COVID-19 and associated lockdown measures. While the cases of the virus were limited to greater Melbourne, the effect of a lockdown of Australia’s second largest city and the quarantining of Australia’s second largest state would undoubtedly have an impact on the rest of the country. One examples of how a localised outbreak would impact the rest of the country was in the supply chains that connect Victoria to the rest of the country. As NSW closed its border with Victoria, an action not taken at the height of the first wave of the pandemic, and other states followed suit, it was those who were transporting goods between states who had to deal with these new requirements first. For the second time this year, the spotlight turned on the backbone to Australia’s logistics network, the freight rail services and infrastructure that move goods around the country. Where the rail line crosses the NSW-Victorian border at Albury, new controls were imposed. In the initial blanket rule, freight operators were not exempt from the requirements imposed to limit the spread of COVID-19. The requirement for freight rail personnel to obtain a permit and potentially to isolate for 14 days after leaving a COVID-19 hotspot would have put the brakes on the nation’s supply chains. Due to a concerted effort by representatives of the freight industry, across all modes, requirements that accounted for the specifics of freight and rail transportation were developed. Whether due to the role that freight operators played in the early days of COVID-19, by ensuring that essential goods were supplied around the country even as panic buying set in, or a more collective
approach, it was the strong, united voice that saw regulators change tack and acknowledge the circumstances of freight in a transportspecific permit. This voice continued to be heard not just at a state level by at a national level in discussions that followed throughout July. By the end of July, the federal, state, and territory transport ministers released a national protocol that would ensure that freight would not again be thrown into such confusing circumstances. The protocol specifically noted that the industry would be consulted ahead of decisions being made, a major win for the industry. While these discussions happened at short notice and in extraordinary circumstances, in this edition of Rail Express we also tell the story of how a strong voice for rail has led to a generation reform effort. The initial push for the National Rail Action Plan (NRAP), which is currently being implemented, came from a united industry speaking directly to ministers and decisionmakers at the highest level. The kinds of reforms that the NRAP pursues, namely ensuring the transferability of qualifications and a clear pathway for rail careers, the harmonisation of standards for infrastructure and rollingstock, and working towards interoperability, are once in a generation. If successful, and there is no indication that they won’t be, these changes will enable rail to take advantage of the largest ever pipeline of work and overcome the sector’s historical inefficiencies. These examples of the power of a strong, united industry voice should be noted as rail grapples with the challenges of COVID-19 and the future beyond the current pandemic.
connor.pearce@primecreative.com.au
SUPER FLY MANCO RAIL OFFERS A FULL RANGE OF MULTI GAUGE ELEVATED WORK PLATFORMS
NO OPERATOR IN THE CAB REQUIRED
MANCO’S FULL RANGE OF TRUCK MOUNTED & SELF-PROPELLED EWP’S ARE PACKED WITH UNIQUE FEATURES. All Manco truck mounted EWP’s feature full SWL track travel from the work platform irrespective of boom angle. RONM
ENTA
L
NARROW
STANDARD
BROAD
ENVI
“ “
Designed for the hard to please rail operator.
” ”
Our technical credentials are totally convincing.
MANCO TRI GAUGE SYSTEM
STAYING ON TRACK STAYING AHEAD
RYAN BLACK
E M A I L : rblack@mancoeng.com.au P H O N E : +61 401 748 873
FOR THE FULL RENTAL OR PURCHASE DETAILS PLEASE CONTACT US: BRYAN BLACK E M A I L : bryan@manco.co.nz P H O N E : + 64 21 960069
mancorail.com.au mancorail.co.nz
News
National
While legal action begins in NSW, independent hydrology experts take another look at flood modelling in Queensland.
The NSW Farmers and the Country Women’s Association of NSW have begun legal action against the Australian Rail Track Corporation (ARTC) regarding its handling of the Inland Rail project. The two organisations have appointed a law firm to raise concerns about the ARTC’s hydrology modelling. NSW Farmers Inland Rail taskforce chair Adrian Lyons said that flood modelling was causing concerns. “We are using this opportunity to demand the ATRC engage in a productive manner with affected landholders,” he said. “We have also stressed the need for transparency around the key documents underpinning the proposed route, particularly the hydrology modelling which to date has caused consternation in our members.” Inland Rail CEO Richard Wankmuller said that the infrastructure project has had ongoing engagement with NSW Farmers for the past two years. “We were able to come to agreement on land access protocols and principles and we have published the answers to all their questions in the past.” Of particular concern is the stretch of rail between Narromine and Narrabri. The Environmental Impact Statement for that section is currently being finalised for submission to the NSW Department of Planning, Industry and Environment and the ARTC will be meeting with all affected landowners between June and September. “We have met with over 100 of the farmers and landowners that we are working with collaboratively to deliver Inland Rail between Narromine and Narrabri in the past couple of
6 | ISSUE 8 - SEPTEMBER 2020 | RAIL EXPRESS
CREDIT: RAILGALLERY.COM.AU
Inland Rail responds to legal action
months,” said Wankmuller. “Those are productive meetings, that will ensure that we can build Inland Rail to the highest standards while mitigating the impacts on those farmers.” Lyons said that NSW Farmers had recommended to members to not engage with ARTC. CWA of NSW CEO Danica Leys said that the engagement could extend to other sections of the project. “Currently, our legal correspondence is focused on the Narromine to Narrabri stretch of the rail route, but our aim is that any positive developments would be mirrored in other parts of the infrastructure.” Wankmuller said that ARTC would continue to work with farmers. “Working with farmers is the best way for us to ensure that we can mitigate their impacts and deliver Inland Rail to the highest standards.” INLAND RAIL INDEPENDENT FLOOD PANEL MEMBERS ANNOUNCED The federal and Queensland governments have announced the members of the independent Inland Rail flood modelling review panel. The five members are Mark Babister, Tina O’Connell, Ferdinand Diermanse, Steve Clark, and Martin Giles. The panel will analyse flood modelling done by the Australian Rail Track Corporation (ARTC), after local landholders on the Condamine River floodplain raised concerns with the modelling. Babister will chair the panel and is the managing director of specialist water engineering firm WMAwater. O’Connell, Clark,
and Giles are also from independent water engineering consultancy businesses. Diermanse is an expert researcher at Dutch applied research institute Deltares. “We have now finalised the members of the independent panel of international experts and their terms of reference,” said Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Infrastructure, Transport and Regional Development Michael McCormack. “Collectively they have more than 130 years’ of experience and will use their knowledge to analyse existing flood modelling and the proposed engineering solutions against national and state guidelines and industry best practice. This process is independent of the ARTC.” The review by the independent panel follows a comprehensive design process for the section from the Border to Gowrie. AECOM and Aurecon provided an analysis of corridor options in 2016-2017 which was overseen by an independent project reference group. Arup and SMEC reviewed compliance of the flood modelling and hydrology reports against industry standards. The Southern Darling Downs Community Consultative Committee had John Macintosh from Water Solutions provide quality assurance of the already undertaken work. “The rigorous approvals process put in place by the Australian and Queensland governments means that before a sod is turned the project has undergone robust and transparent analysis, including independent community feedback and multiple layers of expert peer review,” said McCormack. “The panel will test and provide expert advice on all existing flood models to ensure that they are fit-for-purpose while the ARTC continues to progress the design, consultation and approvals processes required to get construction underway. The panel is not tasked with reviewing alignment options.” The independent panel was a precondition of the agreement between the federal and Queensland government signed in 2019. Queensland Transport Minister Mark Bailey said that the final results and evaluation will ensure that floodplain and river crossings meet state and national engineering requirements. “The panel members’ conclusions will also inform the Queensland Coordinator General’s assessment of ARTC’s draft Environmental Impact Statements for this state. The findings of the panel will be publicly released once their work has been completed.”
Permits required for freight crossing NSW border from Victoria Freight rail personnel travelling from Victoria to NSW will have to apply for a permit, under new regulations imposed to limit the spread of COVID-19. The new rules were imposed on July 8 and apply to anyone crossing the border from Victoria to NSW. While freight and logistics are exempted from the ban on travelling across the border as they are seen as providing critical services, a permit is required. A separate permit is being created to clarify conditions for freight and transport operators. This permit will allow freight personnel to travel between NSW and Victoria for the purpose of their duties, as long as their employer has a COVID-19 Safety Plan and does not require them to self-isolate. Applications for the new freight and transport permit went live through Service NSW on Thursday, July 9. When the border closure was initially announced and put in place, freight and logistics operators were required to selfisolate, however chair of the Freight on Rail Group of Australia Dean Dalla Valle welcomed the change to the freight and transport-specific permit. “Rail maintenance workers, terminal staff and safety compliance officers also need to regularly cross the Victorian-NSW border in cars to service and supervise essential freight train operations,” he said. “Minister for Regional Transport and Roads Paul Toole and his key agency staff immediately understood and appreciated these nuanced, daily practical requirements of our sector. He also understood the logistical difficulty of forcing hundreds of train crews to self-isolate for 14-days each time they crossed the border on a freight delivery run.” Australian Logistics Council CEO Kirk Coningham also welcomed the NSW government’s creation of the freight transport permit. “ALC has been working with the NSW government and other industry groups over the past day to rectify the impractical requirement for freight transport workers entering NSW from Victoria to self-isolate for 14 days,” he said. “We are pleased that the NSW Government is now creating a new permit that will allow our industry’s workforce to continue delivering essential goods to communities without being forced into self-isolation.”
Passenger rail between the two states has been halted, with the XPT service from Sydney terminating at Albury. According to a statement from the Victorian and NSW agriculture ministers, both governments are working to ensure freight can flow across the border. “We are working closely with our federal and New South Wales counterparts to ensure freight movements across the border can continue and our agricultural products can be delivered to market shelves across Victoria,” said Victorian Minister for Agriculture Jaclyn Symes. NSW Minister for Agriculture Adam Marshall said that the governments will ensure that the agricultural supply chain will continue operating. “Agriculture is critical to both our states and to the country, which is why we’ll be working to make sure there’s minimal to no disruption to this essential sector.” Rail freight and the wider transport sector has been recognised as critical to ensuring Australians can access essential supplies throughout the COVID-19 period. When other state-borders were closed earlier in
2020, exemptions were granted for freight to continue. Coningham said that these procedures should continue. “Our industry has supported communities right throughout this pandemic, and it’s important governments return that support by ensuring their COVID-19 rules and regulations are practical, workable and allow us to keep delivering.” Dalla Valle said that the efficiencies of rail had been clearly demonstrated throughout the pandemic. “What has become crystal clear during the COVID-19 pandemic is the innate power of rail in being able to transport bulk volumes of freight over large distances and state borders in a safe and efficient manner,” he said. “For example, a typical interstate goods train up to 1,500 metres in length can haul approximately 220 shipping containers, helping to significantly reduce the number of truck (and hence people) movements across state borders.” Dalla Valle also said that rail was able to ensure that goods are transported via corridors and facilities that did not come into contact with the public.
Freight crossing into NSW from Victoria at Albury are required to have a permit.
WWW.RAILEXPRESS.COM.AU | 7
News
National
CREDIT: RAILGALLERY.COM.AU
Where are rail’s “shovel-ready” projects?
Approval processes need to be streamlined so that rail projects are ready to be funded.
Rail experts are calling for more plans to be developed to a “shovel-ready” stage, so that rail can take advantage of current infrastructure funding announcements. With the federal government looking to states to nominate infrastructure projects that are ready to be rapidly implemented, a lack of ready to go projects is hampering rail’s ability to capitalise on current funding offers. Rail Futures Institute president John Hearsch said that the industry needed to have projects prepared. “While there’s lots of plans, having projects at a stage where they can be fairly rapidly implemented by and large doesn’t happen very much in the rail industry,” he said. According to an industry survey carried out by the Australasian Railway Association (ARA), the most important action governments can make is to continue current projects. Caroline Wilkie, CEO of the ARA, welcomed the Morrison’s announcement that Inland Rail will be one of 15 fast-tracked projects. In addition to the selected fast-track projects, Morrison has also dedicated $1.5 billion to infrastructure funding. While road projects have been funded around the country, rail projects have largely missed out. Hearsch attributed the situation to the multiple bodies which have a responsibility for rail track infrastructure. “It’s a reflection of the fact that the industry has become very disaggregated. Roads, broadly speaking, are either usually funded by the state or local government, whereas in the case
8 | ISSUE 8 - SEPTEMBER 2020 | RAIL EXPRESS
of rail, you’ve got multiple track managers with differing agendas. Here in Victoria we’ve got three, MTM, V/Line, and ARTC.” Wilkie noted the need to streamline approval processes to ensure rail projects are “shovel-ready”. “Nationally consistent planning and procurement approaches are needed to get projects up and running faster. It is good to see governments looking at how we can make federal, state, and local approvals processes work more efficiently to support the COVID-19 recovery and we would like to see that focus continue beyond the current circumstances.” While some projects are awaiting imminent final approval from the federal government, such as the updated Murray Basin Rail Project and Melbourne’s Airport Rail Link, ongoing discussions between the state and federal government have delayed the process. Wilkie said that work needs to begin for the next wave of rail projects. “A strong project pipeline will help keep people working when the initial stimulus is over. Rail will play an important role, both in the short term and in the continuing recovery effort.” With grain volumes increasing in Victoria, Hearsch nominated the need to reopening the Inglewood-Eaglehawk link as one “shovelready” project that would also improve road safety. “By committing to a shovel-ready project that should take no more than 10 weeks to complete, there will be additional local jobs
and business for regional Victorian suppliers hard-hit by the coronavirus recession,” said Hearsch. “A big rise in the number of heavy trucks will have negative consequences for the wider community including accelerated damage to regional roads, dangerous driving conditions for motorists in rural and urban areas, increased air pollution and emissions and unnecessarily higher fuel consumption.” At a cost of $25 million, the now dormant 41km line would remove bottlenecks south of Dunolly. Completion of the project in the short term would also not interfere with the longterm plan for the Murray Basin Rail Project. “The Murray Basin Rail Project and the Inglewood-Eaglehawk line restoration are both means to a single end – moving as much freight as possible by rail – and through sound planning can be integrated compatibly,” said Hearsch. As Wilkie noted, the benefits of rail go well beyond the project itself. “Rail projects can reduce congestion and support sustainable outcomes to make our cities and communities function better and be more enjoyable to live in. Those benefits are sometimes hard to assess in a project approvals process, but they are the outcomes people want to see from infrastructure investment. “Current stimulus projects should leave the legacy of better, smarter and more sustainable infrastructure long after they are completed and the rail industry can deliver that.”
