RISSB Connect Edition 26, July 2023

Edition 26, July 2023

INSIDE
THIS EDITION

+ CEO Message
+ Australian Government establishes the Rail Innovation Council 
+ RISSB Supporting Rail Safety Week 7-13^th August
+ Shaping the rail industries technical future – the final day of RISSB’s Horizons 5 program 
+ RTAA Rail Industry Field Day 
+ RISSB concludes consultation with major rail companies on annual workplan  
+ AS 7630 Corridor Infrastructure Update 

CEO Message

I was fortunate this week to attend the Future of Rail Manufacturing Workshop, which brought together people from right across industry and government to identify pathways to substantially increase the local manufacturing of rail equipment, with a focus on urban passenger vehicles. 

RISSB has, and continues to contribute to the National Transport Commission’s National Rail Action Plan, through standards that rationalise the range of variations of key components in order to improve the scale and volume of orders for such equipment.  This is valuable work, but much more needs to be done to further rationalise the many State-based historical variations, on what could and should be standardised components and specifications.

This week I was also privileged to attend the closing session for our fifth Horizons program. During the program, ten teams were formed whose task was to develop an Interoperability Strategy.  Whilst I’ve only had the opportunity to briefly see the winning submission, there is more information on what else went on below. I am expecting that the work produced by these teams will significantly contribute to the current interoperability work across industry. Great work and well done by all involved!

Damien White 
RISSB CEO

GENERAL NEWS

Australian Government establishes the Rail Innovation Council 

The Australian government has recently established a Rail Industry Innovation Council (RIIC).

The establishment of the RIIC, comes in the wake of research funded by the Australasian Railway Association (ARA). Released by the federal government in 2022, the research revealed that a coordinated national approach to rail procurement and manufacturing would have saved Australia $1.85bn over the past 10 years.

And of course, the Standards (and other products) that RISSB produces will be instrumental in helping to support that coordinated approach by describing the components/systems that rail customers will procure.

We are excited to see a new centralised approach from the RIIC, and the productivity and innovation the council will help to drive in the rail industry.

EVENTS 

RISSB Supporting Rail Safety Week 7-13^th August

The railway is a big and complicated ‘machine’ and safely operating it is right at the very front of the minds of every person in this industry. There are so many facets to rail safety, and so many people dedicating enormous amounts of effort to advancing the safety agenda; but there is always more work to do.

RISSB is supporting Rail Safety Week by hosting webinars on important safety topics, from important industry organisations:

• On Tuesday 8^th August at 12pm AEST we will hear from the Australian Transport Safety Bureau (ATSB) about their focus on rail, and the recent release of their investigation into the accident at Weipa, as well as lessons learned.
• On Friday 11^th August at 12pm AEST we will hear from the Chair of the National ALCAM Committee (ALCAM – the Australian Level Crossing Assessment Model) on what ALCAM is and how industry can make use of this valuable information pertaining to this critical safety issue.

Hold those dates/times in your diaries and invitations will go out in the coming week.

Don't miss out on next weeks RISSB MasterClass Webinar

Want to learn more about Health and Safety for rail in Great Britain? Next week's RISSB MasterClass Webinar will focus on current health and safety trends for rail in Great Britain, with a particular focus on freight.

You will hear from two leading experts, Dr. Ann Mills and James Lonergan, on the analysis of some recent big freight accidents, RSSB’s recent work on freight derailment risk, and maintaining freight assets including analysis on why freight vehicles get out on the running line in a poor condition.

The webinar will be held next Tuesday 1 August at 4pm (AEST).

Register to attend by clicking the button below. We look forward to seeing you there!

Shaping the rail industry's technical future – the final day of RISSB’s Horizons 5 program 

The final forum for RISSB’s Horizons 5 program concluded on Wednesday with a technical presentation from Professor Cholachat Rujikiatkamjorn from UTS outlining new track technology. 

This was followed by industry leaders Nev Nichols Executive Director Engineering & Maintenance Sydney Trains, Helen Williams, Executive GM, ANZ, Systra and Natalie Pelham, CEO, OTSI who shared their wisdom around the critical elements of leaderships around values, resilience, culture and setting direction. 

Graham Bradshaw, Director, Special Projects, Transport for NSW had the group thinking differently with his presentation of the ‘Strategic Triangle’. 

The afternoon of Day 1 saw each of the ten Groups presenting to the judging panel on their specific Horizon Project that they have been working on since the commencement of the Horizons Program in February. 

Each team was tasked with looking at activities that would improve harmonisation and interoperability and support rail safety and technical compatibility between trains and infrastructure enabling the railway to compete more effectively with other forms of transport.

Teams put forward ideas including the focusing on skills and training within rail, the implementation of Interoperable Signalling Systems in Australia, standardisation of safety and technical measures and the harmonisation of standards. 

Many thanks to the judging panel Michelle Zeibots, Senior Lecturer (Transport) School of Civil & Environmental Engineering UTS; Kerryn Wilmot, Research Director, Architect Program Lead – Healthy Environments UTS; and Jonathan Barnes, President, Rail Track Association Australia.

The winning team will be announced and featured in next week’s RISSB Connect article.

RTAA Rail Industry Field Day 

The Rail Track Association Australia (RTAA) Rail Industry Field Day is back! The event has partnered again with Sydney Trains, and will feature celebrations for a major 50 year milestone for the RTTA.

The RTAA Field Day events are held biannually, with the next edition to be held next year in Chullora on 8-9 May 2024.

We are looking forward to connecting and celebrating with the wider rail industry.

Visit here for more information about the event.

PRODUCTS

RISSB concludes consultation with major rail companies on annual workplan

RISSB is very excited to be taking a new approach to receiving and evaluating proposals for the work that we engage in.

The new approach is characterised by consideration of industry critical risks, priority national agendas, regulatory focus areas, investigation findings and other factors, with a particular focus on adoption pathways and supporting industry benefit realisation.

This week, we completed a consultation program to socialise the workplan with senior representatives from the major rail companies; feedback received was immensely valuable – thank you! Watch this space for publication of our workplan in the coming weeks.

AS 7630 Corridor Infrastructure Update 

RISSB has been working on the review of the AS 7630 Corridor Infrastructure Standard, in preparation of the first development group meeting in August.

AS 7489 will form part of the Government’s National Rail Action Plan (NRAP), a Ministerially sponsored programme of work being driven by the National Transport Commission (NTC) designed to stimulate domestic manufacturing, create local jobs, and shore up supply chains. 

Our development group members consist of industry representatives with significant engineering and operational expertise in in these areas. We look forward to utilising this knowledge to support the rail industry in improved corridor infrastructure asset design, focusing on key risks and productivity and sustainability opportunities.

RISSB – Industry’s Partner in Co-Regulation