The harmonisation of rail standards is a key focus for the Australasian Railway Association (ARA).
National standards could save the industry billions of dollars by enabling greater interoperability across the rail network and by supporting a more efficient, safe and productive industry.
Together with the National Transport Commission (NTC), the Office of National Rail Industry Coordination (ONRIC), and the Rail Industry Safety and Standards Board (RISSB), the Australasian Railway Association (ARA) launched the Harmonisation of Rail Standards Research Report on October 23, which underscores the pressing need for change.
The report provides an important body of evidence to support Australia’s harmonisation journey and examines current barriers in the way of achieving a more competitive and sustainable Australian rail industry.
Prepared by GHD Advisory, it outlines several recommendations to streamline standards, technologies and processes for operating the rail network.
The report recommends a national body oversee the development of a National Rail Standards Harmonisation Strategy, in conjunction with industry, and identifies key initiatives for consideration.
The harmonisation of standards will enable the rail industry to reap the full benefits of the record $155 billion investment in public rail infrastructure to 2037, which is set to transform urban areas across the country and improve connection to our regions, driving positive economic, environmental and social outcomes.
By adopting a more nationally harmonised approach to standards and requirements – as well as to tendering and procurement, accreditation, type approvals, local content and competencies – we will have a more efficient, competitive, innovative and safe rail industry. This will ensure more value for taxpayers in government procurement outcomes.
The impact of fragmentation
A legacy of federation, Australia has 29 separate rail networks, each utilising different standards, technologies, and processes, resulting in a complex and inefficient system that hampers both freight and passenger rail operations.
This has created significant challenges for rail operators, who must navigate varying standards, codes and technical requirements across different networks. This complexity is especially problematic given that a significant proportion of rail journeys in Australia, outside of suburban services, involves crossing multiple networks, each with varying standards, performance, access requirements and rule books. The disparities in standards and operational protocols between these networks increase costs, reduces efficiency and undermines the industry’s overall productivity.
The Harmonisation of Rail Standards Research Report outlines the detrimental impact of differing standards across several critical areas including operational interoperability, economies of scale for suppliers, type approval processes, decarbonisation efforts, safety, technology adoption and labour mobility.
The message is clear: without harmonised standards, the rail industry will continue to face inefficiencies, higher costs, and missed opportunities.
Harmonisation of rail standards will also support the Australian rolling stock manufacturing industries. Having consistent design and manufacturing standards, rather than varying specifications and procurement processes, enables suppliers to benefit from improved economies of scale, supports modern technologies and innovation and the transition to net zero.
The Office of National Rail Industry Coordination (ONRIC) National Rail Procurement and Manufacturing Strategy, aimed at co-ordinating and streamlining procurement and harmonising standards across states and territories, is crucial for fostering innovation and building capabilities in the rail manufacturing sector.
Through the National Rail Action Plan (NRAP), the National Transport Commission (NTC) is working with all governments and industry towards a national approach to rail standards.
The national rail standards framework being developed by NTC will drive interoperability and safety across our national freight and passenger network through a critical set of mandated standards, as well as model standards to support national harmonisation.
The first set of mandatory performance-based standards introduced will support the co-ordinated rollout of digital train control technologies across Australia. It will ensure a new system being introduced onto one network is interoperable with neighbouring systems on the national network.
Purpose of the Harmonisation of Rail standards research
The Harmonisation of Rail Standards Research Report sought to gain deeper insights into what is preventing the adoption of existing International and Australian Standards and included the following:
- a desktop overview of the Australian rail standards ecosystem,
- assessment of the advantages and disadvantages of harmonising rail standards,
- quantifying the benefits and costs of harmonising standards,
- assessing the barriers and risks to harmonising standards and identify opportunities to address these barriers,
- a categorisation of standards; and
- developing options for harmonising standards.
The purpose was to assist in engaging industry and supporting the prioritisation of future work under ONRIC’s National Procurement and Manufacturing Plan, as well as in developing the National Standards Framework under the NTC’s NRAP.
The report recommends the establishment of a National Rail Standards Harmonisation Strategy, overseen by a dedicated national body and developed in conjunction with industry stakeholders, as a crucial first step. To enable this recommendation the report recommends:
- the resources and in-house capability of RISSB be expanded,
- the role of ONRSR to be modified,
- the relevance of international standards to be evaluated before developing Australian standards,
- co-regulation remain for any standard not considered ‘high-benefit’ enough to be mandated,
- establishing a legal mechanism to allow Rail Infrastructure Managers (RIMs) and Rail Safety Officers (RSOs) to have short-term non-compliance to facilitate transition to mandatory standards,
- undertaking a cost-benefit analysis for specific standards to inform transition cost support, and
Conducting an internal audit of RIMs and RSOs standards.
The report outlined 12 main initiatives that were considered:
Greater government and industry alignment and promotion of voluntary adoption and implementation.
A central directory or database for high benefit standards.
Greater harmonisation-specific stakeholder collaboration forums and technical working groups.
Incentive programs for early harmonised standards adopters.
Regulation to mandate a limited range of specific standards.
Mandatory disclosure of derogation for non-standard projects and system changes.
Government support for industry in meeting the cost of change to comply with new standards.
Project investors (governments) refusing to finance projects not using specific harmonisation standards.
Develop a formal automatic mutual recognition scheme for rolling stock and adopt a national Type Approval framework with associated formal agreements.
