National Faster Rail Agency

[ozbob]

National Faster Rail Agency

>> https://www.nfra.gov.au/

" The National Faster Rail Agency was established on 1 July 2019 as an Executive Agency within the Infrastructure, Transport, Cities and Regional Development portfolio.

The National Faster Rail Agency is committed to supporting the Australian Government in planning for Australia's future population by working closely with state and territory governments on opportunities to develop rail infrastructure between major cities and key regional centres in order to advance social, economic and population outcomes. ... "

[ozbob]

Rail Express --> Inaugural National Faster Rail Agency CEO appointed

The inaugural chief executive officer for the National Faster Rail Agency (NFRA) has been appointed, the minister for population, cities and urban infrastructure Alan Tudge announced on Monday.

Barry Broe will commence at NFRA on January 6 and will serve as CEO for an initial five-year term. Broe will be coming into the role after seven years as Coordinator-General for the Queensland government.

"Broe has spent over 40 years in major project, transport and public sector infrastructure delivery including over 17 years at executive or CEO level. He has direct local and international experience in rail and planning," according to a government spokesperson.

He has held senior roles across government agencies, including with Brisbane City Council as divisional manager Brisbane Infrastructure, with Transport for London as director of transport planning and policy, and with Queensland Transport as director transport planning South East Queensland, according to his LinkedIn page.

The NFRA was created in July this year, with $14.5 million, to support the delivery of the government's 20-year Faster Rail Plan, which includes $2 billion for faster rail between Melbourne and Geelong and eight regional to capital city business cases along the eastern seaboard.

"Faster rail networks are crucial to easing congestion pressures in our cities and shaping Australia's future as our population grows," Tudge said.

"Investing in faster rail will create jobs and bust congestion, giving time back to commuters and enabling more people to live in our regions while working in our cities."

The NFRA will work in partnership with state and territory governments and private industry to develop the rail infrastructure between major cities and key regional centres necessary to for the project. The agency will have an Expert Panel to provide advice on faster rail related matters including existing faster rail project business cases, new potential faster rail corridors, future developments across networks and infrastructure requirements and priorities.

The Australasian Railway Association (ARA) congratulated Broe on the appointment.

"Mr Broe has a strong reputation of achievement and we welcome his appointment to deliver faster rail in Australia," ARA chairman and acting CEO Danny Broad said.

"It will be critical that the Agency, under Mr Broe's leadership, recognises the need to invest in existing and new lines to stretch Government dollars and provide a faster rail service offering that meets the needs of the Australian population."

The ARA, however, pointed out that not all faster rail projects require brand new rail lines.

"Faster rail can be achieved through upgrades and modifications to existing rail infrastructure, such as passing loops, new signalling systems and level crossing removals."

The industry association said that its member companies have identified a number of smaller projects that can deliver faster rail solutions without the expense of investing in new rail lines and trains.

"The ARA also looks forward to discussions with the Agency about long term plans to acquire the corridor for Brisbane to Melbourne High Speed Rail," Broad said.

[AnonymouslyBad]

^ He's worked for TMR and BCC? There's no hope!

Seriously though, I hope this Agency can do good work. While a brand new HSR corridor from Melbourne to Brisbane is everyone's pipe dream, we need to face the reality that better and faster rail is way more urgent.

Not sure starting with Melbourne to Geelong is the best sign - Geelong shouldn't even count as regional in 2019, and it's already a laughably quick and comfortable trip (by Australian standards). That's politics I guess.

[Gazza]

Really? Geelong is 80km away, that should be sub 1 hour in 2019.

[verbatim9]

^ He's worked for TMR and BCC? There's no hope!

Seriously though, I hope this Agency can do good work. While a brand new HSR corridor from Melbourne to Brisbane is everyone's pipe dream, we need to face the reality that better and faster rail is way more urgent.

Not sure starting with Melbourne to Geelong is the best sign - Geelong shouldn't even count as regional in 2019, and it's already a laughably quick and comfortable trip (by Australian standards). That's politics I guess.

Really? Geelong is 80km away, that should be sub 1 hour in 2019.

The idea is to electrify the Geelong line to run faster trains that can also accelerate out of station faster and connect with the proposed Tullamarine line.

[ozbob]

The Regional Rail Link was going to be the salvation for the Geelong line.  What happened was massive suburban sprawl around Tarneit and Wyndham Vale etc. was overlooked in planning and has put enormous pressure on VLine which is not equipped to be a suburban railway.  What they should be doing is sparking both lines to Geelong (via Werribee and via Tarneit) and running the high capacity trains on them.  The VLocities are not up the passenger loads.  Geelong will just become an extension of the suburban network.

[ozbob]

Discussion continued in new thread High Speed Rail - Australia

> https://railbotforum.org/mbs/index.php?msg=271649