The Australasian Railway Association (ARA) has confirmed its 2025–30 strategic plan after extensive consultation with members and stakeholders.
The plan confirms our priorities for the next five years and provides a platform to strengthen our advocacy on behalf of the rail industry.
Pleasingly, the consultation process found that our members and stakeholders believe the ARA is providing a strong voice for industry and is advancing work that is having an impact.
The new strategic plan consolidates our focus areas to enable the ARA to further strengthen its advocacy and deliver improved outcomes for industry.
Our vision for a thriving, sustainable rail industry for Australia and New Zealand is supported by four strategic pillars: advocate for rail, enhance industry productivity, build industry capability, and elevate the rail workforce.
Advocate for rail
The ARA will continue to champion influential, evidence-led advocacy that drives investment, mode shift and sustainability.
It is widely acknowledged that greater use of rail can improve the productivity and efficiency of our transport networks, make our cities and towns more liveable, relieve congestion and drive down emissions. A certain, long-term and nationally coordinated investment pipeline is needed to realise these outcomes.
The ARA will build on its existing research and advocacy to make the case for continued investment in the rail network, both to maintain the productivity and efficiency of existing networks and enable expansion into areas currently under-served by rail.
Coordinated, well planned investment will ultimately support greater use of rail to enable improved economic and sustainability outcomes across the transport sector.
Enhance industry productivity
The ARA will drive rail reform and productivity across the national rail network.
The ARA’s advocacy has led to historic gains for the rail industry in recent years, with the Federal Government’s National Cabinet identifying rail interoperability as a priority and the implementation of the National Rail Action Plan driving reforms to improve national consistency across the rail network.
With productivity high on the national agenda, the rail industry has a clear opportunity to leverage further gains to support national harmonisation and improve efficiencies across the supply chain. The ARA will continue to work with government and industry to support productive, harmonised and efficient industry outcomes.
Build industry capability
The ARA is committed to building a competitive, resilient and future-ready rail industry.
Whether it is through our committees and working groups, or our conferences, events and study tours, the ARA provides a range of opportunities for industry to network, share knowledge and collaborate. We will continue this focus, to support innovation and growth in the industry.
Australia and New Zealand can already be proud of the significant capability that exists across the rail supply chain. The ARA will also continue to showcase the depth of talent that exists in Australia and New Zealand rail, both to policy makers locally and to the rest of the world, while advocating for measures that ensure we have the capability we need to meet future requirements.
Elevate the rail workforce
The ARA will promote rail as a career and create a safe, inclusive, and skilled workforce.
There is an ongoing need to promote rail so that we can attract and retain the diverse range of talent we need for the industry to succeed. The ARA will continue to promote the benefits of working in rail, support the development of rail-specific career pathways and nationally recognised skills frameworks, and advance measures to support improved diversity and inclusion in the industry.
Next steps
The ARA is engaging with its members as we develop a work plan to support these four strategic pillars and maximise our impact in future years. This will include an increased focus on advocacy and government engagement to highlight the significant benefits rail has to offer our economy and community, and to make the case for further reforms to improve outcomes for industry and increase investment. We look forward to keeping industry updated as this work progresses.