ACCC seeks to take Acacia Ridge sale to High Court The Australian Competition & Consumer Commission (ACCC) has sought leave to appeal to the High Court Pacific National’s purchase of Aurizon’s Acacia Ridge Terminal. In May, the Full Federal Court, on appeal, found that the sale would not substantially lessen competition in the rail freight sector. If the ACCC’s appeal is successful, it will be the first time that the High Court has heard a case with Australia’s merger laws. Pacific National has criticised the ACCC’s pursual of the case, which had been heard and ruled upon twice at the Federal Court level. “Pacific National was looking forward to completing the transaction and adding the Acacia Ridge Terminal to its network of efficient freight terminals, and this will once again be delayed while the ACCC seeks to further appeal what Pacific National considered was a comprehensive and correct
decision by the Federal Court,” said a Pacific National spokesperson. Aurizon has said in a statement that it would continue to operate the Acacia Ridge terminal and expected the leave application to be heard and decided before the end of 2020. The ACCC has been pursuing the case as it sees the case as a test of Australia’s merger laws. In addition, the ACCC is attempting to seek a finding as to whether a court can accept an undertaking after finding a proposed acquisition is anti-competitive. “We are seeking special leave to appeal to the High Court because it is vital for Australian businesses and consumers that competition laws are effective in protecting the competitive process,” said Simms. Pacific National had offered to make an access undertaking which the Federal Court had initially accepted. On appeal the Full
Federal Court found that the undertaking was not needed. Simms said that the Full Federal Court’s decision did not recognise the impact of Pacific National’s purchase of the Acacia Ridge terminal. “We believe that the Full Federal Court’s decision does not recognise the full impact of the proposed acquisition on competition in this vitally important industry.”
The ACCC is attempting to take Aurizon and Pacific National to the High Court.
Closure of Rail Manufacturing CRC leaves room for R&D investment The Rail Manufacturing Cooperative Research Centre (CRC) held its last event on June 25 and officially closed on July 1 leaving a gap in the Australian rail industry’s research and development landscape. Established in 2014, the Rail Manufacturing CRC has left a legacy in the form of new products for commercialisation, including passenger information systems installed at Wynyard Station in Sydney and prototypes of supercapacitor control systems and composite brake discs. Stuart Thomson, Rail Manufacturing CRC CEO, said that more work needs to be done to build off the centre’s successes. “New models of cooperation between industry and researchers, individual state governments and the Commonwealth Government will need to be explored. A national strategy for rail and rail innovation would be a great impetus for ensuring a future innovative rail sector.” Caroline Wilkie, CEO of the Australasian Railway Association (ARA), said that the CRC’s work is already having an impact. “The Rail Manufacturing CRC has worked alongside rail manufacturers and operators to
deliver new technology and innovation that will make a real difference to the industry,” said Wilkie. “The CRC’s collaborative focus has delivered some great results and the team can be very proud of its record of achievement.” With the CRC now closed and no immediate plans for a replacement, Wilkie notes there is more need than ever for support for collaboration between industry and research organisations. “New funding is now essential to keep the focus on technology and innovation in rail.” Thomson said that with the current levels of investment in rail, there is an opportunity to grow local manufacturing. “There is a need to strengthen the domestic rail supply chain. By providing incentives for SMEs to invest in research and development, and encouraging global suppliers currently not investing in local innovation or local supply chains to invest in the long term future of the local rail sector, this will create future advanced manufacturing businesses and employment opportunities.” As the Australian rail industry adopts digital technology and smart systems, this investment
should be supported with local research and development. “Technology will play an increasing role in the rail industry and continued investment is essential to make sure Australia remains at the forefront of innovation,” said Wilkie. “It is more important than ever that this work continues as the industry prepares for new growth.” Projects conducted by the Rail Manufacturing CRC have been highly regarded, with the Dwell Track technology winning the CRC Association’s annual Excellence in Innovation award. In addition, projects have led to industry implementation, with CRRC, Bombardier, and Downer having already put the projects to work. In a recent interview with Rail Express, Thomson said that the CRC was able to design research that met the needs of industry. “The industry has faced, and will continue to face, infrastructure and innovation challenges in Australia. By developing research projects and teaming up experts to support the industry, we are ensuring innovation meets industry’s needs and requirements to deliver the transformational change required in the rail sector.”
WWW.RAILEXPRESS.COM.AU | 9
Martinus has grown to become one of the leading rail infrastructure construction companies in Australia and New Zealand. With an experienced civil, track, overhead wiring and signalling team, Martinus can deliver complete rail infrastructure solutions supported by an extensive range of specialised plant and equipment.
600+
1000+
Australia, New Zealand and Chile
Employees
Projects Completed
Office Locations
Sydney | Brisbane | Perth | Melbourne | Auckland | Santiago www.martinus.com.au
News
New South Wales
Inland Rail among projects to receive accelerated NSW planning approvals NSW Planning Minister Rob Stokes is accelerating three major rail projects as well as development above the new Crows Nest Metro Station and around the CBD and South East Light Rail. Stokes said that moving projects such as the $700 million Inland Rail from Narrabri to North Star, the $273m Botany Rail Duplication, and the $115m Cabramatta Rail Loop would enable the state to economically recover from COVID-19. “The fast-tracked assessment program is a key part of the NSW Government’s COVID-19 Recovery Plan as we continue to get shovelready projects out the door to keep people in jobs and keep the economy moving.” The proposal to revamp of Central Station as part of the Western Gateway project will also be accelerated. Transport for NSW is proposing new planning control to enable the development of a technology centre adjacent to the rail corridor. All projects will be determined by August 14, 2020. Australasian Railway Association (ARA) CEO Caroline Wilkie welcomed the announcement by Stokes. “It is good to see the NSW government recognise the significant community benefits rail delivers by accelerating these projects,” she said. “Infrastructure investment will be the cornerstone of our economic recovery and sustainable, long term rail projects will form an important part of that.” Completion of the Inland Rail section as well as the Port Botany duplication and Cabramatta passing loop will improve NSW’s freight rail network, enabling further growth and reducing trucks on roads in Sydney and regional NSW. Rail’s role to play in activating development in other precincts has been recognised in the proposal to increase building height and floor space controls near the light rail line in Kingsford and Kensington. In Crows Nest, Sydney Metro is proposing to increase the building height and floor space controls to enable development above the new station. “This is a great example of improved project approvals processes making a real difference for businesses, jobs and the people that depend on them,” said Wilkie.
The Port Botany rail duplication project will be determined by August 14.
$185M INVESTMENT TO BUILD ON PARKES RAIL LINKS The NSW government has announced $185m investment to build on rail infrastructure delivery in Parkes. The future site of the intersection of Australia’s major freight lines, Parkes is expected to play a central role in Australia’s logistics networks and supply chains. Inland Rail will pass through Parkes, connecting Melbourne and Brisbane via regional NSW, Queensland, and Victoria, and will intersect in the Central West town with the rail line linking Sydney to Perth. The NSW government’s current investment will fund the Parkes Special Activation Precinct, which will leverage these links to develop a logistics and intermodal hub. Parkes also has the advantage of being much more affordable than metropolitan cities, with land values at just 5 per cent of the capitals. NSW Deputy Premier John Barilaro said the investment in roads, sewer, and water connections will help grow regional NSW. “This precinct is all about attracting money, economic growth and jobs
to regional NSW,” he said. “We know that where there is significant government investment, it attracts private investment ten-fold. This precinct could attract up to $1 billion in private investment over the next 10 years.” The precinct will be developed by the Regional Growth NSW Development Corporation, who will lead design and construction, applications and approvals, and provide assistance for those businesses looking to set up in the regions. The precinct stretches over 4,800 hectares of land, and can be used for purposes such as freight and logistics, food processing, warehousing, plastic and e-waste recycling, and cold chain storage. The precinct will also focus on sustainability, as it will be Australia’s first UNIDO Eco Industrial zone. The initiative of the United Nations Industrial Development Organisation seeks to enhance the environmental, economic and social performance of industrial businesses through collaboration. Work is now complete on the link between Inland Rail at Parkes and the Broken Hill rail line to Perth.
WWW.RAILEXPRESS.COM.AU | 11
News
New South Wales
NSW moving ahead with infrastructure for new intercity and regional fleet
CREDIT: TRANSPORT FOR NSW.
The Blue Mountains Line has been upgraded for the arrival of the New Intercity fleet.
The NSW government has awarded the first major contract for work on the Regional Rail Maintenance Facility, in Dubbo to local business MAAS Civil. MAAS Civil will be responsible for bulk earthworks to prepare the site for construction when it begins later in 2020. The maintenance facility is being delivered by CPB Contractors as part of the Momentum Trains consortium, which was awarded the control to deliver the Regional Rail Project, including the rollingstock and ongoing maintenance. The project aims to support local economies in Dubbo, said local MP Dugald Saunders. “The Regional Rail Maintenance Facility will be a real boost for the Dubbo economy and I look forward to other local businesses getting involved.” Minister for Regional Transport and Roads Paul Toole highlighted the breadth of opportunities from the project. “The $2.8 billion Regional Rail Project will create new opportunities for regional NSW businesses and suppliers such as MAAS Civil,’ he said. “The maintenance facility is expected to generate around 200 jobs during the construction phase and approximately 50 ongoing jobs when it opens, including apprenticeships and traineeships.”
12 | ISSUE 8 - SEPTEMBER 2020 | RAIL EXPRESS
Saunders also announced the release of a Business Support Catalogue, which provides information about programs that can enable SMEs to build capability, capacity, and develop their employees’ skills. “We want to ensure regional businesses become long term beneficiaries,” said Saunders. Once complete, the maintenance facility will support the new regional rail fleet, which includes 29 new trains, made up of 10 regional intercity, 9 short regional, and 10 long regional trains. The first trains are expected to run from 2023. The trains are the first in Australia to use bi-mode technology, where they will use electric power when the track is electrified and diesel outside of that. Spanish manufacturer CAF will build and supply the trains, while UGL will provide maintenance. BLUE MOUNTAINS LINE READY FOR NEW INTERCITY FLEET Upgrades to the Blue Mountains line to prepare for the introduction of the New Intercity Fleet are finished. The $75 million upgrades included changes to platforms and the rail corridor, including the Ten Tunnels Deviation. Electrification infrastructure was also upgraded to be consistent with the rest of the network. NSW Minister for Transport Andrew
Constance said that this would allow improved train services for the line. “The Blue Mountains Line between Springwood and Lithgow has now been upgraded to a more consistent standard to match the rest of the electrified network, meaning the new trains can now run all the way to Lithgow,” he said. “These upgrades will pave the way for the new fleet to provide better connections to places and opportunities for employment, education, business and enjoyment.” The New Intercity Fleet will first begin running on the Central Coast and Newcastle line later in 2020, before being introduced to the Blue Mountains line and South Coast line. Testing will soon begin to Katoomba and then to Lithgow. The new trains will improve customer comfort, said Minister for Regional Transport Paul Toole. “Customers can expect more spacious seating, mobile device charging ports, modern heating and air conditioning and dedicated spaces for wheelchairs, luggage, prams and bicycles.” The introduction of the New Intercity Fleet has been criticised, both for the need to upgrade stations to fit the new trains, as well as safety concerns raised by guards, with the RTBU refusing to staff the trains.
Corridors give shape to future Western Sydney Airport links The NSW government has confirmed the rail corridors linking the future Western Sydney Airport and Aerotropolis to the Sydney passenger and freight networks. Transport Minister Andrew Constance said that maintaining the corridors would support future development. “Preserving these corridors for future passenger and freight transport links supports the development of the Western Parkland City, while planning for the needs of growing communities and industries to accommodate commuters, workers and businesses who all rely on different types of transport modes,” he said. The corridors cover three separate rail lines. The first is the Sydney Metro – Western Sydney Airport line, stage one of which will connect the Aerotropolis with the passenger network at St Marys on the Western Line.
RISSB’s
The line will travel south from St Marys via a tunnel to Orchard Hills then to Western Sydney Airport and Aerotropolis. A further corridor extending south from the Aerotropolis will travel to Macarthur with a tunnel from Oran Park. The second line is the South West Rail Link extension corridor, which will be an extension of the current passenger network from Leppington through Rossmore and Kelvin Park to the Aerotropolis. The third line is the Western Sydney freight line. The line will run from the Outer Sydney Orbital at Luddenham, through to the M7 at Horsley Park, joining a future section through Wetherill park and connect to the Southern Sydney Freight Line at Leightonfield. “Transport will play a huge role in shaping the way our communities move around in years
27/28
to come, and we want to get this vision right, which is why we have spoken to the community at great length before finalising these future transport links,” said Constance. The corridor confirmation begins to give shape to the rail network that will connect the new city at the Aerotropolis to the rest of Sydney. So far, funding has been committed for stage one of the Sydney Metro – Western Sydney Airport line with construction to begin before the end of 2020. Planning and Public Spaces Minister Rob Stokes said the links would enable further development. “These future transport links will offer better connectivity for residents and provide certainty to drive investment in new employment hubs near the new Western Sydney Airport and broader Aerotropolis.”
October 2020
2020 Rail Safety
Conference
What’s New in 2020? A two-day supercharged program Technical streams focused on major safety issues track worker safety data / information level crossings system safety assurance contractor management incident investigations
Hear from local and international industry experts Attend in person or watch speakers and acquire knowledge remotely in a new hybrid conference format Register online and view our new agenda, visit: www.informa.com.au/event/conference/ rissb-rail-safety-conference/
Bigger, Bolder and Better than Ever Before
RISSB membe r? Tak
e adva exclusiv ntage of e mem discoun ber ts
rissb.com.au
proudly sponsored by 23 -25 February 2021
SUPPLY CHAIN VISION IN THE DECADE FOR ACTION
CONFERENCE AND SPEAKER PROGRAM RELEASED www.asci-2021.com.au/asci-program-2021/
23-25 FEBRUARY
2021
THIRD STAGE EARLY BIRD TICKETS NOW ON SALE – SAVE UP TO $200 ON THIRD STAGE EARLY BIRD PRICING UNTIL 31 OCTOBER 2020
THE FIRST SCHEDULED RETURNED GATHERING OF SUPPLY CHAIN MANAGERS ACROSS AUSTRALASIA
William Inglis Hotel, Sydney Contact: Simon Coburn simon.coburn@primecreative.com.au
News
New South Wales
Thales to support NSW digital strategy Digital expertise will be based in Thales’s Sydney office.
