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CONTENTS
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Executive Summary
Efficient land transport is vital to the productivity of the Australian economy. Rail is
a key element of enhancing the transport efficiency in both the urban and interstate
networks, but has been hindered by its Federated history and a legacy of under
investment. This has led to major infrastructure bottlenecks in the rail system which
are restricting the expansion of rail capacity and productivity to address rapidly
increasing demand.
There are many investment proposals for rail across
Australia that stand on their merit. This proposal to
Infrastructure Australia (lA) is for an "Australian Digital
Train Control System" (ADTCS) that will provide a
nation-wide approach to rail traffic control management
thereby enabling the rail industry to rapidly advance to a
new digital communications era and in doing so unleash
a surge in productivity and capacity whilst significantly
improving its safety and reliability. This proposal also
recommends Governments address significant policy
shortfalls that are hampering the expansion of rail
capacity to move people and goods in Australia.
Background
History has not been kind to rail in Australia and
much has been written about the differing gauges.
and operating environments across the nation. There
are different signal systems and philosophies in each
state and we currently have 22 radio networks that
are controlled through different mediums.The need to
move beyond this to a national solution is evident.
Harmonising standards and the cooperation within
industry to improve productivity, and the investment
by State and Commonwealth Governments are doing
much to overcome rail's legacy of old and disparate
infrastructure.
However there are extreme pressures to improve rail's
capacity.The impact of climate change, petrol price rises,
congestion in the urban environment and the doubling
of the logistic market over the next 15-20 years all
demand urgent action now.
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Digital Communications
Technology
J
Collaborative
The complete rejuvenation I overhaul of Australia's rail
traffic control network will br ing significant benefits
to all passenger and freight services across the nation
in urban and regional communities by significantly
increasing capacity and safety of rail operations.
The proposal has the potential to incorporate the
establishment of digital repeater stations along
interstate and regional rail lines where the existing
mobile telephone networks (such as those owned by
Telstra) do not exist or do not have sufficient coverage
to support the rail traffic control communications.
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Why is it important?
Despite currenttransport planning and investment, virtually all indicators ofAustralian
transport performance are expected to deteriorate over the foreseeable future . Our
continued reliance on road building to solve our transport challenges will not meet
the Nation's needs. Rail is undergoing a significant renaissance which is positioning
it to more than adequately meet the nation's current and future transport challenges.
The following figures for growth shown during 200617 exemplify how passenger
and freight rail impact Australia both socially and economically. (Australian Rail
) Industry Report 2007).
The national rail freight task (measured by tonnekilometres) rose by 5.1 c% (to 198.7 billion
tonnes)
Urban heavy rail passenger task increased by O.B There is continual pressure for Australian producers
billion passenger-kilometres or B.7% to 9.9 billion to reduce costs to enhance Australia's standard of
living directly. or to retain or improve the international
increases.
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Why is it important?
In its 2005 Infrastructure Report Card, Engineers
Australia rated the rail network as Cl' ) .The individual
State reports ranged from C+ in WA and Qld to D in
NSW. It further noted that "widespread delays remain
and there are uncertainties with new investments",
"There is emerging congestion in many metropolitan
rail networks", and "an integrated transport network
is needed to meet regional activity centres, and to
encourage the transfer of commuters from road to
rail".
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Traffic congestion costs in Australia amount to over 45,000 litres of fuel, and saving
$10 billion annually. Heavy vehicle congestion costs rose
130 tonnes of greenhouse gas emissions.
about 50% in the 15 years to 2005 and are forecast to
increase an additional 120% in the following 15 years, Investing in rail systems to improve environmental )
making a total increase of 230% over 30 years.
effiCiency is essential to meet environmenta,
Freight transport derives from economic activity which objectives.
is steadily rising and has recently been strongly surging.
However transport increases at about 24% greater
than the rate that the economy is rising. So for every
4% increase in the economy there is a 5% increase in
freight transport. This increased rate puts ever greater
pressure on the transport system as the economy
grows.
I Th e Report ~ard ratings are:
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Why is it important?
