Australia is significantly expanding its rail network for passenger and rail use, and the work will continue for many years. But integrating the old and existing rail infrastructure with new ones poses a challenge in construction and operation.
According to Infrastructure Magazine, an October 2020 report produced for the Australasian Railway Association (ARA) estimated that $155 billion of rail investment is planned over the next 15 years, with Australia keen to transform its fragmented national network.
The expansion of the railway systems back in the 19th century is the driven economic and financial growth and development. The continuous expansion also brings challenges and risks from construction, management, and operation.
The railway system in Australia transports more than 50% of its freight and is projected to carry 75% of the increased demand for freight services in the next ten years. Because of this rise in future freight demands, the country has invested AUD 12 billion in Inland Rail Project, which will link large tracts across Queensland, New South Wales, and Victoria.
The passenger rail is also growing, as seen in high-profile projects underway in major cities like Sydney, Brisbane, Melbourne, and Perth. A risk insurance company, Allied World, supports all of these projects.
The article says that Australia’s significant expansion of its railway network comes with new and emerging risks, which include:
- Climate change causes extreme events like floods, droughts, and heavy rains, which could damage train tracks from soil subsidence or collapse of embankments;
- Integrating old and new infrastructure – aging infrastructure needs to be replaced and updated, and incorporating new lines into existing ones means that the country needs to maintain safety and efficiency standards.
- As Australia modernizes its railway network systems, there is a need for some railways to replace their traditional fixed block signaling systems with new ones, the moving block systems. Improving the signaling systems is needed to cope with increased freight and passenger demands, especially in urban areas. Parts of Melbourne’s rail network are already utilizing the system, and in other cities like London, Singapore, and Hong Kong, with improved technology – better inter-train communication system and GPS.
- Derailment is the primary safety issue faced by rail operators. Australia has taken steps to reduce the problem in recent years. While there are causes of derailment that are hard to eliminate, like landslips or accidents, other causes can be prevented with the help of improved monitoring systems that track wear and defects on parts of the wagon and stepping up inspections and maintenance regimes.
Insurance and risk management firms can also help the rail sector in managing its risk from the construction, operation, infrastructure, and systems integration and implementing monitoring and maintenance programs through drawing from the wealth of its first-hand experience and information in managing many rail projects not only in Australia but also internationally as well.
Constructing a massive railway system and ensuring it continues to operate safely to passengers and freight throughout its lifetime is challenging. It involves effectively managing individual assets within the whole railway network.
Asset management comprises all systems, methods, procedures, and tools to optimize costs, performance, and risks for the complete rail infrastructure life cycle to achieve the best value for money.
This optimization involves all infrastructure activities from the building, maintaining, and renewing machines and materials over the assets’ whole life cycles and the consequences of these activities to railway owners, operators, and users.
As one of the countries that pioneered infrastructure asset management internationally, Australia is well-placed to apply this practice to its rapidly expanding rail networks.
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