CREDIT: THALES AUSTRALIA
Global technology provider and rail signalling manufacturer Thales will develop a leading digital control, communication, and signalling centre in Sydney. The announcement follows Premier Gladys Berejiklian’s $1.6 billion Digital Restart Fund which aims to make NSW the digital capital of the southern hemisphere. Thales Australia CEO Chris Jenkins said that the announcement enables Thales to commit to basing its digital innovation in Sydney. “This is incredibly exciting for the many innovative companies operating in this state. To back the NSW ambition, we are committed to establishing a digital innovation lab in western Sydney to develop digital solutions for public transport,” said Jenkins. Thales supplies digital transport systems to Sydney Metro and has supplied telemetry solutions to Sydney Trains. Jenkins said that Thales would be drawing on its global expertise and tailoring the solutions to the needs of NSW and Transport for NSW, focusing on Metro, light rail, transport cyber security, and digital rail signalling. “The Digital Innovation Lab will continue to grow smart jobs in western Sydney, enhancing
our existing team of world-class engineers and software developers already based in our Transport business.” NSW Treasurer Dominic Perrottet said that investment in digital technology would drive the state’s economy. “This record investment in technology recognises that digital infrastructure is as important as transport infrastructure to the State’s economic growth. “We must be fast followers in the Digital Revolution to accelerate agility, lift productivity
and generate the jobs of tomorrow.” The $1.6bn in funding also includes $240 million to enhance NSW’s cyber security capability, the biggest single investment in cyber security in Australia’s history, said Minister for Customer Service Victor Dominello. Cyber security is also a focus for Thales. “It’s never been more important that our public transport systems are protected with the highest levels of cyber security, which Thales delivers to public transport operators around the world,” said Jenkins.
Rail needed to improve empty container supply chain in NSW Rail will be a critical component of a new strategy to increase the efficiency of the empty container supply chain in NSW. The current inefficiencies of the empty container supply chain cost the NSW economy an extra $49 million per year, according to the NSW Empty Container Supply Chain Study, released this week by Transport for NSW (TfNSW). As most containers come to Australia full and then leave empty, ensuring that unloaded containers leave their final destination and are turned to port efficiently is a major concern for the freight and logistics industry. A current lack of capacity at empty container parks will lead to a shortfall of 12,000 twentyfoot equivalent units (TEUs) by 2031. The study recommends working with industry, including rail transport operators,
to implement a working group to address these issues and increase the use of rail for returning empty containers to stevedore terminals. Other recommendations include accelerating work to enable rail to play a more significant role in the empty container supply chain. According to a TfNSW spokesperson, the industry working group is currently being established under the Port Transport Logistics Taskforce. “The working party will aim to support industry to introduce measures to improve efficiencies in the empty container supply chain, including examining options for increasing the use of rail. Operational and administrative solutions will be considered as a priority as part of this work in consultation with industry.”
Some options that the report has suggested include greater bi-directional movement of full and empty containers via rail. This will be needed to enable Port Botany to handle the expected growth in containerised freight, which will rise from 2.29 million TEUs to 7 million by 2040. Rail is expected to handle a much greater proportion of freight, with the aim to handle 28 per cent by 2021. “Infrastructure improvements will be needed to enable the increased use of rail at Port Botany, including reforms to improve rail window utilisation and the duplication of the Port Botany rail line,” said the TfNSW spokesperson. “Transport for NSW is working with NSW Ports and port operators to understand and monitor industry proposed solutions to improve rail windows at Port Botany.”
WWW.RAILEXPRESS.COM.AU | 15
News
Victoria
Funding for renewal of Victorian regional lines
CREDIT: RAILGALLERY.COM.AU
Upgrades to regional lines in Victoria have received extra funding.
The Victorian and Commonwealth governments have committed $300 million to upgrades on the Gippsland Line, as part of the Regional Rail Revival program. The upgrades will improve service reliability between Pakenham and Traralgon, easing congestion on metropolitan lines in the process. According to the Victorian government, the works will create 400 jobs in the region. A contractor is expected to be appointed shortly and works will begin before the end of 2020, with a targeted completion date in late 2022. Minister for Transport Infrastructure Jacinta Allan announced the rail upgrades along with improvements to the Princes Highway East at Flynn and Kilmany. “These important projects will provide safer, more reliable roads and train services for locals and tourists alike,” said Allan. Regional Rail Revival projects on the Gippsland line include signalling upgrades, a new crossing loop and track duplication, additional platforms, level crossing upgrades, and a new stabling facility near Traralgon. Construction is already underway on a new bridge across the Avon River in Stratford. The current funding announcement will enable track duplication, extending the Morwell crossing loop, and second platforms at four stations, including Bunyip and Longwarry. Once complete, trains will be able to run every 40 minutes between Melbourne and Traralgon in off-peak periods.
16 | ISSUE 8 - SEPTEMBER 2020 | RAIL EXPRESS
The package of works will be delivered alongside the signalling works on the Bendigo and Echuca Line. Member for Eastern Victoria Jane Garrett said that the project will provide local opportunities. “The Regional Rail Revival will enhance our regional economies, create local jobs and provide valuable opportunities for local suppliers as the state recovers from the coronavirus pandemic.” The Gippsland region was heavily impacted by the 2019-2020 bushfires, prior to the impact of coronavirus (COVID-19). “We know It’s been a very difficult year for Gippsland communities – this funding will help to boost the local economy and create jobs while building the transport infrastructure Gippslanders need,” said Allan. TRANSPORT UPGRADES FOR BUILDING WORKS PROGRAM ANNOUNCED The Victorian government has detailed transport works that will receive funding as part of its $2.7 billion Building Works program. Announced in May, programs to be carried out as part of the program include upgrades to regional freight and passenger lines. $83m will be spent on improving 400 kilometres of freight only rail lines by replacing sleepers, repairing ballast, and renewing level crossing equipment. $36m will be spent on the maintenance of the V/Line Classic Fleet, to be carried out by Bombardier. This will support 20 jobs for engineers, repair workers, and cleaners to
maintain the V/Line fleet. $7.5m will go towards upgrades to track for the regional passenger network, enabling more reliable services Deer Park Junction to Ballarat, Ballarat to Ararat, Donnybrook to Seymour, Corio to Waurn Ponds and the Bendigo East Track. Minister for Ports and Freight Melissa Horne said that the upgrades would enable more efficient connections between primary producers and export facilities. “The upgrades will mean produce can be transported from farm to port much more quickly, opening up key markets to Victorian farmers,” she said. “These investments in our rail freight network are part of our ongoing commitment to boost our export power and support regional jobs.” Minister for Public Transport Ben Carroll said the improvements would provide more reliable services for regional travellers, connecting regional centres and localities. “We’re building on our unprecedented investment in regional rail, and this maintenance blitz will be a boost for local jobs and keep Victoria moving as we recover from the COVID-19 crisis.” In addition to the announced measures, funding from the Building Works package has also been earmarked for the maintenance and restoration of trams. Other works also include improving stations and stops across Victoria and managing rail corridors through the removal of rubbish and graffiti and the management of vegetation.
Upgrades across major Melbourne rail corridors
Mentone station opened two weeks ahead of schedule.
CREDIT: LEVEL CROSSING REMOVAL PROJECT.
An artist’s impression of the new Hallam Road station.
CREDIT: LEVEL CROSSING REMOVAL PROJECT.
A $1 billion upgrade to the Cranbourne Line is one of a number of upgrades to the Melbourne rail network to recently take a step forward. Duplication of eight kilometres of track between Cranbourne and Dandenong is now underway, in addition to the 11 level crossings already removed. The duplicated track will allow services ever 10 minutes, increasing capacity by 121,000 passengers in the peak across the Cranbourne and Pakenham lines. Construction crews are working on power, signalling, and drainage upgrades at Merinda Park Station and in the rail corridor from Cranbourne to Greens Road. Minister for Transport Infrastructure Jacinta Allan said that works will enable a first for the line. “We’re getting on with the massive Cranbourne Line Upgrade, delivering more frequent services and removing its last four level crossings – making it Melbourne’s first level crossing-free train line.” Level crossings still to go on the line include the Abbotts Road level crossing, where 25-metre foundations are being drilled into the ground, and the Merinda Park station will be renewed in August. At Evans Road the bridge will remove the level crossing before the end of 2020, restoring connections in Lyndhurst, Lynbrook and Cranbourne West. Elsewhere on the Melbourne rail network, the federal government has committed $8 million in funding to remove the Glenferrie
Road level crossing in Kooyong. The funding will allow the Victorian government to begin a business case, said federal Minister for Population, Cities and Urban Infrastructure Alan Tudge. “This funding means we can start vital scoping and early development works for the level crossing removal.” The $8m comes alongside $2m for initial feasibility studies for level crossing removals at Tooronga Road in Tooronga and Madden Grove in Burnley. Glenferrie Road has been identified as a high priority level crossing in studies in 2013 by VicRoads and in 2017 by the Victorian Auditor General, in part due to the interaction of trains, trams, and vehicles. In the west of the Melbourne rail network, two level crossings have been fast tracked to begin construction in early 2021. Level crossings at Fitzgerald Road in Ardeer and Deer Park’s Robinsons Road will be removed by 2023. At Robinsons Road a road underpass will be built, and at Fitzgerald Road a road overpass will be built to minimise disruptions to train services and allow for upgrades to the GeelongBallarat train line. Safety and congestion have been a concern at both level crossings, with 18 near misses since 2012 and boom gates down for 45 per cent of the morning peak. With the two level crossings gone, the Mount Derrimut Road level crossing can
be removed by 2025, the last between Deer Park and the city. Victoria is now seeking community feedback on the design of the level crossings. In Hallam, station designs have been released as part of the removal of Hallam Road level crossing, with a new elevated rail line with access from both sides of Hallam Road. Works is expected to begin at the end of 2020 with the crossing to be removed in 2022. As some level crossing removal projects begin, others are closer to completion. At Mentone Station, the station will open two weeks ahead of schedule and Cheltenham station is on schedule to open on Sunday, August 16. Frankston line trains will begin running a week ahead of schedule, stopping at Mentone Station from Monday, July 20. New facilitation at the station include a climate-controlled waiting area, sheltered seating, and electronic passenger information displays to enable smoother transitions between bus and train services. Accessibility and access has been improved and work will now begin on landscaping and active transit connections between Cheltenham and Mentone. Cheltenham and Mentone stations have also received a five-star Green Star sustainable design rating from the Green Building Council of Australia. The award has recognised the installation of solar panels, water saving, and rainwater collection facilities.
WWW.RAILEXPRESS.COM.AU | 17
News
Victoria
Work underway to keep Melbourne trains exceeding punctuality and reliability targets and technology,” said the Metro spokesperson. These works include efforts to minimise delays due to trespassing, emergency services requests, equipment faults, external power outages, infrastructure upgrades, and extreme weather. Maintenance has also been determined based on data from last year of where common faults occur to rectify issues before they cause a disruption to services. Critical components such as points, track circuits, and signals are of particular focus. Yarra Trams has also been completing upgrade works during June to increase reliability. Infrastructure upgrades in St Kilda and renewed tram tracks on Spring and Nicholson Streets were completed during the month. Yarra Trams delivered 98.5 per cent of services, equal to its target, and 93.1 per cent of services were on time, well above the 82 per cent target. Regional services also met their targets of 96 per cent of scheduled services and 92 per cent of services on time. In June 93.3 per cent of regional trains were on time and V/Line delivered 97.5 per cent of scheduled services. The Seymour line was the most reliable of
the short distance lines, with the Geelong line being the most punctual, while the Shepparton line was the most reliable of the long distance lines, with the Swan Hill and Echuca line the most punctual. Services on the Albury line however were often delayed, with only 42.7 per cent of services delivered on time. Infrastructure upgrades are occurring while there are fewer people on the rail network.
CREDIT: RAILGALLERY.COM.AU
Metro Trains Melbourne is working to improve the reliability of the network to continue to record some of the highest ever punctuality and reliability targets. Punctuality and reliability figures for June for Victoria’s public transport network saw all operators meet or beat their targets, continuing the run of above target figures. While not as high as May, 95.7 per cent of metropolitan trains ran on time, and Metro Trains Melbourne delivered 99 per cent of scheduled services. These services included extra trains to manage socialdistanced demand. “This makes it easier for passengers to stagger travel times and physically distance while travelling for one of the four essential reasons to leave home,” said a Metro spokesperson. With patronage levels low and fewer disruptions to the network due to crowding and delays due to people getting on and off services, Metro is hoping to ensure the months of above target figures continue. “To ensure we’re delivering the best possible service, we invest $12 million in our network every week to maintain our infrastructure, trains
Overland to resume with funding confirmed The Overland train service between Melbourne and Adelaide will run for three more years, with the Victorian government committing funding to the service. The interstate rail service, operated by Journey Beyond Rail, was thought to have run its last service earlier in 2020 as South Australia withdrew funding and the Victorian government was yet to renew funding beyond June 30, 2020. The service has not been running since March due to coronavirus (COVID-19) border closures. “We’re proud to be preserving the iconic Overland train – giving certainty to regional jobs, regional tourism and regional Victorians who rely on this important connection,” said Minister for Public Transport Ben Carroll. Regional communities along the route had been lobbying for funding to be committed to the route to be able to access services
in Melbourne and Adelaide. The service stops at Murray Bridge, Bordertown, Nhill, Dimboola, Horsham, Stawell, Ararat and Geelong’s North Shore. Member for Lowan Emma Kealy said that the decision was a testament to the community’s support of the service. “This news is testament to the amazing community support for the campaign to get this crucial service funded. It has been a long, hard road to get to this point, and I am so thrilled that the people of our region will continue to have access to this much-needed rail service, as they deserve to,” Kealy said. “I am proud to stand with the communities who have campaigned so hard to ensure this railway icon, and western Victoria’s only passenger rail service, continues for years to come.”
Journey Beyond Rail COO Luke Walker said that the service would continue to have a future. “The Overland has been bringing people between Adelaide and Melbourne and the regional towns inbetween for more than 130 years and is a significant part of Australia’s rail history. It brings me great joy to know that it will also play a part in the future of Australian rail.” A summit was held by supporters of the route on June 19, with support from local government and convened by the National Railway Museum, Port Adelaide. The Victorian government has provided funding of $3.8 million, per year, for the next three years, for the current service to continue, however is in discussions with Journey Beyond Rail to see whether the service may be expanded.
