THE Australian Railway and Innovation Network (AusRRIN) was launched on November 22 by Australia’s assistant minister for trade and manufacturing, Senator Tim Ayres, together with the national rail manufacturing advocate, Ms Jacqui Walters, to coordinate the railway research efforts of five Australian universities.
AusRRIN will be formalised through the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) between Monash University through its Institute of Railway Technology (IRT), Central Queensland University, University of Queensland, University of Wollongong and the University of Technology Sydney.
The universities will join five railway industry entities - the Office of the National Rail Safety Regulator (ONRSR), Rail Industry Safety and Standards Board (RISSB), Australasian Railway Association (ARA), the Rail Track Association Australia (RTAA), and the Institution of Railway Signal Engineers (IRSE) - to create AusRRIN.
The AusRRIN partners will cooperate to identify and deliver critical railway research and innovation necessary for the future of Australia’s railways and to advance an associated rail manufacturing sector in support of the Australian government’s National Rail Manufacturing Plan, to meet its goal of “more Australian workers making more things in Australia, using Australian know-how and Australian resources.”
“The AusRRIN initiative is a great example of the collaboration between research and industry that the government is supporting under the National Rail Manufacturing Plan, and our recently announced national rail procurement and manufacturing strategy,” Ayres says.
“I look forward to AusRRIN’s contribution to the development of trains that are designed and built to Australia’s unique condition, lowering costs for government and industry, improving the quality of the commuter experience, and lowering our national transport emissions.”
“We can build on the capabilities of Australian manufacturing to design and construct efficient, modern, low emission rolling stock that will carry Australians and freight for decades to come,” Walters said. “We can export decarbonised products to the world.”
Monash Institute of Railway Technology director Professor Ravi Ravitharan says there were many reasons to get excited about the future of railway transport in Australia. “Adopting targeted research and innovation has already transformed Australia to become the global benchmark for heavy haul railways,” he says.
