Dear Readers
The Urban Rail Conference (Formerly Light Rail) will take place next week from 18-19 July at the Grand Hyatt, Melbourne.
Transport plays a key role is maintaining Melbourne’s status as Australia’s most liveable city and the 10th in the world in the Global Liveability Index 2022.
With dedicated spotlights on light, suburban and metro rail, Urban Rail 2023 will bring together operators, manufacturers, contractors and government stakeholders across every level of the passenger rail sector to learn from technology advances, cutting-edge case studies and project updates from successful projects in Australasia and the world.
For more information and to register to attend, please visit: https://www.informa.com.au/event/conference/transport-logistics/urban-rail/
Our Job of the Week this week is in Sydney, Australia where we are looking for a Systems Engineer to work for a leading international supplier of communication and information systems for control centres with safety-critical tasks.
Best Regards
Rail Personnel
Rail News
11 July 2023. Australia. Transport for NSW to finalise plans for new corridor
A preferred transport corridor for Newcastle that includes light rail is set to be finalised, with the New South Wales Government requesting that the plan be accelerated to provide certainty for stakeholders. Transport for NSW North Region Director, Anna Zycki, said Transport for NSW has been asked to finalise its corridor investigations to support land use decision making in the wider Newcastle area by the City of Newcastle and New South Wales Department of Planning and Environment.
Source: Infrastructure Magazine
11 July 2023. United Kingdom. Network Rail celebrates London Waterloo’s 175th anniversary
Railway colleagues from Network Rail and South Western Railway (SWR) came together in a cross-industry event to celebrate London’s busiest station. Today (Tuesday 11 July), marks 175 years since London Waterloo station first opened its doors to the hustle and bustle of daily London life. To mark the special occasion, 50 guests from across the rail industry including Rail Minister, Huw Merriman MP; Andrew Haines, Network Rail’s Chief Executive; Peter Lord Hendy, Network Rail Chair and Claire Mann, SWR Managing Director, welcomed to join the celebrations at the station.
Source: Rail UK
11 July 2023. Turkey. Turkey readies tunnel boring machines for high-speed line to Europe
The Turkish ministry of Transport and Infrastructure held the kick-off ceremony for work on a key piece of high-speed infrastructure on Tuesday. A new tunnel on the outskirts of Istanbul should help facilitate faster train travel to the Turkish-Bulgarian border and, thus, to the EU. Turkish Transport minister Abdulkadir Uraloglu earlier on Tuesday fired up tunnel boring machines for the tunnels required along the 8.4-kilometre section of proposed rail between Istanbul’s Halkalı neighborhood, an important hub for passenger trains and rail freight, and Ispartakule.
Source: RailTech.com
11 July 2023. Indonesia. Wabtec signs $190m parts agreement for Indonesia’s PT KAI
The multi-year agreement will support the maintenance of the company’s CM20EMP locomotives. US manufacturer Wabtec Corporation has signed a multi-year parts agreement with PT Imeco Inter Sarana (PT Imeco) to support the servicing and maintenance of PT Kereta Api Indonesia’s (PT KAI) locomotive fleet. The IR2.88tn ($190m) agreement will see Wabtec provide parts, service kits and training to PT KAI for the maintenance of its 150 locomotives, continuing an existing 70-year-long relationship between the two companies.
Source: Railway Technology
AECOM, Skanska and SOM (Skidmore, Owings & Merrill) have completed the 395 million USD renovation of the Long Island Railroad (LIRR) concourse at Pennsylvania Station in New York. The project, which was awarded by Penn District Station Developer LLC in 2020, was focused on modernising and widening LIRR’s 33rd Street train hall corridor without interfering with the station’s daily operations and train service.
Source: Railway-News
11 July 2023. France. Grand Paris Express Line 15 South operator selected
Transport authority Île-de-France-Mobilités has selected a consortium of RATP Dev, ComfortDelGro and Alstom as preferred bidder to operate the future Grand Paris Express automated metro Line 15 South. The decision is due to be approved by the transport authority’s board on July 18. The joint venture was formed in 2020 to bid for Grand Paris Express operating contracts, with RATP Dev having the majority stake. The Line 15 South contract will include a two-year pre-operating phase ahead of the planned opening of the line at the end of 2025, followed by six years of operation.
