AUSTRALIA: The New South Wales government has awarded Network Rail Consulting the A$16m System Integrator contract within its Digital Systems programme, which forms part of a A$880m package of planned investment in the Sydney Trains network.
The Digital Systems programme contains three main elements:
- replacing trackside signalling equipment with ETCS Level 2;
- implementing Automatic Train Operation to provide faster and more consistent journey times;
- introducing a Traffic Management System for more effective incident management and service regulation.
The System Integrator will lead collaboration with partners in delivering the Digital Systems and will assist with the procurement of major supplier packages in 2019. Deployment is planned in stages from the early 2020s.
Announcing the contract on December 10, the state government said the commercial subsidiary of the UK infrastructure manager would bring experience from the deployment of comparable technology under the Thameslink Programme in the UK, and from work on the Madrid suburban network in Spain.