WWW.RAILEXPRESS.COM.AU | 19
News
Western Australia
Grain growers, infrastructure managers back regional freight strategy working with the state government and infrastructure manager Arc Infrastructure on the project, said CEO Jimmy Wilson. “CBH has had the opportunity to give practical and pragmatic input to the development of the strategy, including data on forecast grain production growth and a focus on what will deliver the greatest transfer of grain tonnes from road to rail,” said Wilson. Wilson said the RARF is “an important and essential step in improving the efficiency of the Western Australian grain supply chain through strategic rail and road investment”.
“We recognise there is a lot of sentiment around the Tier 3 lines and have commissioned an engineering assessment to advise on the cost and time required for potential rehabilitation,” said Saffioti. Coinciding with the release of the RARF strategy is the release of the South West Supply Chain Strategy for public comment. “The draft South West Supply Chain Strategy identifies and prioritises future road, rail, air and port infrastructure requirements in the South-West region and establishes a framework and direction for future freight
The RARF outlines a targeted list of improvements.
CREDIT: RAILGALLERY.COM.AU.
The Western Australia state government has released a targeted program of regional freight rail upgrades to get more agricultural freight onto rail. Rail improvements are suggested in each of the regions studied in the Revitalising Agricultural Regional Freight Strategy (RARF) report, released on Monday, June 29. These upgrades include rail lines from Perth to Geraldton, Mullewa to Perenjori, Albany to Hyden/Newdegate, and Esperance to Salmon Gums, in addition to rail improvements throughout the Wheatbelt region. The RARF strategy also recommends a review of the interface agreements for disused Tier 3 rail corridors and the inclusion of rail lines into the National Land Transport Network. With the strategy now published, the state government will now prepare a submission to Infrastructure Australia for investment in regional freight networks. WA Transport Minister Rita Saffioti said that the report will guide investment and that work is already underway. “The RARF Strategy is a blueprint for strategic investment for agricultural infrastructure in our WA regions, underpinning the agricultural sector in our State. “Work has already started with industry on progressing project packages, with the State Government working with CBH and Arc Infrastructure to progress business cases for Tier 1 and Tier 2 railway packages identified as a priority in this strategy.” Arc Infrastructure general manager commercial & development, Nathan Speed, said that Arc would work with CBH and the state government to upgrade lines it manages. “Arc Infrastructure congratulates the Government for the release of the State’s agricultural freight strategy,” he said. “We look forward to working with Government on these and other projects from RARF that will support the ongoing international competitiveness of WA grain growers, and deliver long-term benefits to the economy and state.” The report notes that where private or leased infrastructure is concerned, as in the case of WA’s freight rail lines which are leased to Arc Infrastructure, the private sector is expected to lead the development of business cases. CBH Group, which provides grain haulage services to its member growers, has been
CBH is already working on business cases for a new passing loop at Broomehill and rail siding extensions at Brookton, Cranbrook and Moora, which will allow for longer trains to be loaded at those sites. As well as upgrades to track infrastructure, the report highlights the need for intermodal terminals around the network, including on the Avon (Northam) rail corridor, between Perth and Geraldton, Brookton and Northam, and Albany and Hyden/Newdegate. Based on feedback received on the draft strategy, a more targeted list of projects were included in the final RARF strategy. “The low-cost, high benefit projects outlined in the strategy would facilitate the transfer of more grain tonnes off road onto rail, deliver more rapid rail movement from site to port to capture the market window when the Black Sea is least active, as well as improve efficiencies in the road network where rail is not an option,” said Wilson. Earlier in June, the WA government confirmed it was undertaking an assessment of the cost of reopening the disused Tier 3 grain lines.
transport related investment in the region for the next 10-15 years,” said Saffioti. The report identifies a need for investment in the region’s rail network as strategic locations are approaching operational capacity. In addition, the reconfiguration of rail access to Bunbury Port will allow for the rail infrastructure to meet the needs of bulk exporters. Another area the report identifies as needing investment is the establishment of container rail services between Bunbury and Perth for broader export and domestic market. To address these challenges, the report cites the need for line duplication, new passing loops, and rail sidings. The report also explores the possibility of a intermodal freight terminal at the Waterloo Industrial Precinct. Speed said that Arc is working towards getting lithium ore onto rail. “We continue to collaborate with Talison Lithium and government on the development of the business case for the rail based supply chain from the Greenbushes mine, as outlined in the South West Supply Chain Strategy. We hope to commence detailed project feasibility in late 2020.”
WWW.RAILEXPRESS.COM.AU | 21
Regulation & Reform
Putting reform into action
As states invest in modernising their fleets, there is an opportunity to encourage interoperability between different types of rail traffic.
On a chilly Adelaide day in August 2019, federal and state transport and infrastructure ministers assembled in Adelaide for the 11th meeting of the Transport and Infrastructure Council. At the meeting, Danny Broad, then CEO of the Australasian Railway Association (ARA) gave a heated speech outlining that without coordinated state and federal action, rail’s massive investment boom would be squandered, citing the dual challenges of a workforce shortage and the lack of common standards. In comments made after the meeting closed, Broad castigated the laissez-faire approach to training. “Governments can’t leave it to a nebulous training ‘market’ to resolve, because it’s just not working,” he said. “These are national issues requiring a national approach, which reinforces the need for jurisdictions to work together to ensure consistency and alignment between jurisdictions.” Also listening to Broad’s speech was
22 | ISSUE 8 - SEPTEMBER 2020 | RAIL EXPRESS
the then-CEO of the Australian Airports Association Caroline Wilkie. Recalling the presentation, Wilkie was struck by the unanimity of the response. “Over the last few years, ministers have been very keen to understand whether there’s any barriers, or indeed any opportunities, that we should be looking for on the back of this enormous infrastructure spend, particularly in transport. From that discussion, there emerged three key areas of focus.” The three priority areas that would come out of the August meeting were skills and labour, common standards, and interoperability. The Transport and Infrastructure Council tasked the National Transport Commission to develop a National Rail Action Plan (NRAP), which, chair of the NTC Carolyn Walsh highlighted, built upon the current investment in the rail industry. “The Rail Action Plan isn’t starting from scratch and saying nothing has happened before; it is drawing together the threads of a lot of things that have been happening over recent years like the development of Inland
CREDIT: RAILGALLERY.COM.AU
Bringing together representatives from all facets of the rail industry, the National Rail Action Plan is setting a template for rail’s future.
Rail, the ARTC’s investment in ATMS, Sydney Trains investment in Digital Systems, the Cross River Rail in Queensland.” These investments were driven by the recognition at a political level that rail had to play a greater role in moving people and goods if Australia was going to improve productivity and reduce emissions. “There’s been acknowledgement across governments for a number of years now about the freight task. There’s a strong sense that we’ve got a freight task that cannot be dealt with without investment in both roads and rail, but particularly rail for long-haul freight,” said Walsh. “The growth of our metropolitan cities has been huge so we’ve seen much greater investment in public transport over the last 10-15 years which is terrific. Coupled with that is the recognition of the impact of climate change, and the importance of getting better environmental outcomes through our transport networks, both in terms of freight and passenger.” What Broad and others had realised, and
FINDING THE NEXT GENERATION OF RAIL WORKERS The issue that Broad had honed in on in his presentation in 2019 was that without
a fundamental change to the way that rail skills and qualifications were taught, the rail industry would have a skills crisis. This assertion was supported by a report commissioned by the ARA and published in 2018, which assessed the skills pipeline for the rail sector. As Wilkie noted, the findings were clear. “We don’t have the incoming workforce to meet the requirements of rail projects. ARA members right now don’t have enough people coming through in terms of apprentices, younger people, people with experience, or people moving into the sector.” In addition to the lack of people, the 2018 ARA report found that qualifications in one state were not always recognised in another. “The report identified a number of areas of improvement and action that were required and a lot of that was activity that really required a national approach,” said Wilkie. Walsh also noted that rail is not the only infrastructure sector experiencing a boom. “There’s two elements of it, the first is whether we have the skills base in Australia generally to be able to deliver on this broad range of infrastructure projects – roads, rail, hospitals, and schools are all competing with each other for the best engineers, leading the cost of infrastructure to go up unless we manage the supply of skills. There’s also how to make rail attractive as an industry in a modern world? It can have a reputation as quite a 19th century technology, when actually with all these investments we’re moving to a 21st century technology, which is very attractive to people developing engineering, IT, and other skills.” Currently, the lack of skilled workers coming into the rail sector has led to reports of companies poaching staff, or having to hire overseas, increasing costs. “What we really need to be looking at is how do we get more people into the mix, how do we develop more people and bring more people in, because it is getting difficult to take people from one project to the other,” said Wilkie. Already, as the working group has had early meetings, Wilkie can see a need for the clear definition of pathways for school students and graduates who want to work in the rail industry. In addition, the working group will be looking at how to enable ongoing training, whether delivered by TAFEs or private registered training organisations. “Talking to members across the country, every state has shortages in a variety of areas,” said Wilkie. “I was speaking to someone the other day about driver shortages in Western Australia, I’ve spoken to other people about
signallers. We’re talking about issues of how you train people on the job, how do you get school children interested in the career. It’s really starting from the beginning to end, and what COVID also throws into the mix is how do you get people that might have been in other sectors with transferrable skills into the rail sector as well.” Wilkie also highlighted that as rail is identified as a sustainable mobility technology, encouraging investment, this can also be a way for the sector to promote rail to younger workers. “The ARA and the industry need to do more to talk about the environmental credentials of rail. For the younger generation, a sector like ours that is so good in the sustainability arena and makes such a big difference in terms of environmental footprint is something that we need to promote. “It’s also promoting diversity. It’s about talking to women about why rail would work for them in their life. The perception of the railway sector if you talk to most younger people it would be of an older sector, which just from going to AusRAIL we know that’s not true. It’s a dynamic industry with lots of diversity from younger and older people who have a lot to add and a lot to bring and I think it’s an exciting sector to be part of.” CREDIT: RAILGALLERY.COM.AU
impressed upon ministers, was that the rail industry in Australia had an enormous opportunity, with all major capitals investing in significant modernisations of their rail network and interstate projects such as Inland Rail. However, this also represented the chance of a pitfall, and one that the Australian rail industry has been learning from for the past century and a half. “The industry had collectively with government recognised the extent of that we’ve got to get all of those things right to make sure that we don’t create the break of gauge in the future,” said Walsh. “For those investments that are going to take the next 10 years to put in place and enable in-cab signalling for instance, how do we ensure we don’t get the future break of gauge, as those investments come together.” Walsh noted that with a national pipeline of investment, individual rail infrastructure managers in each state were thinking about how to think about each network as a part of a national set of railways. To make this happen, working groups for each focus area under the NRAP were formed, with Wilkie co-chairing the skills and labour group, Walsh co-chairing the interoperability group, and Deborah Spring, CEO of the Rail Industry Safety and Standards Board (RISSB), co-chairing the harmonisation group. Each group will also have a representative from industry as the other co-chair, including the Australian Rail Track Corporation (ARTC), the Victorian Department of Transport and the South Australian Department of Planning, Transport and Infrastructure. In addition, members of each working group will comprise representatives from each state as well as industry representatives from RISSB and the ARA. With buy-in from the Commonwealth, states, and industry, Walsh noted that the tone of the conversations was energising. “People are very keen to take advantage of the fact that we do have significant investment,” she said. “Often, we’re all talking about how to cut back, how to find efficiencies, and we are looking to find efficiencies, but this is an opportunity on the back of money and investment going into rail. I think we’ve hit a time where those three planks of industry, the standards setters, and the policy makers are all seeing this as an opportunity.”
Harmonising standards in rollingstock and signalling will enable Australia’s rail manufacturing sector to be more competitive.
WWW.RAILEXPRESS.COM.AU | 23
Regulation & Reform
SCALING UP THE AUSTRALIAN RAIL INDUSTRY Australia’s rail industry has long been hampered by the legacies of federation, with each state having their own standards and regulations for railways, and this has led to the proliferation of standards for the component parts of railways and infrastructure. Currently, it is estimated that there are more than 10 different standards for the thickness of glass required for a passenger train carriage. Not only does this limit the ability of rail suppliers from competing in different states and increases the cost of procurement, it prevents the Australian rail supply industry from competing for international contracts. “Harmonisation is about how do we actually get common standards of the component parts of railways, so that we’re actually building scale in the capacity of the Australian industry to be able to tender for those projects,” said Walsh. In addition, distinct standards mean staff are largely tied to one state or rail network, said Wilkie. “We’re talking about the ability of different operators to be able to move from state to state, and that links back with the ability of staff to move between state” What the working group aims to do, is also reduce the cost of operating when freight trains, for example, have to traverse across state borders. “Another example that I’m given is you’ll have an operator who is working in the freight area and they have a number of different folders in their cab that’s relevant to the rules and regulations on the network in Victoria and they go across to NSW and there’s a different set of rules,” said Wilkie. “It’s about making that consistent, so it makes for a better safety outcome but also a more efficient outcome as well.” Deborah Spring, RISSB’s executive chair and CEO, is co-chairing the harmonisation working group with Ben Phyland, head of rollingstock development, network integration at the Victorian Department of Transport. Already, a number of standards have been harmonised across states through RISSB’s Priority Planning Process (PPP). “Six standards in the harmonisation section were raised through the PPP forum so we were able to put them on our plan and in fact four of them started to progress while the NRAP was being finalised, which I think shows the importance of the plan and also how RISSB is a conduit for industry,” said Spring.
24 | ISSUE 8 - SEPTEMBER 2020 | RAIL EXPRESS
Three standards identified in the NRAP, common standards for glazing, bogies, and interior crashworthiness have already been completed, with standards for egress, energy storage, HVAC and emissions now being worked on. As Spring describes, the harmonisation process under the NRAP is an extension of RISSB’s current work program. “When we’re looking at a standard, we look across the industry’s existing standards, both domestically and internationally, and use that as a starting point for the development of our standards,” said Spring. “We also call for development groups and then we have our five existing standing committees right now, who then have a governance layer on top of that. So, these standards are developed in collaboration with industry, drawing upon industry’s expertise, and looking internationally as well.” Beyond individual standards for components, the NRAP also calls for common rules for safe work. These will be developed out of the National Rules Project that RISSB is finalising. “The next step of that project is that we have taken the Australian Network Rules and Procedures (ANRP) and gone out to industry with a survey asking, ‘With the 62 rules here, which ones would add the most value to
be nationally harmonised and which ones would be easy to harmonise?’ We came up with a matrix to try and identify those rules which will be high value and initially easy to implement. We then set up a national industry reference group of all the senior safety leaders and executives throughout the rail industry to oversee the progression of work,” said Spring. What this process has developed is a template for the standardisation and harmonisation of rules across the Australian rail industry. While certain rules are identified in the NRAP, their harmonisation will be the first of a pipeline of rules, where RISSB will focus on harmonising those rules that bring value to the rail industry. “A lot of people talk about harmonising and standardising, but our approach is it should be done when it’s adding value and not just for the sake of it,” said Spring. A NEW NATIONAL NETWORK Being able to move people and goods via rail from one side of Australia to the other has been a relatively recent phenomenon. While the Indian Pacific first ran from Sydney to Perth in 1970, making the journey smooth for freight has also been a major challenge, Spring points out.
