Better comms for Sydney rail operations

Sydney Trains’ $276 million Rail Operations Centre will improve communications and coordination across the network.

Work has begun on Sydney Trains’ new Rail Operations Centre (ROC) project, a $276 million whole-of-network venture that will modernise management of operations to support better service delivery for Sydney Trains and its customers, through improved disruption management, communications and coordination across the network.

The transformational project will improve coordination across the new systems, enabling delivery of more accurate and timely information about delays, leading to faster incident resolution and service recovery.

“This new centre will ultimately improve train reliability for customers, and when there are delays, information will be communicated much more quickly,” said NSW Minister for Transport and Infrastructure Andrew Constance.

To be built at Green Square, the ROC will ensure all facets of the train network are controlled from a single location, with new technology to manage train movements and customer safety.

According to a government statement, knowledge from across the globe has been sourced, from London, Hong Kong and Tokyo, to ensure the design incorporates the latest technology that will improve train services.

Sydney Trains Chief Executive Howard Collins said the organisation’s performance has been held back in recent years by outdated technology and having to respond manually to incidents.

“At the moment we manage the trains and tracks, respond to incidents, communicate with customers and monitor their safety from different locations and in different ways,” he said.

“One example is that during an incident, there are multiple phone calls made between the person reporting the incident, the person who controls the trains, another party in charge of fixing the fault and the response team in the field.

“The new centre will mean each of these parties are informed the moment the issue is reported, and because they will all be in the same location, receiving more information, they can ensure the best response to get our customers moving again.”

The ROC with its network control centre and support functions will be housed in a new five-level building (plus a plant room), with provision for a co-located fire station in the future. It will be operational 24 hours per day, seven days per week.

System integrator Ajilon commenced work on the project in January 2015, and the project is currently in the design stage. A Review of Environmental Factors (REF) is currently underway, which will be displayed for community comment later this year. The government is consulting with the City of Sydney, other government departments and key stakeholders as part of the process.

Preliminary building activities are planned to start in mid-2016. The ROC is expected to open in 2018.

“We are looking forward to working with Sydney Trains on this very exciting project,” said Ajilon Managing Director Ger Doyle.

“Our key focus at Ajilon is to put the customer at the heart of what we do and we look forward to helping Sydney Trains create a highly coordinated system that is customer-centric at its core.”

Ajilon is an Australia-wide company that has over 1100 consultants. The Sydney Trains contract comes after other recent governmental and commercial successes for clients such as NSW Health, Water NSW, Transport NSW, Hutchinson Ports Australia and Telstra.