As one of Australia’s leading providers of rail and transit systems, with expertise in delivering whole-of-life asset management, Downer knows the rail industry inside out.
Through its Rail and Transit Systems (RTS) business, it is a prominent supplier of rollingstock asset management services with proven capabilities in designing, building, maintaining and overhauling rollingstock across both passenger and freight rail.
Downer maintains nearly 2000 passenger rail cars (including contracted work) across Queensland, New South Wales, Victoria, and Western Australia. If you’ve travelled by train in these states, chances are Downer was behind the safety, comfort, and reliability of your journey.
In Victoria, Downer designed, built, and maintains the High Capacity Metro Train (HCMT) fleet – the largest single train order in the state’s history, which will be the only fleet operating in Melbourne’s Metro Tunnel when it opens later this year.
In New South Wales, Downer was responsible for the design, build, and ongoing maintenance of the country’s largest passenger fleet: the 119 eight-car double-decker Waratah trains. A completely different design and maintenance regime from the HCMTs, expertly managed for over a decade.
In Queensland, the team has built over 1200 train cars and locomotives – including those operating in Perth – and will begin constructing 65 six-car trains for the Queensland Train Manufacturing Program.
RTS now maintains four fleets across two states, soon to be five across three states.
“To say Downer RTS knows rollingstock is an understatement,” said Nick Mountford, Executive General Manager of Health, Safety, Environment and Quality at Downer RTS. “And at the heart of every project? Safety.
“From cultivating a high-performance safety culture to navigating complex legislation, partnering with regulators, conducting audits and driving continuous improvement – Downer lives and breathes safety.”
Now, that expertise is being offered to the industry. Safe+ is Downer RTS’s new Safety Consulting Services arm, helping rail operators and high-risk industries elevate their safety standards through proven strategies, systems, and cultural transformation.
Leading by example
“At Downer, safety isn’t just a priority; it’s embedded in everything we do,” said Mountford.
“With a 155-year history in rail and operations across 15 sites, our capabilities span rollingstock, infrastructure, systems integration, engineering innovation and digital solutions.
“We’ve built over 3000 train cars and locomotives, maintain more than 2000, and have overhauled 3000 more (including contracted work). That’s a lot of rollingstock – and a lot of responsibility.”
Mountford explained that safety in rail is non-negotiable.
“From the use of Personal Protective Equipment to shunting, site inductions, isolation protocols, exclusion zones, and working at heights, rail demands rigorous safety standards.
“These are large, powerful, and sometimes unforgiving machines operating in highly complex environments.”
Mountford said RTS’s goal is simple: every one of its 1500 rail employees and other workers on its sites must go home in the same condition they arrived – if not better.
“We’re not consultants learning rail – we’re highly experienced rail professionals offering consultancy,” Mountford said. “That distinction matters.”
Working with internal and external operations, engineering, delivery, and professional services teams, Downer offers strong support. The company also maintains close relationships with regulators and industry bodies.
“Whether it’s the Office of the National Rail Safety Regulator, the Rail Industry Safety and Standards Board, or the Australasian Railway Association – we have great, active relationships with all of them.
“We also have very good relationships with our counterparts across the whole of the industry, providing greater insight that may not be able to be achieved by another consultancy.”
Cultural transformation
Mountford explained that RTS’s approach to safety isn’t top-down, but grassroots.
One example of this includes hosting forums where apprentices come together regularly to discuss operations and safety.
“Since embedding the apprentice forums across the business, we’ve seen a 50 per cent drop in the number of incidents involving apprentices,” Mountford said. “Storepersons from across the different states come together regularly to talk about safety issues – something that they did off their own back.
“Across the business we have volunteers willing to be on camera to star in our annual Our Safety Focus videos as part of the training modules.”
Mountford said that safety culture is so embedded at RTS that his team has now turned its attention to extending safety training and messaging to the whole self – safe at work and safe at home.
“While these might sound like nice-to-haves on the surface, they’re the exact opposite,” he said. “They’re engaging, practical tools that we have strategically and systematically placed within the business to increase our safety performance, and they’re things we can support other businesses on.
“Whether it’s the ideation, execution, or evaluation of activities to help embed safety into the culture of your business, the Downer team are available.”
Due diligence
Two years ago, RTS recognised that its workers needed a better understanding of their duties, obligations and authorities.
“As part our governance framework improvement review, we recognised this need,” said Mountford.
“We mapped the systems of safe work and formulated a plan to communicate and facilitate duties and diligence knowledge share to ensure industry best practice was adhered to.”
After developing a program, RTS partnered with a renowned industry expert to ensure its senior leaders were fully across their legislative responsibilities.
“We also rolled out targeted training for more than 120 frontline leaders – including leading hands, operations staff, and engineers – to refresh and reinforce their understanding of safety obligations.”
HSQ assurance
In 2025, RTS celebrated two major milestones: eight years of rail regulator audits/inspections with no major non-conformances raised, and five years of receiving a clean bill of health from International Organisation for Standardisation (ISO) external audits.
“As anyone in the rail industry knows, completing nearly a decade of audits is no small feat,” said Mountford.
“Audits are rigorous, necessary, and incredibly important. To come through without any major issues raised from both the rail regulators and ISO auditors is a phenomenal achievement – one our senior leadership team takes very seriously.”
But passing an audit isn’t just about doing the right thing every day – it’s about proving it. That means going back into the business, systematically pulling together evidence, and demonstrating consistent delivery across every site and team.
“With over 1500 employees in our rail business, even for a company of our size and scale, audits are challenging,” Mountford said.
“Now imagine being a smaller operator, or a business where rail is just one component. You might be doing everything right; but gathering and presenting the evidence to satisfy auditors can be a real struggle.”
That’s one of the key reasons RTS launched Safe+.
“We knew that what we were doing every day required a team of highly skilled, dedicated professionals who are passionate about rail and safety, and we recognised that not every company has access to that level of internal resourcing,” Mountford said.
Safe+ offers just that; helping businesses not only meet safety standards but demonstrate them with confidence.
Image: Dallas Kilponen via Downer
Sustainable improvement
“I joined Downer in 2021, stepping into a business already delivering safe, reliable, and accessible transport solutions, with a strong safety culture and a robust safety team,” Mountford said.
“One standout example: every Downer rail site remained operational throughout the Covid-19 pandemic, thanks to comprehensive health and safety plans that protected both our on-site and remote teams.”
From there, the focus was on building momentum.
“We launched strategic Improvement Programs and broadened our Community of Practice initiatives to include business partners.
“We also introduced health and wellness initiatives, a tiered governance framework and rail safety improvement programs. These initiatives were not just symbolic, they were strategic, and they have delivered results.”
In 2024, RTS recorded a 78 per cent reduction in notifiable rail safety incidents and a 60 per cent drop in lost time injuries compared to 2020.
But for Mountford, improvement must be sustainable.
“Safety isn’t static – it evolves,” he said. “Six years ago, working from home was rare. Then came Covid. Suddenly, we had to ensure our remote teams were physically and psychologically safe.
“Safety trends shift, risks change and if we, as the safety team for Australia’s leading rail business, aren’t adapting and improving, we are not achieving our remit.
“I might be biased, but I have the best safety team in the business, and I’m proud to offer their expertise to the industry through Safe+.”
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