CREDIT: RAILGALLERY.COM.AU
The Action Plan has been driven in part by Australia’s increasing freight task, which governments have recognised needs to be carried by rail.
“I started in National Rail when we took over the assets from the five states and at that point, to get a container from Brisbane to Perth, nothing talked to each other. Not only did we not have one gauge, we didn’t have standard procedures, we couldn’t track anything, we couldn’t book anything, even the tariff system, nothing worked,” said Spring. “We made that seamless and we’ve got to be able to make it seamless now where you can go across the country and it doesn’t make a difference which system you’re using – the critical information getting to the driver is right, timely, and accurate.” Having this history in mind, current projects are aware of the need to ensure interoperability, said Walsh. “We’re looking at new type of railways that have got interconnecting points. The ARTC railway joins with the Sydney Trains railway and they’re both investing in technologies for in-cab signalling, but they are different systems. That’s ok, because you’ve got a different rationale for those systems in different operating environments, but they’ve got to be able to talk to each other so that you’ve got a seamless operation and you’re getting the maximum efficiency and safety out of the system.”
To enable the various systems that rail infrastructure managers and operators are investing in to work with each other, the NRAP working group on interoperability will be identifying how to develop standard operating rules that enable control and communication systems to interact. Walsh, who is co-chairing the group with Simon Ormsby, group executive strategy at the ARTC, highlights that the solution will not be one size fits all. “The goal does not need to be for all of the networks to have the same technology because there is a rationale for why you would have a different signalling system for long-haul freight across deserts compared to what you need in the city where you want to get every inch out of the headway. For example, with digital train control systems being rolled out simultaneously on the nation freight network and on the Sydney, Melbourne, Perth, and Brisbane networks, Walsh noted that there needs to be a national conversation about how these systems will work together. “I don’t think that we’re looking at for ARTC to convince Sydney Trains that they should both use the ATMS system or Sydney Trains has to convince ARTC to use ETCS, but I do think we need to have those early conversations about how they talk to each other and what is the investment we need to make sure that all rollingstock has the capacity to operate over both of those systems.” This convergence of technological and financial change, while one of a successive number of national waves of reform, is in part unique due to the collaboration of government and industry in Australia’s contemporary rail industry. ‘Back in the ‘50s and ‘60s it was all about investing in a standard gauge so that people didn’t have to get out of the train and change the train at Albury to continue on down to Melbourne,” said Walsh. “Then in the 90s it was all about competition policy and there was a lot of attention in government about separating above and below rail and getting competition into the freight industry. Then in the ‘00s it was all about getting a single national regulator and this next wave, as we get this investment, is about how do we make sure, in partnership with RISSB as the standards setter and the railways that adopt those standards and adapt them, that we’re now not going to get the future break of gauge.”
MAKING A LONG-TERM IMPACT None of the NRAP co-chairs that spoke with Rail Express suggested that once the items listed on the plan were complete would the job of growing the workforce, harmonising standards or improving interoperability be finished. In fact, the NRAP hopes to set the groundwork for ongoing collaborative reform in the rail sector. “The action plan is focusing on these three issues to begin with, but I think it’s legacy over time will be a way of thinking about the national rail system as a system that we need to make sure works collectively together,” said Walsh. “In the past it’s happened bilaterally, you’ll get ARTC talking to Sydney Trains about the interface of trains into Sydney, but actually at the other end of the country you’ve got Arc as the infrastructure manager from Kalgoorlie to Perth so now we’re actually saying this has to be a national conversation and a multi-lateral conversation around some of these issues.” For Wilkie, the reform’s significance is having the decision-makers working together. “In each of those three working groups there’s a representative from each state government, so it means everyone is in the room, everyone is part of the conversation. That’s why I’m so positive about this whole process. It’s shown that the ministers take it seriously, we have all of the right people in the room and now it’s up to us to use this opportunity to really make effective change.” As Spring highlights, the reform process is a model of what the co-regulatory environment of the rail industry can achieve and avoids the need for top-down mandating of standards or rules. “My approach is if a standard is good and it adds value and it’s had wide consultation, then in a way industry should be wanting to adopt it. These self-mandated standards then really support the coregulatory environment.” All-in-all, the work on the NRAP signals that rail’s time has come, said Walsh. “I grew up in Yass in the 70s watching the Hume Highway be duplicated, and at the same time we weren’t seeing a railway having that same level of investment. “Partly that was because there didn’t appear to be the drivers – economically, environmentally – to have that investment. I think that’s really shifted in the last 20 years. There is pressure on the infrastructure in terms of the demand, as well as responding to the environmental and safety concerns of the community.”
WWW.RAILEXPRESS.COM.AU | 25
Cyber Security
Protecting critical infrastructure from cyber attacks As Australia’s rail sector has not been immune from the risk of cyber-attacks, industry bodies are joining with government agencies to mitigate the ongoing threat. In November 2016, The San Francisco Municipal Transport Agency was hit by a cyber-attack. The HDDCryptor malware spread across over 2,000 computers, meaning that the Agency’s network was opened up free for the public. While the agency’s ability to provide transport across its fleet of light rail vehicles, streetcars, trolley and hybrid buses was not compromised, ticket machines, payment services, and emails were affected. The hackers demanded a ransom of 100 bitcoin, equivalent to $102,644 at the time. This type of attack, shutting down a network’s computer systems and demanding a payout, is known as ransomware, and can be caused by a person simply clicking on an infected link in an email or downloading an infected file. The networked nature of large transport authorities means that this can quickly spread throughout an organisation. While San Francisco did not pay off the hacker and was able to restore its systems by the next Monday, the hack was one of the most visible instances of how cyber threats are coming to the rail transportation sector.
26 | ISSUE 8 - SEPTEMBER 2020 | RAIL EXPRESS
Earlier that year, cyber criminals struck the rail network in NSW, targeting regional train services provider NSW TrainLink. Hackers were able to infiltrate the booking service and capture customer credit and personal data. Unlike the San Francisco hack, this breach targeted a rail organisation’s repository of customer details, including things like bank details and personal information. The opportunistic attack exposed how people using the same passwords for multiple accounts can make a system vulnerable, and in this case, with rail operators having data on large numbers of people, others could be seen as a honeypot for potential attackers. Western Australia’s Public Transport Authority was also targeted in an attempted attack in 2016, leading the rail agency to shut down its own website and websites for specific services such as Transperth to prevent further intrusions. More recently, the number of cyberattacks has been increasing. In May 2020, Swiss rail manufacturer Stadler reported
that hackers had targeted the company hoping to extort a large amount of money and threatening the publication of data to hurt Stadler and its employees. Although not impacting production lines, the hack came a week after Australian logistics operator Toll also suffered a ransomware attack, the second that company had suffered in 2020. A spokesperson for the Australian Cyber Security Centre (ACSC) reiterated comments made by Minister for Defence Linda Reynolds that malicious cyber activity against Australia is increasing in frequency, scale, and sophistication. “Rail, and the transport sector more broadly, is part of Australian critical infrastructure and provides essential services to Australians,” the spokesperson said. Ransomware attacks are becoming more common for organisations across the rail sector. As these few examples demonstrate, the reliance of all parts of the rail industry on digital systems means that cyber-attacks are not targeting any one sector of the industry. Furthermore, as
The digitalisation of transportation has opened up rail to cyber threats.
large, often widely distributed organisations that deal with personal and safety critical information, the rail sector has many facets of the organisation that are involved with cyber security, not only in operational roles. “A cyber incident involving critical infrastructure can seriously impact the safety, social or economic wellbeing of Australians, due to the significant disruption it can cause if the systems are damaged or unavailable for extended periods of time,” said the ACSC spokesperson. This is not to suggest that the rail sector has been blind to the risk posed by cyberattacks. In the UK, in 2016, the Department for Transport published the Rail Cyber Security: reducing the risk of cyber attack guidelines. In the document, the increasing threat of cyber-attacks in the rail industry is clearly stated. “Railway systems are becoming vulnerable to cyber-attack due to the move away from bespoke stand-alone systems to open-platform, standardised equipment built using Commercial Off-the-Shelf (COTS) components and increasing use of networked control and automation systems that can be accessed remotely via public and private networks.” These vulnerabilities leave the rail sector open to impacts of cyber-attacks, from threats to safety, disruptions of the network, economic loss, and reputational damage. The guidelines outline how rail organisations should respond, from the level of governance, through to design, the integration of legacy and third-party systems, and staff training. As the spokesperson for the ACSC outlined, as rail reaps the benefits of digitalisation, there are also challenges.
“The rail sector is continually modernising through the adoption of new operational technologies. However, with this, comes potential cyber security vulnerabilities,” said the spokesperson. “The increased adoption of interconnected technologies has the potential to increase the cyber threat ‘attack surface’.” In the case of passenger networks, bespoke systems such as electronic signage, ticketing systems, electronic passenger gates, building management and public address systems are areas of concern. In the freight sector, the interconnectedness of the industry and its automation contributes to the vulnerabilities the sector faces. The exposure of the rail sector was highlighted in a 2016 Victorian AuditorGeneral report into the security of critical infrastructure control systems for trains. After a 2010 report identified weaknesses, the 2016 report found little improvement since then. The reasons for the lack of progress were poor governance arrangement, limited security frameworks for control systems, limited security controls for identifying, preventing, detecting, and responding to cyber security events, and a poor transfer of accountability and risk during machinery-ofgovernment changes. In the Auditor-General report, 10 recommendations were made, all of which were accepted by Public Transport Victoria and the Department of Economic
Development, Jobs, Transport and Resources, which has since been broken up into the Department of Transport and the Department of Jobs, Precincts and Regions. Since the Victorian Auditor General’s report, moves have been made to standardise and improve the Australian rail industry’s cyber security response. In 2018 the Rail Industry Safety and Standards Board (RISSB) published its Australian Rail Network Cyber Security Strategy. Identifying similar threats, the document outlined the vision for the industry of the elimination of cyber risk, resulting in zero cyber-attacks on the Australian rail network. To do this, the strategy follows the principles of understand, protect, detect, and respond. In addition, also in 2018, RISSB published AS 7770 – Rail Cyber Security, the Australian standard for managing cyber security risk on the Australian railway network. To improve the response of the rail sector to the cyber security threat, ACSC provides sector-specific resources and materials. “The ACSC is working with all critical infrastructure sectors to help them increase their cyber defences as well as transport sector entities through the ACSC Partnership Program.” The ongoing adoption of industry standards as well as the implementation of sector-wide strategies will ensure that the rail industry continues to be prepared to deal with cyber attacks as the threats morph and change.
Attacks on the rail sector have targeted ticketing systems, customer data, and production systems.
WWW.RAILEXPRESS.COM.AU | 27
Cyber Security
A constantly changing threat Countering a dynamic threat such as a cyber-attack necessitates an approach that goes beyond technology.
Thales undertakes risk assessments of cyber security protocols with its customers before implementing the right solution.
In a paper presented to the CORE 2018 conference entitled Smart railways… or not so smart: a cyber security perspective, Raymond Frangie described what the proliferation of technologically complex railways could look like. “A cyber-security professional would see such environments as a Pandora’s box of potential critical vulnerabilities and issues and wonder, no longer a matter of if, but a matter of when, this system will join the list of other systems around the world to be breached, causing all sorts of issues such as delays, derailments, and/or in some cases, even death.” While Australia has fortunately been immune from significant cyber-attacks on transportation systems, serious incidents have occurred overseas, leading the rail industry to increasingly ask how safe and secure are the digital systems that are central to the operation of the rail network? The rail industry has years of experience navigating safety risks, as Michael Powell, director, technical & engineering of Thales’s Ground Transportation Systems & Secure Communication and Information Systems, outlined. However, cyber attacks are also a new kind of threat.
