11 Oct 2024

Horizons 6 wraps up

Horizons, RISSB’s program to inspire future rail industry leaders, wrapped up its sixth installment at the University of Technology Sydney (UTS) this month. We were treated to insightful presentations from:

  • Dr Michelle Zeibots from UTS on Resource Scarcity, Decarbonisation and the Electrification of Rail Freight in Australia
  • Carolyn Walsh (NTC) and Jim Modrouvanos (OTSI) on Advancing Rail Interoperability in Australia
  • Dr Christian Christodoulou (TfNSW) on Exploring Engineering & Value Creation in the Public Service
  • Stephen Jones (ARTC) on Mega projects
  • Peter Munro (MTR) with Lessons Learned from the Metro Project
  • Ed Steane (TfNSW) who provided an Introduction to Urban Policy, Transport and Civic Leadership

At the start of the Horizons 6 journey, participants were divided into project teams to research and develop a presentation for this year’s topic: Digital Transformation of the Australian Rail Sector.

Each team received feedback and a score from our panel of judges. Special thanks to Matt Longland from Sydney Trains, Dennis Lo from the RTAA, Brian Brennan from Transdev and Sudha Niles from RISSB who made up our judging panel.

The winning ‘Indian Pacific’ team with judges. Standing L-R – Sudha Niles (RISSB); Dennis Lo (RTAA); Matt Longland (Sydney Trains); Brian Brennan (Transdev); Sanchi Chaudhry (Sydney Trains); Anushka Bhatia (TfNSW); Rosie Huggins (WSP). Kneeling L-R – Akshay Doosa (Systra), Fawzi Shehwaro (Sydney Trains), Nathan Baker (MTM). Not in photoLuke Furmedge (McConnell Dowell) & Francesca O’Connor (Sydney Trains)

This year’s winning team was ‘Indian Pacific’ with their presentation on ‘The Australian Rail Data Marketplace’, with team ‘Orient Express’ and their presentation on ‘ARAIL: Augmented Reality Transforming Australian Rail’ the close runner up.

Those attending the RISSB Safety Conference in April 2025 will see Indian Pacific’s presentation.

Gain some fantastic insights related to ‘Digital Transformation of the Rail Sector’ in each team’s report here:

Horizons 2025

Next year’s program, Horizons 2025, will include an expanded offering in Western Australia. Find out more and submit your expression of interest here.