Community Impact
Transport is vital to modern communities. It is essential
for accessing services. connecting people and providing
goods. Fundamentally transport occurs as a result of
connecting people and goods and services.Accessibility
and efficient transport systems make a significant
contribution to Australian cities being rated as amongst
the most liveable in the world. Some of the more serious
impacts on communities from transport include:
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improving
agriculture
international
competitiveness
costs
for
for
state
transport capacity;
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Melbourne - Sydney - 7%
Melbourne - Brisbane - 28 %
Sydney - Brisbane - 5%
Jurisdictional Approach to a
National Transport Issue
The current approach to government infrastructure
investment suffers due to a jurisdiction by jurisdiction
approach which does not allow capitalisation on the
economies of scale of national projects. Infrastructure
Australia now has the potential to establish broad
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crashes
travel times
health effects
future . The global financial challenges, environmental
challenges, liquid fuel availabi lity, the rise of China and
Economic Costs
potentially India as economic powers and consumers
are
all changes which Australia needs to be prepared
If Australian railways are not economically efficient,
infrastructure costs and maintenance are high, as to respond to with systems which can adapt to change.
well as operational costs. This results in high costs to Relying on fewer modes of transport wi ll restrict
transport users and subsequently to the community and Australia's adaptabi lity to meet future shocks.
producers. Lower transport costs increases the capacity
Some quantified examples of these effects include:
for Australian businesses to be more productive.
less
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Social Costs
Transport results in numerous community benefits
and impacts. Poor transport systems adversely impacts
regions. communities and cities because transport is
vital. The costs of poor transport systems affect the
whole community in numerous ways. including:
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Transport emissions are 14% of Australia's national able to effectively deal with the expectec increase in
emissions, but is the second fastest growing sector. passenger and freight demand .
About 90% of transport emissions are attributable
The lack of effective passenger transport options
to road transport even though rail transport carries
is leading to major traffic congestion in cities, which
more of the freight task than road transport.
is estimated to cost more than $1 OB annually. Traffic
The fastest growing transport emissions are by congestion in cities will cost $20-30 billion annually by
articulated trucks, light commercial vehicles and 2020. In the 15 years to 2005 heavy vehicle congestion
rigid trucks. Road freight transport emissions are costs increased about 50%, whilst in the 15 years to 2020
expected to rise from 33% in 1990 to 42% in 2020 it is estimated they will increase by an additional 120%
as a proportion of total road transport emissions making a total increase of 230% over 1990 levels.
emissions target.
Productivity Costs
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the Defined Interstate Rail Network (or Intercapital network), managed by ARTC, operating
the GSM-R communications based Advanced Train
Management System (ATMS) which is currently in
the process of proof of concept
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Operational
The system incorporates a monitoring system that
exchanges information between the ground and the
train to locate the precise position of the train, and a
movement control system which allows speed limits
to be transmitted to the train driver whilst monitoring
the driver's response and if necessary, applying the train
brakes in an unsafe situation .
The ADTCS is a digital train control system that form s
an overlay over current signalling systems (eventually
replacing these systems), monitors the position of
trains in the network, provides train speed guidance
to drivers, and delivers control of train movement
authorities.
) The technology provides real time monitoring of
train positions and speed etc using differential Global
Sodo-economic
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Governance
across
Security
Business benefits:
control
ensure timely
outcomes
reporting
of
progress
and
Project management
ARA proposes that the first stage in this Project would
comprise a scoping project to be completed by end
2009, to examine:
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Outputs
Outputs of the Scoping Project would include:
technology options
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Implementation
Interoperability between GSM-R and Next G datanew mobile phone and other telecommunications
technologies are likely to impact on the selection
of technologies for the ADTCS.
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Implications
Implications for existing infrastructure are positive in
that the technology would initially provide an overlay
of existing technology. that is equipment would be
fitted to trains and track and be used by appropriately
upgraded Rollingstock. without interfering with current
technology. When all Rollingstock has been retrofitted. the old infrastructure (signalling infrastructure)
would be removed. This provides the added benefit of
significantly reducing the on-going maintenance burden
for what in many cases is outdated infrastructure.
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List of Appendixes
Appendix I
Appendix 2
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