Source: Metro Report International
11 July 2023. Mexico. Alstom Delivers First Train of the Tren Maya Railway Project
Rolling stock manufacturer Alstom has delivered the first train of the Tren Maya project to the federal government and Fondo Nacional de Fomento al Turismo. The four-car train is the first of 42 X-trapolis trains that Alstom will deliver within the scope of this project. It left the manufacturing facility in Ciudad Sahagún in the Mexican state of Hidalgo on 3 July. The four cars were wrapped and transported on special platforms. The 1,943km journey to the workshop and depot in Cancún took five days.
Source: Railway-News
10 July 2023. Australia. Sydney Metro Tunnelling to Western Sydney Airport Begins
Two tunnel boring machines – Eileen and Peggy – have started their journeys at the future Airport Business Park Station. They are boring the first 5.5km sections of the twin tunnels towards the Aerotropolis. Together, the TBMs will excavate around 120m of tunnel per week, which is the first step in delivering the six new metro stations on the line from St Marys to the centre of the Aerotropolis.
Source: Railway-News
Hitachi Rail has been awarded an eight-year contract to continue its maintenance of 19 intercity Class 802 trains by operator TransPennine Trains and owning group Angel Trains. The trains, which were also built by Hitachi, were first introduced into passenger service in 2019 and are known as ‘Nova 1’ fleet. Hitachi said it believed it won this renewed contract based on the reliability of the Nova 1 fleet so far.
Source: Railway-News
Job of the Week
Systems Engineer, Sydney, Australia
Job ID#: 13760
Discipline: IT
Language: English
Job Description:
Our client is seeking a Systems Engineer to provide ongoing support with communications and information technology solutions for mission critical systems in Public Transport, and Maritime operations.
Our client is the leading international supplier of communication and information systems for control centres with safety-critical tasks. These 'Control Centre Solutions' are developed and distributed by the client in the business segments Air Traffic Management (civil and military air traffic control, air defence) and Public Safety & Transport (police, fire and rescue services, emergency medical services, maritime organisations, and railways).
The company was established in 2004 and delivers and supports communication and information management projects for air traffic management, defence, public safety and public transport organisations across Australia, New Zealand, Papua New Guinea, and the South Pacific Islands. They employ around 130 highly skilled specialists in Australia at its premises in Brisbane, Sydney, Melbourne, and Perth.
This role is based in Sydney, Australia.
This is a hands-on role which requires the system engineer to have experience with building and managing software systems on database platforms. Knowledge of communications and information technology for mission critical systems as well as current experience in the Australian Railway, and / or Maritime sector are desirable, but not essential.
The Systems Engineer is responsible for implementing technical solutions and is the customers" primary contact for business requirements and technical issues throughout the entire project lifecycle including ongoing support. The Systems Engineer supports both Project and Service Managers and Solution Architects in successful project and support execution in line with the company and customer processes.
Main Tasks
* Establish technical knowledge of the company's existing solutions and processes
* Support non-functional requirements analysis and engineering design
* Technical coordination and handling of work packages in test beds and well as customer environments, including installation, integration, and system acceptance
* Testing, defect identification, and supporting root cause analysis during integration of software into customer environments.
* Creation of technical documentation of systems and interface specifications.
* 2nd and 3rd Level Support, with on-call duty when required.
* Support the local business development team in pre-sales efforts, assisting with technical presentations, setting up of sandboxes and demo environments, designing solutions, and preparing technical inputs for proposals.
* Prepare and support technical trainings.
Job Requirements
* A relevant bachelor's degree, preferably in Engineering, Software, Information Technology, or a related discipline.
* Systems Engineering experience working in mission-critical environments with a focus on safety and IT security desirable.
* Good systems, process, and domain knowledge from within a relevant industry would be ideal.
* Extensive installation, configuration, and operations experience with Linux, Docker, and Apache.
* Experience with the installation and setup of Oracle databases, database scripting, data defect analysis, with focus on Oracle tool set (SQLPLUS and SQL-Developer)
* Extensive Windows administration knowledge, including scripting and workstation customization.
* Comprehensive understanding of virtualisation technologies.
* Experience with cloud hosting and georedundancy solutions (AWS, Azure, GCP)
* Experience with virtual and physical networks (including firewalls, routers, and switches).
* Effective problem-solving skills with a "can-do" attitude.
* Commitment to quality and improvement with a good understanding of Engineering standards.
* Experience in requirements management, traceability processes, and test engineering.
* Responsive customer service-oriented approach with a good understanding of SLAs and KPIs, especially around incident, problem and change management.
* Willingness to work directly with end users during test execution and training delivery which may require working remotely at times.
* Ability to work with others and demonstrated ability to communicate effectively with contractors, vendors, clients, consultants, and staff.
Contact: David Hyland (davidh@railpersonnel.com)