Undertake a governance review to assess supporting arrangements, functions, and responsibilities that would be required to support any given option pathway for harmonisation.
Mandate that national training units of competency, skills sets and qualifications be delivered in the context of a generic railway, which is supported by a Guidance document from ISA.
Government investment in type approval technologies that help solve standards-related interface constraints.
This report does not suggest that standards need to be harmonised across the board, but rather these initiatives would only focus on high benefit areas of standards such as Train Control Command and Signalling, Rolling stock Components and Approvals, Type Approval (TA), and Telematics Applications for Freight Service. The report identifies three potential pathways to harmonisation – a “voluntary pathway” and two mandatory pathways called a “gradualist mandatory pathway” and an “interventionist mandatory pathway”.
Under the voluntary pathway, harmonised standards would be co-designed by industry in high-benefit standard areas and using international precedents, with supporting incentive mechanisms. This option pathway aims to foster a co-operative environment where the voluntary adoption of standards is rewarded, guided by strong governance and supported by incentives to stimulate industry participation.
There are two mandatory pathways. Under the gradualist mandatory option pathway, there would be mandatory rail standard harmonisation across high-benefit standards areas and complete with technical specifications. This option will prioritise grandfathering of effective solutions, only apply to new equipment and systems, will be multi-year, and have a range of approved derogation areas. The option has been heavily informed and influenced by the EU’s experience of implementing mandatory standards harmonisation. It would take approximately five to 10 years to implement in full, with full benefits not being realised until 25 to 30+ years after implementation.
Under the interventionist option, there would be a phased transition of a stringent mandate for rail standards harmonisation across both new and some existing rail equipment, with minimal grandfathering arrangements for high benefit standard areas. This pathway would take about five years to implement in full, with full benefits not being realised until 20 years after implementation.
Stakeholders determined via a multi-criteria analysis that a gradualist mandatory pathway was the preferred option against the criteria of cost, certainty, stakeholder buy-in, timeliness, de-risking and efficiency. However regardless of the pathway, the end result of harmonised standards would lead to hundreds of millions of dollars of benefit in direct cost savings, mode shift and fewer greenhouse gas emissions.
Regulatory reforms to improve interoperability
The ARA is actively working with the NTC and state and federal governments to identify opportunities to improve and reform the regulatory structures that inhibit the interoperability of our national rail network – and the harmonisation of standards is a key aspect to support interoperability.
Ministers have tasked the NTC to develop a requirement for rail transport operators to have an Interoperability Management Plan as a regulatory requirement in the Rail Safety National Law National (RSNL) Regulations. This requirement proposes that rail transport operators with railway operations on the National Network for Interoperability (NNI) consider national interoperability when planning changes to their railway operations.
Improved interoperability across Australian networks would yield significant benefits beyond operators throughout the supply chain. It would enable increased investment and economies of scale with more standardised rail componentry to support a safer and more innovative rail system. It would support a national approach to training and labour mobility. And, as we approach the 2050 deadline, harmonisation is critical to achieving the net zero transition successfully.
It would also reduce transit times, lower costs for consumers and businesses, and boost the competitiveness of the rail sector.
In June 2023, Ministers at the Infrastructure and Transport Ministers’ Meeting (ITMM) agreed to undertake a targeted review of the RSNL. The RSNL review was jointly led by the NTC and independent consultant and subject matter expert Tom Sargant.
The terms of reference for the review focused on the administration of the RSNL, transparency, interaction with Work Health and Safety legislation, co-regulation, roles and responsibilities, and legislation flexibility.
The relevance of this review is that it has recognised that through amendments to the RSNL there is an opportunity for the Office of the National Rail Safety Regulator (ONRSR) to play a critical role in improving both safety and productivity outcomes across the industry. Specifically, the review has made several recommendations that would empower ONRSR to practically implement the fundamental and significant interoperability and harmonisation reforms that have been progressed over the past four years through the NRAP.
Of the review’s 24 recommendations, nine are directly related to achieving greater productivity outcomes through legislative amendments and engagement with industry to significantly improve interoperability and harmonisation across the industry.
The ARA supports that these reforms outlined in the Review of the RSNL provide a practical and necessary mechanism to implement the interoperability and harmonisation initiatives under NRAP and in doing so, will create a safer and more productive, sustainable and efficient rail industry.
The future for rail
As previous ARA research has highlighted, the adoption of nationally consistent approaches across the industry could save billions of dollars. With such a substantial infrastructure investment pipeline, even modest improvements in efficiency through the adoption of harmonised national standards could yield significant returns.
It is critical that government works together, with industry, to reduce costs and inefficiencies in the rail industry to ensure a more sustainable, productive, and safer railway network.
The harmonisation of rail standards, particularly in key areas such as signalling and control systems, would be a major step forward, enabling smoother movement of both freight and passenger trains between major cities and regions.
Voluntary efforts over the past two decades have laid some groundwork but have not been sufficient to achieve consistent application of standards.
Australia can no longer afford to operate a fragmented rail network. As the report suggests, mandating specific high benefit national priority standards, similar to those adopted in the European Union, will be necessary to achieve the benefits of interoperability and unlock the full potential of the rail industry. It is imperative that industry leaders and government bodies implement these recommendations and secure a more efficient, competitive, and sustainable future for Australia’s rail network.
I would like to thank GHD Advisory for their work on this important report. The ARA is looking forward to continuing to work with the NTC, ONRIC and RISSB, on behalf of the rail industry, to improve the operating environment of rail.