28 | ISSUE 8 - SEPTEMBER 2020 | RAIL EXPRESS
“The rail industry is very familiar with security and safety and has developed standards, processes, and procedures to identify the hazard, understand what the likelihood or the risk of it occurring is, and what we do about that. One of the key differences for cyber is that it tends to be deliberate and also that it’s constantly changing.” While known and predictable hazards are able to be solved through design, the dynamic nature of cyber threats poses a different challenge compared to static threats. “For example, the risk of a train collision is something that’s known during the design phase of a project,” said Powell. “You design systems to specifically mitigate against the possibility of there being a train collision. It’s specified in the requirements and there’s tests to ensure that this doesn’t occur. Whereas with a cyber-attack there’s malware, and there’s intrusions that are changing from day to day. Things that didn’t exist in the design phase of a project exist today, which raises the question of how do you deal with those things?” The other challenge that cyber security raises is an organisational one. With cyber security being a new area for the rail industry, it is not compartmentalised in an organisation
like traditional threats. This requires a flexible approach. “When going to a customer, do you talk to the security professional, the safety professional, or do you talk to the IT department? This is different for every customer,” said Powell. To introduce a the cyber security topic, Thales will conduct a risk assessment with the customer, to identify where the vulnerabilities are and what the responses could be. In some cases, highlights Powell, the solution may not be a digital one at all. “I don’t think you can have that discussion with the customer with a solution already in mind; you need to understand what the risk is and how to handle that risk. Don’t go to the customer assuming that you need to sell cyber products. That’s not the right starting point. The right starting point is to ask what are the security risks that exist in the organisation and then what are the mechanisms by which we can mitigate those particular risks, of which one or more of those solutions could be cyber related?” Powell gives the example of a passenger information display on a train platform that has been compromised to show an unsafe
message, perhaps indicating that people should stand on the tracks. “A solution to that may be that if there is a compromise in the system you simply shut down the information displays and instead use public announcements. The solution is not necessarily to add cyber control, which could be part of it, but it’s not necessarily the only solution.” THE BENEFITS AND RISKS OF DIGITALISATION While the rail industry’s embrace of digitalisation has many benefits for passengers and operators alike, according to Waël Kanoun, head of cyber solutions at Thales Middle East, there are three consequences of digitalisation that can introduce new threats, the first being complexity. “As part of digitalisation and creating new and/or enhanced features, transportation systems are getting more complex. Complexity is an enemy to security and especially cyber security.” The second area is less isolation, with increased internal connectivity between transportation systems and external networks, that can create and facilitate the execution of cyber-attacks with higher potential spread and impact. Traditionally, rail networks were physically separated through the use of walls and fences to prevent intrusions onto the corridor. However the integration of rail digital systems with smart phones and mobile networks is creating new connections. The final area is the technology itself. “Rail is relying less on proprietary technology and more on IT technology including operating systems and networks, which are not always designed with security as a priority. As a consequence, digitised systems are inheriting any intrinsic vulnerabilities,” said Kanoun. To put these consequences into context, Powell highlights how inseparable private mobiles phones are from the way that users interact with the rail network. “For example, your mobile phone now could be considered part of the rail system because you’re using it for timetable information. It tells you where to go, and if you need to change, but what happens if that information is wrong?” In the case of a transport app showing incorrect information, rather than attempting to revert the change, Powell suggests that in this case, it could be better to shut down the app altogether and rely on other methods of communicating information. “This is why we need to talk about the risk profile, what are the mitigations, and quite often the mitigations are multiple things,
While an opportunity, the complexity of rail digitalisation creates issues of cyber security.
of which cyber is one.” To grapple with this issue, Thales leverages global expertise when it comes to countering cyber threats, developing systems that are cyber secure by design. “One thing that we do is we try to use as much commercial off-the-shelf (COTS) equipment as possible, so we’re not using proprietary equipment. What we want is the marketplace to keep up to date for us because we don’t want to have to solve the same problem five times over if the market has solved it for us,” said Powell. “Of course, as a standard practice at Thales, we check everything that we deliver to our customers, – irrespective of its supply original. We’re checking that it doesn’t have any malware that has crept in through the supply chain.” This is done through a verification and validation process, where Thales engineers attempt to hack into their own technology through injecting negative events. Proving that the system can withstand this makes it secure. This methodology also enables solutions to be interoperable with existing or legacy systems and allows upgrades and updates to be installed in the future. These approaches are being formalised in the development of standards for rail cyber security, however the dynamic nature of cyber security threats means that there is little value in being prescriptive. With malware changing from one day to the next, a comprehensive process of testing and validation is key. LEVERAGING A GLOBAL NETWORK Thales’s cyber security services have not only been a product of its involvement in the rail sector, as Kanoun noted, “At Thales, we have security in our DNA.” This comes from Thales’s involvement in a variety of industries where cyber safety is a key
concern, with developments in all these fields benefiting the rail sector, said Powell. “Thales works on projects from satellites to naval ships. The first principles required for security have always existed in these domains, so it’s about applying these existing techniques and existing processes in Thales to a different domain.” In addition, when a threat is countered at another location around the globe, the learnings can be applied locally. “Thales is operating all over the world, in all parts of Europe, North and South America, Southeast Asia, and China. If a cyber threat for example occurs in one part of the world, we can integrate this into our solution and then Australia benefits from that,” said Powell. “The scope and the scale of the company allows us to see a problem once in one location and then solve it once, and then apply this multilaterally so every customer benefits.” Incorporating what Thales terms “secure by design” at the outset of any project avoids expensive bolt-on security, which can ultimately be less effective. Indeed, as Kanoun pointed out, cyber security should not be thought of as a product that is added on to a system. “It can only be addressed with a comprehensive approach covering all phases from design, configuration, installation, and testing to deliver cyber-secure solutions with minimum residual risks. Cyber security must be integral part in long-term maintenance and services by ensuring effective vulnerability management and continuous monitoring.” Rather than thinking about cyber security as a technical problem, like other approaches to safety, technology is one pillar, along with processes and governance, and the proper training of people. Such a holistic approach to security is needed as digital systems become ever more central to railways.
WWW.RAILEXPRESS.COM.AU | 29
Cyber Security Siemens is providing solutions to allow rail to reap the benefits of digitalisation.
Securing a digital railway Siemens explains to Rail Express how digitalisation in rail requires a focus on cyber security. On June 19, Prime Minister Scott Morrison warned Australian businesses and agencies that they were under a sustained cyberattack from a sophisticated state-based actor. Rather than describing the nature of a singular attack, Morrison outlined the constant and ongoing threat that Australia’s critical infrastructure was facing. This reminder of the cyber threat that Australia was facing aligned with what Serge Maillet, head of industrial cyber security, Siemens Australia and New Zealand, has observed. “Over the past 12-18 months there’s been a significant increase in terms of cyber-attacks that we’re seeing across all of our industries. This is happening worldwide but unfortunately Australia is being heavily targeted.” Based on data from the Centre for Strategic and International Studies, a US think tank, Australia is the sixth most targeted country for cyber-attacks, with 16 significant attacks between May 2006 and June 2020. The nature of these attacks is not leaving the rail industry unscathed. “The threat actors are increasingly targeting a lot of our critical infrastructure and rail is certainly no exception to that,” said Maillet. The types of attacks that are occurring are the intrusion of malware due to failed security controls, in many cases, due to human error. “The reality is that the majority of organisations in Australia are going to be attacked at some stage. The only variables are the type of attack vector, the deleterious impacts and if the attack is going to be successful or not,” said Maillet. “If it is a successful attack, you want to make sure
30 | ISSUE 8 - SEPTEMBER 2020 | RAIL EXPRESS
“The reality is the majority of organisations in Australia are going to be attacked at some stage. The only variable is how bad is the attack going to be and is it going to be successful or not.” Serge Maillet, head of industrial cyber security, Siemens Australia and New Zealand that you’ve got measures in place to be able to recover from those attacks and bring the critical systems back online as quickly as possible, while minimising any negative impacts on public safety or production.” THE CONVERGENCE OF IT AND OT What has made the rail sector and critical infrastructure particularly susceptible to cyber-attacks, and why governments are concerned is the convergence of what were previously two separate systems, information technology (IT) and operational technology (OT). “While cyber-attacks have been able to target data in an IT environment, the interconnection of IT with OT opens the potential for threat actors to penetrate machines and processes, causing significant harm,” said Maillet. “If we look at OT in the context of rail, it’s really about machines and process control. This could be rail signalling, rail control, automation, telemetry, etcetera.” Previously, these systems were insulated from cyber-attacks due to their lack of connection to external or
untrusted networks. While IT systems were constantly being patched with new software, OT systems ran on their own proprietary technology, and did not require regular updates. “Because of that there’s been a lack of focus for these systems from a security perspective,” said Maillet. “Now that we’re seeing a lot of convergence and hyper convergence happening between IT and OT it’s creating a lot of new challenges, especially for industrial applications, and it’s increasing the risk profile of our critical infrastructure.” In addition, while enterprise IT is expected to have a lifecycle of three to five years, OT devices are often expected to run for 20 years, if not longer. As these older systems are beginning to be integrated with the wider rail IT network through the process of digitalisation, safety critical technology is becoming increasingly vulnerable to cyber-attacks, said Maillet. “The challenge from that perspective is that a lot of the legacy OT devices that are still in operation today for a lot of critical infrastructure were never designed with
security in mind, because they were never intended to be converged with IT.” While digitalisation promises and has delivered many benefits to rail networks, the issue of cyber vulnerability and exposure are sometimes overlooked, and the cost of digitalisation is only accounted for in financial terms, not in terms of cyber security, cautioned Maillet. THE CONSEQUENCES OF DIGITALISATION To some, the solution may look simple. Why not just update the software that runs these safety critical systems, or install the latest security patch? This is easier said than done, Maillet points out. “In OT infrastructure the priority is always going to be to maintain the safety, reliability, availability, and integrity of those platforms. So, when you look at putting in a new patch or making a configuration change, that will always introduce potential risk to
jeopardise the availability or performance of that system. Often, these elements will take priority over the actual integrity of the system.” That’s not to say that the patches are not available. Many OT systems run on operating systems such as Microsoft Windows, which have has regular security patch updates to account for vulnerabilities identified in the system. Trying to find a time when the system that control a rail network can be taken offline for an upgrade is tricky. Another limit on the possibility of upgrading these systems is the potential for human error. Stephen Baker, head of product innovation and through-life support at Siemens Mobility says that this leads to a bunker-like mentality. “The problem is that you end up with an infrastructure that is safe and reliable, but you can’t do anything with it, you can’t run analytics, you can’t do downstream processing. The convergence of OT and IT
can’t be put on hold due to organisations not wanting to give their staff access to laptops and smart devices because they don’t want to introduce any level of risks.” In rail, this position is understandable. “Let’s face it,” said Baker. “You can imagine what would happen if all of a sudden you stopped running trains in Melbourne or Sydney because the operation of a vital network has been compromised.” DEALING WITH AN EVOLVING THREAT To mitigate the threat of a cyber-attack while still reaping the benefits of digitalisation Siemens have developed a full cycle of expertise that is focused on the people, processes, and technologies that can keep a rail system functioning. “Industrial security, which includes rail security, is really a dynamic topic. Because the risks are constantly evolving and changing in nature, it’s creating a lot of challenges. So, our job at Siemens is to help
As IT and OT systems converge, rail organisations are having to safeguard systems that were previously separate.
WWW.RAILEXPRESS.COM.AU | 31
Cyber Security
With more devices connected to the rail network than ever, organisations must be vigilant about security.
our customers better understand where those vulnerabilities are and what types of solutions are best to maximise the security posture of a system,” said Maillet. When working in the rail industry in particular, Siemens have developed solutions designed for rail. “When we look at mainline train systems or metro systems, we know that they are deploying a lot of Industry 4.0 technologies, a lot of digitalisation, which is increasing the operational efficiency and reliability of those systems,” said Maillet. “We also have to ensure that we implement technologies that enhance cyber security for the network that the trains systems operate on, as well as the control systems that manage the rail infrastructure.” With 90 per cent of successful cyberattacks due to human error, the solution must begin with people. “We know that even if you have all the right technology put in place, if your people do the wrong thing due to lack of awareness or not having the right level of training in cyber security, then that’s likely to expose a vulnerability,” said Maillet. “Sometimes it’s as simple as plugging a USB into a computer. If it’s a computer asset in an OT environment, that USB could easily introduce a vulnerability. Another common breakdown is when someone clicks on an email that they shouldn’t which can create a
32 | ISSUE 8 - SEPTEMBER 2020 | RAIL EXPRESS
virtual doorway for a threat actor to bypass the security measures that have been put into place to protect critical assets.” The next step is the processes. In a rail organisation these processes could include how staff fix issues, how assets are managed and what procedures are in place to ensure that assets are maintained securely. The final piece is the technology, and here Siemens is working on solutions that can enable the secure digitalisation of rail. Andrew Chan, development engineer at Siemens Mobility’s Centre of Excellence, describes how the company is looking at extracting information from a digital rail asset without the potential risk of exposing it to external attacks. “A data diode basically allows data to flow in one direction and in that way, we can safely get safety critical information from our axle counters and interlockings out into the IT environment and that’s where we can do amazing things with data.” Other technologies that Siemens are deploying include edge processing for intrusion detection, and cloud services to mine data for cyber security analytics. Servicing all areas is an example of Siemens’s distinct approach, said Baker. “We’re probably one of the few total solution providers – we design the interlocking hardware, we design the control systems, all the network requirements
and defences are part of the safety case, we design the networks and even the analytics, so every layer is internal. We’re one of the few organisations that can give you everything from broad level design of the signals and the railways, right through to the cloud analytics which tells the asset owner how the infrastructure is performing.” While Siemens has a number of areas of the business which deal with rail cyber security, its industrial security services provide the hardware and software services, as well as professional services to rail customers. These industrial cyber security solutions are provided across three key pillars, security assessments, security optimisation, and security management, all underpinned by holistic approach to industrial security, known as the Defence in Depth security framework. “Defence in Depth is having as many security measures and layers in the infrastructure as possible based on well-known security best-practices and frameworks. It provides us the ability to have a depth of staggered defences in infrastructure,” said Maillet. As Australia grapples with the increasing cyber threat, increasing resilience will be a key factor in the success of the digitalisation of rail.
N OV E M B E R SPECIAL FEATURE
M | SEPTE ISSUE 8
20 B E R 20
W W W. R
AILEXP
RESS.C
CERTIFICATION, TRAINING & WORKFORCE
OM.AU
l network a nationa reform g in d il u B for a roadmap is setting The NRAP E 22 - SEE PAG
ploys Thales de urity sec its global rail to expertise
ns is How Sieme l is rai ensuring cyber secure
To build the massive pipeline of rail projects that are forecast around the country over the next ten years the rail sector will require an injection of new talent and labour. This will include filling positions from technical and trades workers to professional and managerial roles.
tocol National Pro for sets terms r freight cross-borde PA GE 42
PA GE 30
PA GE 37
SU PP OR
TE D BY :
CONTACT OLIVER PROBERT
BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT MANAGER, RAIL EXPRESS 02 9439 7227 | 0435 946 869 OLIVER.PROBERT @ PRIMECREATIVE.COM.AU
The challenge of attracting and maintaining people to these positions will be the focus of Rail Express’s November edition. Covering certification, training, and workforce, the edition will begin with the training and education that is bring provided to attract and upskill the workforce. Then, the edition will turn to the significance of certification of these skills and education and how that can provide a basis for accreditation in the rail sector. Finally, the edition will share stories of organisations that have gone the extra mile to create an environment where the people that rail needs can thrive. In addition to the traditional methods of training and education that are required for a career in the rail sector, the next wave of technologically advanced projects and operations will require new skills in digital technology and IT. This will pose a challenge for the rail sector, but one that many organisations are already tackling head on. To showcase the success of your organisation in preparing the next generation of rail workers, contact our team today.
