AusRAIL 2012 Accommodation

Accommodation for AusRAIL always book up way in advance.

That’s why we are giving you the hotel options now so you can plan your trip smoothly. Click on the map below to see a list of hotels which we have secured block bookings with.

For information about the event venue and how to get there, please visit www.ausrail.com/venue.

Picking the brains of Optus' Paulo Froes

 

We had the opportunity to pick the brains of Paulo Froes, Director Transformation & Customer Experience - Corporate at Optus at AusRAIL PLUS 2011. 

We asked:
1. Paulo, this is your first experience of AusRAIL, how have you found the event so far?

2. One of the core themes of the event this year is Customer Relations, and you will be addressing the conference on this issue, what is your main message to the rail industry on how to better identify and provide for the needs of its customers?

3. Your role at Optus is a relatively new one, why have they taken the step of creating a role that focuses specifically on the customer experience?

4. Innovation is the other theme for AusRAIL this year, it is often seen as crucial to the future of a business, but a well-placed customer focused strategy can be just as effective at driving a business forward, what do you see as the main benefits to a business of adopting a customer centric approach?

5. Finally Paulo, if you were to give the rail industry one key message to take away from your input to the event, what would it be? 

Bryan Nye: Procrastination threatens high speed rail

The article below is taken from Goulburn Post.

DECADES of debate are threatening to destroy the chances of Australia securing a High Speed Rail (HSR) network and the desperately needed alternative to Sydney’s only Airport, says Australasian Railway Association CEO Bryan Nye.

He said the “do nothing” approach will see Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane and Gold Coast grow into mega cities crippled by congestion and governments will continue to struggle to provide the necessary infrastructure to support them.

“I’ve read the government report on the need for a second Sydney International Airport and it’s clear that airport capacity constraints need to be addressed to meet expected growth in international flights,” Mr Nye said.

“However, what is missing from the current debate is the impact and benefit of a high speed rail network connecting our East Coast cities.

“World experience shows that a 350km/hr high speed rail link between Sydney and Melbourne with a travel time of two hours and 50 minutes would see 60 per cent of travellers change to rail


“The Sydney to Canberra distance would see high speed rail become the dominant mode of transport on that leg “This shift to rail would free up the desperately needed air paths and runway slots into and out of Sydney airport."

High Speed Rail can provide alternative solutions for an early construction of a second Sydney airport.
“A 30 minute high speed rail trip could provide access to an alternate airport within a 200km radius of Sydney,” Mr Nye said.

“It could also provide overflow capacity through the existing Canberra and Newcastle Airports.” Goulburn Mulwaree Council is advocating strongly for a HSR link through the region, saying improved transport access will bring people closer to employment markets.

In a submission to the NSW Long Term Transport Master Plan, Council stated: “HSR is popular in parts of Asia and Europe and has proven to be a viable transport option.”

The council argued that given the federal government had commissioned the phase two study on possible routes, it was “appropriate” that the state government now actively promoted and reinforced the HSR’s importance to the NSW economy and as a catalyst for regional growth.

Matthew Rait from Siemens pictures the future of rail

We had the opportunity to interview Matthew Rait, Picture the Future: Mobility Market Analyst from Siemens at AusRAIL PLUS 2011.

1. Matthew, your role at Siemens is Picture the Future Market Analyst, can you tell us what the future holds for rail?
2. What do you see as our key challenges in relation to mobility in the future?
3. And following on from that, what will be the costs to us as a nation if we don't address these challenges in the most appropriate way?
4. What examples of mobility solutions have you studied from elsewhere in the world that Australia could learn from?
5. Finally Matthew, how have you found AusRAIL this year, and why do you feel it is such a key event in the rail industry calendar?

Happy to hear your thoughts!

Further developments on the ARTC’s ATMS Project

"Australian Rail Track Corporation’s (ARTC) development of a unique, next-generation signalling system could revolutionise the way freight is moved throughout Australia," Jennifer Perry, Editor of Rail Express, May 2011.

Mike van de Worp, Executive General Manager Technical Services at the Australian Rail Track Corporation and Blaine Groves, Rail Systems Chief Architect at Lockheed Martin gave a joined presentation at AusRAIL last year about the progress of the ATMS program. Download the presentation here.

Article from ZDNet:
The Australian Rail Track Association (ARTC) is set to finish the proof-of-concept phase and sign off on the business case for an ambitious project to digitise Australia's train-signal network using Telstra's Next G network as its transmission backbone.

The ARTC is responsible for the maintenance and ongoing management of Australia's interstate gauge track, and it laid out plans for the digitisation of the analog point network in 2009. The ARTC signed a $73.2 million contract with US defence giant Lockheed Martin for a train-management platform to fit snugly into the ARTC's new Advanced Track Management System (ATMS), which would see traditional points abolished and block-style train-allocation systems revised.

Steve Bogdanov, technology and infrastructure manager with the ARTC, explained the current system to a Gartner datacentre summit in Sydney yesterday. He said that when a freight train runs along the interstate train corridor, the ARTC will give that locomotive a "block", which consists of one stopping distance and a safety margin.

Trains are not allowed to stray into other trains' safety blocks for safety purposes, with each block measured by analog points that communicate a train's position back to the ARTC's control room. A new block isn't allocated until a train passes an analog point.

Under the new ATMS, Bogdanov said, digital points will change the way that blocks are allocated, such that a block moves with a train instead of waiting for a train to pass a point, making more efficient use of the track. This relies on instructions being relayed to train drivers in real time. Instructions can include speed limiting, directional authority (like moving a slower train into a siding for overtaking), switch settings and route clearances.

More active decisions about speed and route management will result in greater fuel efficiency for train operators, and lead to less wear and tear on a train from constant stopping and starting and better safety for rail staff working on tracks.

Capacity on the rail network is also set to increase under the ATMS, as trains will be able to operate closer to each other thanks to new point-signalling equipment that will relay a train's exact position back to base, using Telstra's Next G network.

The benefits from ATMS are also likely to flow onto Australia's road network, Bogdanov said.

"We expect to significantly reduce stop-start movements, and are able to shift some freight off the roads, resulting in lower environmental impact," he told the Sydney conference.

Thanks to a previous project that saw six different train driver radios unified as one in-cab communications box, Telstra and the ARTC struck a deal that saw 88 new Next G-capable mobile towers built across the Nullarbor Plain and in the south of New South Wales, meaning that the ARTC's entire interstate track network is now covered by what Bogdanov calls a "rich, data-capable 3G network".

The ARTC is now wrapping up its proof of concept for the ATMS on tracks north of Adelaide. Bogdanov told ZDNet Australia at the summit that the business case for the full roll-out of ATMS will progress over the coming weeks.