Rail Infrastructure and Systems Review
Background
Sydney Trains operates Sydney’s suburban passenger rail network comprising 919km of electrified track and 169 stations, including four stations on the Airport Line, across eight lines.
Each day, 3200 timetabled services deliver around 720,000 passenger journeys. Sydney Trains is responsible for the management of more than $46 billion in assets, including the maintenance of almost 2,000km of track, 2134 electric and diesel cars, and over 1536km of electric wiring.
Report findings
Sydney Trains and Transport for NSW welcome the Report by Carolyn Walsh and her team, are now working through what it means for rail in NSW.
The Sydney Trains’ Rail Infrastructure and Systems Review Final Report provides a blueprint for the future of a modern railway across a range of areas including safety, governance and accountability, asset management, workforce, reliability and resilience; across a range of timeframes through to the long term.
This comes after all 12 recommendations of the Interim Report have either commenced or been finalised, and the Rail Repair Plan’s high-priority defects target was hit three months ahead of schedule.
A summary of the Report’s recommendations
- Realign accountabilities, to improve approaches to safety, asset management, freight and third-party access to the rail corridor
- Future-proof the rail workforce by better attracting, training and retaining skilled workers for both professional and frontline positions
- Review how assets are owned, managed and assured within Transport for NSW
- Explore options for continuous improvement of critical incident response and coordination of possessions
- Work collaboratively with freight to determine better ways of prioritising the movement of both people and goods across the state
- Invest in critical asset needs and review ways of working to support enhanced maintenance practices.
This is a summary of the 57 additional recommendations made in the Final Report. The total number of recommendations made by the Sydney Trains Review is 69.
The NSW Government, along with its agencies Transport for NSW and Sydney Trains, and other key partners, have already begun the crucial work to incorporate and build on the insights of the Sydney Trains Review to chart the course for a stronger and more resilient future for rail in NSW.
Recommendations already commenced by Sydney Trains
Sydney Trains has already commenced many of the recommendations in the Final Report including:
- Reviewing resourcing to promote more effective in-service response to train failures
- Rolling out the boarding assistance technology app to train guards and looking at options to expand it
- Rolling out the platform ‘gap filler’ program to minimise staff retrieving items from the tracks
- Developing a plan to support the objectives of the National Rail Action Plan
- Prioritising the delivery of the ROC Improvement Program
- Maintaining our existing assets in the Tangara fleet, with a proposal being considered as part of next year’s budget
- Commenced rolling out new state-of-the-art digital systems
- Continuing to engage in ongoing consultation with unions.
While many of the recommendations are supported or already commenced, others will need further investigation, and Transport and Sydney Trains are developing proposals for consideration by the Government.