AUSTRALIA: The national High Speed Rail Authority has appointed a Keolis-led partnership as its Business, Operations & Maintenance Adviser for the development phase of the Newcastle to Sydney high speed rail project.
The partnership comprises Paris-headquartered global public transport operator Keolis, its majority shareholder the French national railway SNCF, and safety, assurance and certification specialist Certifer.
Keolis said the members combine global high speed rail expertise with local capability, drawing on their experience with France’s TGV, Eurostar, Ouigo services in France and Spain and Morocco’s Al Boraq, as well as advising on emerging programmes including Alto in Canada and California High Speed Rail.
Shadow operator and maintainer
The High Speed Rail Authority is leading the development of a 320 km/h line to connect Brisbane, Sydney, Canberra, Melbourne and regional communities across the east coast. The first stage would run from the new Western Sydney Airport to Newcastle, via stations at Parramatta, Sydney Central, Central Coast and Lake Macquarie.
The Keolis-led partnership will act as HSRA’s shadow operator and maintainer, helping to ensure that operational, maintenance and customer requirements are taken into account during the development phase.
This will run for two years, and is focused on making the project construction-ready by progressing detailed design, planning and approvals and refining the project scope, cost, schedule and risks to inform a future government investment decision.
‘A railway that Australians will be proud of’
‘Australia has an extraordinary opportunity to create a high speed rail network that will transform connectivity between cities and regions for generations to come’, said Keolis Group CEO Frédéric Van Heems on July 23. ‘Our role is to help ensure Australia benefits from lessons learned across some of the world’s most successful high speed rail systems, while developing an approach tailored to Australian communities and passengers.’
Keolis operates the Gold Coast trams, Newcastle light rail, bus and ferry services, and more than 1 300 buses across Australia. It also provides customer and maintenance services for trains in Adelaide.
Australia & New Zealand CEO David Franks said the company ‘has been part of Australia’s public transport landscape for almost 20 years, delivering services for millions of passengers every year. This appointment gives us the opportunity to combine that local operational experience with global high speed rail expertise to help develop a railway that Australians will be proud of.’
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