AU S T RA L IA’ S L E A D IN G B US INESS TO B U SINESS RAIL PU B LICAT I ON
Women in Industry
Celebrating diversity key to unlocking talent Recognising leadership and growth in the rail sector, the finalists for the 2020 Women in Industry Awards are pushing the rail sector to become more diverse. The headline figure from the Australasian Railway Association’s (ARA) Gender Diversity Report was that rail had once again continued to grow the participation of women in the workforce. Since 2017, the ARA has been surveying the industry to measure the gender diversity of rail at all levels, from track and maintenance workers, through to senior management. These report cards also highlighted the breadth of roles that women take within the rail industry, from working with rail operators, to consultants and suppliers. In 2019, reported Caroline Wilkie, CEO of the ARA, the industry achieved its best figures yet. “In 2014, women represented only 17 per cent of the workforce. In 2018-19, women’s representation in the industry was 27 per cent.” This increase, six per cent higher than previous figures in 2016-2017, has been driven by a number of factors and initiatives across the industry. By 2019, 86 per cent of rail organisations had formal policies or strategies that support gender diversity, 41 per cent have specific gender pay equity objectives. These strategies have been supported by the work that the ARA has done for the industry as well. After the publication of the Women in Rail Strategy, the ARA set up the Women in Rail Advisory Committee and the Women in Rail Network and mentoring program to support initiatives undertaken by rail organisations themselves. These cross-industry groups have been able to provide a forum for networking and information sharing across the industry. “As a result, we are seeing more women build their network in rail to support their career advancement, connect with mentors and create new opportunities for growth,” said Wilkie. Despite these achievements, when compared to the national workforce, there is still more work to do. For example, the national average of women in full-time roles is 38 per cent, while in rail only 21 per cent of full-time workers are women. However, recent events may provide new opportunities. Prior to the outbreak of COVID-19 and the associated change in working patterns, flexible working was one area
34 | ISSUE 8 - SEPTEMBER 2020 | RAIL EXPRESS
The Women in Industry Awards provide an opportunity to recognise the importance of diversity in industries such as rail.
that was seen as enabling greater diversity in the workforce, and not just for women. “Flexible work is increasingly important for all of us, not just women. The experience of this year has shown once and for all that we can succeed while allowing people to work flexibly. Many of us have juggled working from home alongside our kids attending school online and have still delivered for our employers,” said Wilkie. With 74 per cent of rail organisations reporting having formal policies for flexible working arrangement in 2019, and a 16 per cent increase in employer funded paid parental leave for primary carers, taking the industry figure to 62 per cent, Wilkie said it is likely that these policies will be extended. “As our workplaces return to normal, we should be considering how flexible arrangements can ensure our people can live their lives well while also working effectively. Providing flexibility will increasingly be part of attracting and retaining our top talent, whether male or female.” Indeed, as flexible working has shown, the benefits of a diverse and multifaceted workforce are felt through the industry. With rail having a critical workforce shortage, particularly with the planned and projected levels of investment, it will be more important than ever to encourage more people to the rail sector.
“As the rail industry grows, we will need the best and brightest to propel the industry forward and we can only achieve that if we are a truly diverse industry. Put simply, if we don’t have a diverse workforce we are missing out on talent,” said Wilkie. For an industry that provides a critical service to a variety of the general public, diversity is also about being able to meet customer needs. “Diverse workplaces encourage a mixture of thought and ideas,” said Wilkie. “Different perspectives help bring innovation to the fore and make sure the rail industry is meeting the needs of everyone that uses the rail network.” Beyond attracting diversity into the rail workforce, the next step is retention. This can be in part achieved through industry awards and recognition, which showcase the range of roles that women take in the industry and the successes they achieve. In July, Rail Express announced the finalists of the 2020 Women in Industry awards. Showcasing the talents of women in industrial, and often male-dominated sectors, the awards this year saw a record number of nominations, beating the 2019 record by 27 per cent. The growth of the awards was not only represented in the nominations themselves, but the number of individual businesses and organisations submitting nominees across varied industrial sectors.
The awards span multiple categories, including Social Leader of the Year, Rising Star of the Year – sponsored by Atlas Copco – Business Development Success of the Year, Industry Advocacy Award, Safety Advocacy Award – sponsored by BOC – Mentor of the Year, and individual excellence awards across the fields of transport, engineering (sponsored by BAE Systems Australia), mining, and manufacturing. The most nominated category was the Rising Star Award, which received a record number of entries this year. Rail organisations represented in the awards include agencies within the NSW transport cluster, including Transport for NSW, Sydney Trains, and Sydney Metro. Sonja Malcolm, senior manager – capability & development from Sydney Metro, is a finalist for the Industry Advocacy Award, which recognises the work done to promote the transport industry. Malcolm has transformed the way that NSW government agencies support and enable sustainable employment of disadvantaged groups. Nadine Youssef, associate director at Sydney Trains is a finalist for the Safety Advocacy Award. Youssef has worked to raise awareness of electrical hazards in her role within the Electrical Distribution Unit as the networks is modernised. Lidija Dumbaloska, professional head of electrical engineering at Sydney Trains, is a finalist in the Excellence in Engineering category. Dumbaloska has supported collaboration across transport agencies and the energy sector to grow knowledge of electrical engineering. The opportunity to highlight the achievements of women such as Malcolm, Youssef, and Dumbaloska is critical for the industry as a whole said Wilkie. “When we recognise the women that are achieving great things in the industry, we also encourage other women to aspire to build their own careers in rail. As they say, ‘You can’t be what you can’t see.’ So, it is important to celebrate the successes of women in rail.” In addition, although not named in the awards, behind each finalist and potential winner is the champions and organisations that have supported them. “It is also important to celebrate the men and women that are championing diversity in their organisations and awards help us recognise the positive efforts of many in our industry,” said Wilkie. Judging has begun and the winners will be announced online in August and in print in September.
SOCIAL LEADER OF THE YEAR Finalists: • Alanna Vial – BlueScope • Althea Papinczak – Women in Design and Construction (WIDAC) • Elizabeth Taylor – RedR International • Gemma Murphy – QBE Insurance • Jackie Lewis-Gray – BAE Systems Australia • Jane Tiller – Monash University • Sarah McSwiney – Boeing Aerostructures Australia RISING STAR OF THE YEAR Proudly sponsored by Atlas Copco
Finalists: • Alicia Heskett – Shell Australia (QGC) • Helen Vu – BOC • Kate Robertson – Geological Survey of SA • Kate Stanbury – Stantec Australia • Keren Reynolds – BAE Systems Australia • Louise Azzopardi – WesTrac • Nima Sherpa – BHP • Rose Lindner – MMG • Vera Milutinovic – Inenco • Noriko Wood – Fulton Hogan BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT SUCCESS OF THE YEAR Finalists: • Caroline Murray – APS Industrial • Jackie Thew – Abrasive Media Supplies • Marika Logan – Elgas • Rachael Ashfield – ifm • Stefanie Frawley – Colliers International • Sonia Turner – Scope Systems INDUSTRY ADVOCACY AWARD Finalists: • Elizabeth Molyneux – AGL Energy • Hayley Jarick – Supply Chain Sustainability School • Jacquelene Brotherton – Transport Women Australia Limited • Jodie Sainsbury – Kickass Women • Joy Marrocco – AGL • Rose Read – National Waste & Recycling Industry Council • Shay Chalmers – Strategic Engineering • Sonja Malcolm – Sydney Metro MENTOR OF THE YEAR Finalists: • Clytie Dangar – CRC ORE • Dayle Stevens – AGL Energy • Kylie Jones – Diageo Australia • Marie Varrasso – Officeworks
SAFETY ADVOCACY AWARD Proudly sponsored by BOC Ltd
Finalists: • Annastasia Denigan – Cement Australia • Lyndal Denny – Women In Trucking Australia • Maddy Holloway – CITIC Pacific Mining • Nadine Youssef – Sydney Trains • Natalia Trewin – WesTrac Pty Ltd • Noelani Reardon – Transport for NSW • Terese Withington – Weir Minerals Australia Ltd • Tracey MacDonald – BAE Systems Australia EXCELLENCE IN MANUFACTURING Finalists: • Josie Costanzo – Brickworks Building Products • Marina Melik – Boeing Aerostructures Australia • Rebecca Parnell – Artisan Food Company Pty Ltd • Rochelle Avinu – Leica Biosystems • Samantha McDonald – Bluescope EXCELLENCE IN MINING Finalists: • Carlie Hayward – BHP • Clytie Dangar – CRC ORE • Jacqueline Madsen – Caterpillar • Kim Parascos – iVolve Industrial Technology • Rose Lindner – MMG • Sarah Withell – BHP • Terese Withington – Weir Minerals Australia Ltd EXCELLENCE IN ENGINEERING Proudly sponsored by BAE Systems Australia
Finalists: • Elizabeth Taylor – RedR International • Jane MacMaster – Engineers Australia • Jo Withford – Department of Transport • Lesley DeGaris – Boeing Aerostructures Australia • Lidija Dumbaloska – Sydney Trains • Mandy Petrides – Bosch Australia EXCELLENCE IN TRANSPORT Finalists: • Agnes Lesson – Elgas • Camilla Drover – Transport for NSW • Danelle Kempton – Dananni Haulage • Jane Gillespie – Arup • Lyndal Denny – Women In Trucking Australia • Melissa Strong – Lindsay Australia Limited
WWW.RAILEXPRESS.COM.AU | 35
Supply Chain & Logistics
ASCI2021 will be held at the William Inglis Hotel, Sydney.
Supply chain vision in the Decade For Action ASCI2021 promises to demonstrate how Australian supply chains have weathered COVID-19 and provide insights to their future resilience. If any images comes to define the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic, it may be the sight of normally well-stocked supermarket shelves emptied of consumer goods from pasta and flour, to toilet paper and hand sanitiser. While panic buying was an irrational response to the nature of the COVID-19 threat – there was no chance of Australia running out of many of these items – what the rush on supermarkets and other stores did demonstrate was the finely calibrated nature of Australia’s supply chains. To meet the needs of consumers for fresh goods at any time of the year and to avoid overwhelming storage spaces, Australia’s supply chain managers have been working to ensure that products are ready just in time, and ready to be plucked from the shelves at a customer’s whim. The massive increase in demand due to panic buying brought to light the fragility of this system. In addition, as international flights were grounded, Australia’s ability to export its world-renowned fresh produce was immediately curtailed. What this did was bring the role of the supply chain manager, and the people who enable the links in the chain to connect, out of the back-office and into the public spotlight. Monique Fenech, head of sales and marketing at the Australasian Supply Chain Institute (ASCI), has seen this firsthand. “The COVID-19 pandemic has really brought supply chain management to the forefront of people’s minds. We’re starting to talk about supply chain as an essential service, which has
36 | ISSUE 8 - SEPTEMBER 2020 | RAIL EXPRESS
never been the case before.” In a way by virtue of its success, the complexity of Australia’s supply chain has not often been on view to customers, however the critical role of the professionals in this field has never been more in demand as trade routes recalibrate and new markets are being identified. “Supply chain management rolls off people’s tongues, they’re all talking about it from a consumer standpoint. But even more impact has been made within organisations because supply chain managers have been brought into the boardroom to fix this problem, look at these outages, look at these delays, look at these increased prices. Executive are asking, ‘We don’t have access to our air freight like we used to, what are we going to do?’ So that’s really changed the internal profile of supply chain management within the organisation,” said Fenech. While the scale and magnitude of the current crisis may be beyond what was planned for at the beginning of 2020, Fenech counters that dealing with these kinds of issues, whether they be due to a pandemic or other cause, is actually the bread and butter of the profession. “This situation is business as usual for our supply chain managers; they deal with risk on a day-to-day basis. A good example of that is where perhaps they might have a dual sourcing strategy in place already because for some, not all, supply chains that would be considered best practice, so they would already have set in place some business continuity
Caption
Janet Salem will deliver the international keynote.
strategies,” Fenech said. The next step will be for companies to reset their risk management plans and contingency procedures to account for the ongoing restrictions and the likelihood of another pandemic happening again. This reality calls for supply chains to not simply return to a pre-COVID-19 status, but rather learn from the experience of the pandemic and bounce back more resilient than ever. “As opposed to going back to the way things were, it’s about bringing all of the political, economic, geographic, and social impacts that affect our supply chains into the mix using really smart technologies such as artificial
23 -25 February 2021
SUPPLY CHAIN VISION IN THE DECADE FOR ACTION
intelligence to give us a better idea of where our supply chains are vulnerable and how we can improve them in the new decade,” said Fenech. This next decade will be the focus of the ASCI’s conference, ASCI2021, to be held on the 23rd and 24th of February at the William Inglis Hotel in Sydney. The conference’s theme is “Supply Chain Vision In The Decade For Action”, adapting the United Nation’s priority of the same name for the supply chain industry. Janet Salem, economic affairs officer, circular economy at the United Nations will deliver an international keynote highlighting the theme’s application for supply chain managers. One area that Fenech sees as improving based on the experience during COVID-19 is the connection and collaboration between suppliers, something that the conference will highlight. “Deepening the collaboration that we have with our suppliers is only going to make the supply chain more efficient and also more robust. Once that trust is there and the collaboration is there, the visibility inevitably becomes greater, and that is the end goal for a supply chain manager – to have complete visibility across the end-to-end supply chain and sometimes it takes something like a catastrophe to bring you closer to your supplier.” DELIVERING BEST PRACTICE IN SUPPLY CHAIN MANAGEMENT For the past 60 years, ASCI has been working with the supply chain management industry to grow the career profile of supply chain management. “Back in the early days, inventory management was a new career and we travelled to the US to find some global standards that we could use in Australia. We’re applying that same technique now to global end to end supply chain standards and in order to do that we’re looking at global compliance and global regulation and bringing that down to the level that we need to communicate to members,” said Fenech. In Australia, ASCI provides best practice knowledge to build the standards of supply chain management. “We call that our Professional Accreditation Scheme. Just like lawyers, engineers, and accountants, they have professional accreditation bodies that they belong to and they are registered within a professional accreditation scheme as well. That proves that they can practice within that field and they’ve proven their knowledge in that field,” said Fenech.
The conference will also feature the 28th ASCI awards’ dinner.
“We’ve never had anything like this in supply chain management in Australia so now is really good time to address it, considering the complexities of the endto-end supply chain have been made so apparent through COVID-19.” To assist its members in adapting to the disruptions of COVID-19, ASCI is conducting research and benchmarking global best practice so that Australian supply chains can come out of the pandemic more resilient that ever. “Currently, ASCI is working with the University of Melbourne on a risk survey, to see how we’ve been redefining risk and that will be a really important part of our conference on day two where we will be presenting those findings for the first time and giving our supply chain managers who are delegates at that conference a first look in as to what they need to be doing to reset their business continuity plans.” While discussions were held at the beginning of the pandemic to understand whether the conference’s theme should change to focus directly on the events of the past six months, the advisory board ultimately decided that the theme of “Supply Chain Vision In The Decade For Action” encompassed the ongoing challenges that supply chains would face into the future. “If companies don’t change the way they do things and put their supply chains front and centre of their operational efficiency, then they’re just not going to survive in the new era,” said Fenech. Over the two days of the conference, ASCI has assembled a panel of local and international supply chain leaders, who will share their insights from a range of sectors. These include the medical, industrial, defence, and fast-moving consumer goods sectors, as well as the transport and logistics sector.
