Under the contract, John Holland’s operating entity, John Holland Rail, is responsible on behalf of the state government for the operation, management, maintenance and upgrade of country railway lines across NSW, known as the Country Regional Network (CRN), and will also deliver comprehensive railway asset management services.
The contract will see John Holland Rail become one of only three accredited managers of public rail infrastructure in the state.
The operational cutover of the Country Regional Network occurred without incident, the company said in a statement.
“All train control and communication systems are fully operational and the movement of trains on the Network, including some 2386km of operational freight and passenger lines and 3,139km of non-operational lines, is now controlled from the new John Holland Rail Network Management Centre in Mayfield, Newcastle,” the statement said.
More than 300 new employees commence their employment with John Holland this week in Bathurst, Dubbo, Goulburn, Narrabri, Nyngan, Tamworth and West Wyalong to deliver the full scope of works for the Country Regional Network.
The 10 year CRN contract will run through 2021, with a directly employed John Holland workforce in excess of 400 now in place to deliver the full scope of works.
Executive general manager of John Holland’s Transport Services business, Karl Mociak, said the milestone builds on the company’s ongoing push into the transport services sector and its capacity to deliver maintenance and operations services to large scale public and private sector transport networks.
“Combined with John Holland’s broader skills in infrastructure and energy and resources, this capability will facilitate the delivery of fully integrated contracting services to our clients, from project development, infrastructure delivery and operations and maintenance," Mociak said.