Taking a nationally connected approach to rail modernisation is a critical focus of the National Transport Commission’s National Rail Action Plan (NRAP), which is working to support the consistent adoption of rail technologies, standards, rules and skills training.
“We’re now seeing a clear understanding across the sector that interoperability is not just about getting the same gauge where trains can run across the same tracks,” National Transport Commission (NTC) Chair Carolyn Walsh said. “It’s about digitalisation, data and innovation.
“Modern train control technologies like the European Train Control System are a digital language which form the foundation for a digitised railway and create opportunities for using data to optimise network operations, such as timetabling and asset management.
“If the digital systems that we’re adopting around the country are interoperable, we can lift safety and productivity across networks while collecting a wealth of data that gives operators a fantastic opportunity to optimise other parts of Australia’s rail network.”
To achieve this, rail needs a digital signalling and communications solution that connects growing cities and key interstate passenger and freight services to ports.
Europe, the United Kingdom (UK), North America and Asia have been on the digital, interoperability journey for decades and the NTC, along with governments and industry, has been learning from global experience.
Walsh said her personal takeout from a recent European study tour with the Australasian Railway Association (ARA) was that ETCS was very sound and likely to be the best option for Australia in the future, but it needs to be done in a smarter, more standardised way. In Australia, ETCS is already being used on the Adelaide network, some heavy haul networks and is being rolled out in Sydney and Queensland.
Joern Schlichting, one of the world’s most experienced rail signalling project managers who was responsible for some of the first ETCS projects in Germany (including high speed), told the NTC’s Future Rail Technology Forum that ETCS could be fitted in both urban and rural areas and configured so that it’s scalable for different environments.
“It gives you the ability to configure the system the way you need it, whether it is for high density routes or low-density environments, including rural areas,” Schlichting said.
In Australia, the NTC is working to make sure it is a practical option for parts of the country’s railways which are far sparser with less traffic.
Another big lesson from Germany and the UK is that a national approach is needed to coordinate the rollout of digital systems.
“What we learnt is that the systems have to be implemented in an order that strategically makes sense,” Walsh said.
“It’s very important that we make investments in the right sequence to get the best outcomes. Not only for investments in rail infrastructure, but we also need to understand what it means for rolling stock operators, particularly freight operators who are buying locos, so they are compatible with the new systems, or refitting existing ones.
“We also need a cost benefit sharing arrangement across industry to ensure we optimise investment and don’t go slow because no-one wants to be the first one out there carrying the additional costs of research and development.”
The big risk for Australia now is that networks are progressing signalling solutions at their own pace, Transport for NSW, Chief Engineer, Christian Christodoulou said.
“If we don’t address this and get it right, potentially we’ll be constructing more of the interoperability challenges which we face today,” Christodoulou said, adding that governments have a big role to be market shapers and create an environment where networks can collaborate and have consistency and alignment as well governance for implementation.
Over the next year Australia’s infrastructure and transport ministers will be making collective decisions on the future of Australia’s rail network, setting out a national interoperability pathway for signalling and communications systems.
Ministers will also make decisions on a new approach to introduce Australia’s first mandatory rail standards to drive interoperability. This requires getting the right people in the room to help shape advice to ministers, Walsh said.
The NTC is bringing together rail infrastructure managers, rolling stock operators, network owners, unions, regulators and industry bodies to inform the next steps.
Chief engineers and senior rail policy people from New South Wales, Queensland, Victoria, the Commonwealth and the Australian Rail Track Corporation have formed an Interim Configuration Control Board (ICCB). The ICCB is chaired by the NTC, with an initial focus on supporting the development of an interoperable signalling pathway.
“The interim CCB is very important as it provides a mechanism for drawing the networks together and the authorisation to steer organisations towards working in the national interest,” Walsh said.
Mandatory rail standards
Important work for the NTC in 2025 will include development of Australia’s first mandatory rail standards. These will ensure that new technologies introduced are interoperable, provide a single on-board interface for drivers, and help streamline rolling stock approvals.
The NTC will also be consulting industry on the governance arrangements needed to develop and implement national standards.
“Mandatory standards will give certainty to industry and the confidence to make significant investments knowing that this is the way forward for Australia,” Walsh said. “This means mandating some standards and harmonising others.”
Having a master plan for rail technology and national standards will lead to better conditions for Australia’s local supply chain as well, National Rail Manufacturing Advocate, Jacqueline Walters said.
“If we can have that interoperability, that vision for where the technology of the Australian rail networks is heading, then we get a much better environment for local suppliers,” Walters said.
“At the moment, procurement pipelines are lumpy, it’s boom or bust, so it’s difficult for suppliers to make confident investments in their workforce and in their capital assets – the machines, tools and software they need to be competitive.”
Building a workforce is also limited by a scarcity of skilled workers and a lack of interoperability and recognition of skills and training across networks. Right now, Australia’s rail networks have 12 separate rule books and many different standards, operating rules and processes. This affects 35 per cent of rail safety workers who operate across multiple networks and 43 per cent of workers in the rail industry supply chain, according to the ARA. These workers need to be trained in the specific rules of every network on which they operate.
“A train driver, for example, needs to understand and be trained in up to seven different operating systems and rule books to take a train across the country,” Walsh said. “The NTC’s goal is to achieve one national rule book supporting interoperability on the national network, that is centrally managed and adopted by all rail infrastructure managers and training organisations.
“By streamlining operating rules and processes we can reduce the knowledge burden on workers, improve safety and drive down the costs and time lost to training.”
As a first step, the NTC is working with the ARA and the Rail Industry Safety and Standards Board (RISSB Australia) to develop a set of common operating rules and practices. A line-by-line comparison of nine current rule books has identified rules with the most commonalities and prioritised them for standardisation. The NRAP program is also working to reduce red tape and make it easier to get new trains registered and approved to run on networks. And to identify and grow the specific skills needed to build, operate and maintain new digital train control systems.
To guide its work and give rail transport operators a clear understanding of where new reforms will apply, the NTC has developed an interactive National Network for Interoperability (NNI) map. The NNI is made up of the interstate freight and passenger lines linking Australia’s major ports, regions and passenger terminals. It includes the corridors and interfaces between networks where achieving interoperability is crucial to improving the safety and efficiency of Australia’s railways. Operators on the NNI will be required to have an Interoperability Management Plan and show they have considered interoperability impacts when making changes to their network.
“There’s so much momentum going on right now with people coming together and thinking about the future of rail in Australia,” Walsh said. “We’re only going to get great outcomes if we continue to talk and collaborate.