On February 25, delegates will be able to tour the under-construction Western Sydney Airport site, the core of the future Aerotropolis and new logistics hub for Western Sydney. Attendees can participate in a panel discussion with local councils, moderated by Amanda Brisot, general manager Western Sydney Business Connection. With multiple streams on each day, Fenech highlights that it is worth businesses bringing multiple attendees. “Supply chain managers should think about bringing a few members of their team because there are certainly different experiences that each of their team members could have throughout the two-day conference. Teammembers can come together afterwards to share key learnings across those functions.” Streams on day one will cover procurement, operations management, and logistics management, while on day two streams encompass systems and technology, supply chain management, and the future supply chain management workforce. “There are some great stories in there from Metcash, for example, about how COVID-19 brought about some great opportunity for them to work with Woolworths and Coles,” said Fenech. ASCI2021 will also host the 28th ASCI awards’ dinner, and with so much upheaval during the past year, Fenech expects some engaging stories to come out of the awards. “It will be one of the best because we want to see where excellence exists, where excellence has been demonstrated through these really tough times, and often it’s during tough times that innovation really does push through.” For more information, to book tickets, and view the full program go to: http://www.asci-2021.com.au/.
WWW.RAILEXPRESS.COM.AU | 37
Don’t miss an issue, subscribe today. railexpress.com.au/subscribe
I S S U E 8 | S E P T E M B E R 2020
W W W. R A I L E X P R E S S . C O M . A U
Building a national network The NRAP is setting a roadmap for reform - SEE PAGE 22
RAIL EXPRESS is compulsory reading and a vital tool for all people working in and around the rail sector. Rail Express is Australia’s authoritative business to business rail publication.
Thales deploys its global security expertise to rail
How Siemens is ensuring rail is cyber secure
National Protocol sets terms for cross-border freight
PAGE 37
PAGE 30
PAGE 42
SUPPORTED BY:
Combining the resources of our respected journalism team and our unparalleled industry contacts and affiliations, Rail Express provides extensive, comprehensive and balanced coverage of breaking news and trends in key areas like infrastructure, investment, government policy, regulatory issues and technical innovation. Published both in print and digitally every month, Rail Express is the only publication to have both the official endorsement and active participation of the main railway associations in Australia and the broad support of the rail industry. The only way to ensure you get every copy of Rail Express is to subscribe today. Visit railexpress.com.au/subscribe.
A U S T RA L IA’ S L E A D IN G B U S I NESS TO B U SINESS RAIL PU B LICAT ION
Safety & Assurance
RISSB releases its 2020/2021 work plan RISSB’s projects in the next year expand the organisation’s role. Table 1. TYPE
TITLE
Guideline
Achieving compliance at railway station platforms with DSAPT
Under consideration
Firmware, software and configuration management for operational rail assets
Standard
LED Locomotive Headlights, LED Ditchlights
Standard
Safety Critical Comms
Standard
Light Rail Interfaces with Roads (Signals and Signage)
Guideline
Australian Rail Industry Management System Framework
Guideline
Fatigue Risk Management
Form
SPAD Investigations Proforma
AS 7460
Operation of Remotely Piloted Aircraft Systems (Drones) on the Railway Network
AS 7519
Bogie Structures
AS 7520
Body Structural Requirements
AS 7522
Access & Egress
AS 7533
Driving Cabs
AS 7640
Rail Management
AS 7651
Axle Counters
AS 7658
Level Crossing
AS 7664
Railway Signalling Cable Routes, Cable Pits & Foundations
AS 7703
Signalling Power Supplies
Code of Practice
Wheel Defect Manual
AS 7474
System Safety Assurance for the Rail Industry
Guideline
Reliability, Availability and Maintainability (RAM) Guideline for the Australian Rail Industry
AS 7450
Interoperability
AS 7636
Structures
AS 7638
Earthworks
AS 7639
Track Structure & Support Systems
AS 7642
Turnouts and Special Trackworks
AS 7666
TPC Interoperability
Guideline
Wheel Rail Profile Development
AS 1085.17
Railway track materials - steel sleepers
The Rail Industry Safety and Standards Board (RISSB) has released its 2020/2021 industrydriven work plan, which includes close to 30 publications and 16 major projects that will be delivered over a two-year horizon. This work plan is a result of RISSB’s overhauled project planning process and heralds a new era for RISSB. In addition to delivering standards, guidelines, codes of practice and rules, RISSB now has a new major projects portfolio set up to address industrywide issues focusing on business imperatives. This holistic approach demonstrates that RISSB is future-focused and is equipped to address industry’s current and future challenges, now. Input from stakeholders directly informs the development of our priorities and the vital publications that we make available to industry. The work plan was developed after significant consultation with CEOs, other senior industry executives, and RISSB’s standing committees helped us determine the priorities that will create a safer and more productive industry. Throughout the year, RISSB will be managing the development of a total of 29 publications comprising reviews, resubmissions from the previous year’s priority planning process (PPP), AS 1085 series of documents still transitioning from Standards Australia, and projects put forward and endorsed by Standing Committees. A list of our Australian Code of Practice (ACOP) projects is available in Table 1. Taking into consideration the impact of COVID-19 on the rail industry, improved workflows, revised Development Group membership requirements, and streamlined internal processes will ensure ongoing Development Group commitments are optimised during what continues to be a challenging time for all. Our new Major Projects portfolio will enable RISSB to address key challenges facing the industry, focus on activities that directly address the needs of its stakeholders, and deliver step change improvements for the benefit of the Australian rail industry through a number of workstreams: Track Worker Safety, National Rules, National Vehicle Register, Train Control Interoperability, Noise, Technology Benefit Realisation and the National Rail Action Plan. Table 2 show all 16 major projects. Capping off what has already been a successful year for RISSB, in 2019/2020
RISSB delivered an impressive 21 standards, codes of practice, and guidelines bringing the total number of publications RISSB has in its catalogue to more than 220. In addition to these projects, RISSB also published The National Rules Framework, and the seminal study into Rail’s Current Innovations and Trends and the Assessment of Interoperability Issues from the Proposed Introduction of New Train Control Systems; these are noteworthy achievements in themselves. If you would like to see a list of publications delivered by RISSB in 2019/2020 and our 2020 /2021 work plan, visit rissb.com.au/work-program/. Table 2. TYPE
TITLE
Report
Exploration of Technological Solutions (RISSB / ONRSR joint project)
Action Plan
Action Plan from Technology Study
Guideline
Good Practice for Planning Works in the Rail Corridor
Standard
Digital Engineering
Guideline
Achieving a Positive Safety Culture in the Rail Corridor
Training
Explore the Viability of Nationally Recognised Protection Officer Training
Rule
National Communications Rule
Plan
Produce a Pipeline of Harmonized and Rationalized National Rules
Glossary
Glossary of Terms
Standard
Railway Rulebooks
Register
National Vehicle Register
Report
Interoperability Technology Solutions and Funding Models
Report
The Case (SFAIRP) for (taking away/reducing etc) Horns in Built Up Areas
Code of Practice
Industry Code of Practice on Horns
Report
Current Good Practice in Wheel Squeal
Website
Wed-based Technology Sharing Platform
Various
National Rail Action Plan Including: • Energy Storage • Heating, Ventilation and Airconditioning (HVAC) • Noise (especially in tunnels although its scope is likely to be expanded)
WWW.RAILEXPRESS.COM.AU | 39
Industry Associations
Preparing for the growth ahead CEO of the ARA Caroline Wilkie writes that a cohort of young people looking for opportunities have the talents to fill rail’s skills gap. In a year that has been more about preserving jobs than creating them, the concept of skills shortages can be a difficult one to reconcile. However, the impact of this year’s events has not changed the fact that a very real and significant skills gap looms in the rail industry. The Australasian Railway Association’s (ARA) 2018 skills capability study found the rail industry was staring down the
Finding the workforce needed for the future of rail will require focusing on the benefits rail brings to communities and individuals.
40 | ISSUE 8 - SEPTEMBER 2020 | RAIL EXPRESS
barrel of a 24 per cent skills gap on current employment levels by 2024. The gap existed across the spectrum, from technicians, trades and operators to managers and rail professionals. Clearly, this is an area where action is needed if we are to make the most of the significant investment pipeline of the coming decades. The National Rail Action Plan skills and labour working group, which I co-chair,
is currently looking at how the industry can address this issue. The group is bringing together key people from across the industry to inform this work and I look forward to reporting on our progress as time goes on. In the meantime, the ARA is continuing to advance its skills agenda. As more rail projects come online, there will obviously be a need for the development of skill sets that are
specific to the rail industry. We will need a stronger focus on skills and education to achieve this. The ARA is advocating for the development of a dedicated skills academy that offers targeted solutions to meet the industry’s future needs. This will not only ensure the focus is firmly on the technical requirements of the industry but will also ensure a strong culture of safety and excellence can be embedded in training programs before people even enter the rail workforce. And the time to create this capability is now. Because young people in particular are looking for new and rewarding career opportunities more than ever. Even before the impact of COVID-19, conditions were not good for those just starting their careers. Young people will be needed to fill gaps in trades and technician roles, as well as management and professional roles.
In July, the Productivity Commission released a working paper that found the weak labour market that had emerged after the 2008 Global Financial Crisis had been bad news for young people. In the decade that followed, there were full time jobs became harder to come by as part time employment began to rise. Young people started on lower wages and found it harder to find their chosen roles, despite having a good education behind them. For those who took a job that was less than what they hoped for just to get their start, their career trajectory did not always recover, and better jobs did not always come along. Those challenges have only been compounded this year, with young people hit harder than most by job losses and employment insecurity in the wake of the pandemic. In this toughest of climates, there will be exceptional young people looking for career options that will last a lifetime, take them all over the world if they choose, and allow them to work in diverse roles on exciting projects. What better time than now for the rail industry to step forward? As an industry, a key part of attracting the best young people to work in rail over the coming years will be highlighting the benefits we have to offer – both to individuals and the
broader community. The ARA’s Young Leaders Advisory Board has identified sustainability as one of its focus areas to do just that. Speaking to the industry’s young leaders, we have heard time and again how the sustainability credentials of the industry, and the essential community service it provides, has been a driving force in determining their future in rail. They tell us that seeing the industry’s role in helping people and businesses in their daily life is part of what makes them enjoy working in rail so much. They also see the value of sustainable, long term infrastructure development in rail that can take more congestion off our roads and better connect our cities and towns than ever before. The fact that the projects they work on are exciting, dynamic, innovative and everchanging is icing on the cake. It is these benefits that has led to many of our young leaders staking their claim for a long-term career in rail. And it is these benefits, together with the opportunity to gain the skills needed to succeed in the industry, that will help us attract the next cohort of rail workers. So, while we deal with the challenges 2020 has given us, we must also prepare for the growth that will follow in the years ahead. Having the right people with the right skills in place will be key to our success.
WWW.RAILEXPRESS.COM.AU | 41
Industry Associations
Protocol offers way to protect industry and communities ALC CEO Kirk Coningham highlights how a united freight industry has pushed for common-sense decisions on border safety.
Australian Logistics Council CEO, Kirk Coningham.
The COVID-19 pandemic has required all of us to deal with scenarios and situations that were hard or even impossible to anticipate. Of course, the freight and logistics industry has long-held concerns about some of the complexities that arise from having to comply with multiple regulatory regimes as freight crosses the border from one state or territory into another. Yet the closure of those same borders at the onset of the pandemic has forced the industry to confront and adapt to a whole new set of requirements. The fast-moving nature of the COVID-19 challenge has also required governments and regulatory authorities to move speedily – and in some instances, this has led to the imposition of rules that are simply incompatible with the realities of freight transport. Over the past several months, ALC has worked with its members, regulatory authorities and allied industry groups to build support among governments for a nationally consistent approach that will protect the health of the freight transport sector’s workforce and the wider community, while still ensuring that our industry can get the job done.
42 | ISSUE 8 - S E PT E M B E R 2020 | RAIL EXPRESS
Those efforts bore fruit in late July when the National Cabinet gave its endorsement to a Domestic Border Control Freight Movement Protocol. The protocol has been endorsed by chief health officers from all state and territories and clearly outlines measures that all states and territories agree will allow freight to move safely and efficiently across borders. This includes a number of commonsense measures which ALC has pursued throughout the pandemic. These include the ‘waive through’ of freight vehicles at borders, standardising the duration of border crossing permits, mutual recognition of COVIDsafe work plans developed in other jurisdictions, and not requiring rail crews to quarantine or selfisolate when crossing borders if they have not developed COVID-19 symptoms. Obtaining agreement to this protocol has only been possible because our industry has been able to clearly and convincingly demonstrate its commitment to COVIDsafe practices to governments nation-wide. In particular, the members of our Safety
Committee provided crucial support by offering compelling examples of the extensive efforts being undertaken by freight and logistics companies to make their operations COVIDsafe. This gave policymakers added confidence that our industry takes its obligations seriously and understands the importance of COVIDsafe behaviour in protecting the wider community. The importance of having COVID testing available for freight workers frequently crossing borders is also recognised, and the protocol calls for states and territories to offer ‘pop-up’ testing facilities in appropriate locations. Importantly, the protocol also requires authorities to consult with industry to understand the effect and impacts of potential changes ahead of any new directions being been put place. It will be vital for governments to follow this requirement if we are to avoid some of the confusion that has been witnessed throughout the pandemic, especially in instances where border requirements were changed with inadequate notice to industry.
A new protocol will smoothen border crossing requirements.
Transport and industrial marketing
The world is changing, are you ready? With emerging competitors, changes in government policies and increasing competition for talent, we must build marketing that enhances brand, positions the organisation and helps increase resilience to change and disruption. We help you evolve to harness new opportunities, overcome different challenges and enable your ongoing success.
Knowledge of the industry
Think like our clients
railgallery.com.au
Stunning results
thalesgroup.com
8
billion
- ŠGetty Images
passengers each year benefit from Thales technologies
Search: Thalesgroup