A Keolis-led partnership has been appointed as the Newcastle to Sydney High Speed Rail project’s Business, Operations and Maintenance Adviser (BOMA).
Following its appointment by the Australian Government’s High Speed Rail Authority (HSRA); Keolis will lead the BOMA role and work with partners SNCF and CERTIFIER to bring together international high speed rail, operational and maintenance experience.
Together, the partnership brings more than four decades of previous experience with the operation and optimisation of high speed rail services, including France’s TGV network, Eurostar, Morocco’s Al Boraq and OUIGO services in France and Spain, as well as current advisory and development experience gained from emerging high speed rail programs, including Alto in Canada and California High Speed Rail.
The appointment marks a key milestone for Keolis’ Australian operations, with the organisation now tasked with leading the partnership that will, ultimately, help embed operational, maintenance and customer considerations into the development of Australia’s first high speed rail line, from service planning and customer experience through to maintenance strategy and operational readiness.
As BOMA, the partnership will serve to act as the HSRA’s shadow operator and maintainer, helping to ensure the system is engineered effectively, practically, efficiently and with a customer focus with regards to operation.
Frédéric Van Heems, Keolis Group CEO said:Australia has an extraordinary opportunity to create a high speed rail network that will transform connectivity between cities and regions for generations to come.
Keolis is proud to bring together global high speed rail expertise and local Australian capability to support this landmark project. Our role is to help ensure Australia benefits from lessons learned across some of the world's most successful high speed rail systems, while developing an approach tailored to Australian communities and passengers.
This appointment reinforces the strategic importance of Australia to Keolis and reflects our long-term commitment to supporting the future of sustainable mobility in the country.
Whilst Keolis will provide overall programme leadership; SNCF will contribute to design, operation and optimisation, and CERTIFIER will contribute to safety management, systems assurance, regulatory compliance and certification processes. Together, all three partners will seek to deliver an integrated approach that embeds operational, customer and safety considerations across the Development Phase.
The Australia High Speed Rail project has now reached the start of its two-year Development Phase, which will focus on making the project construction-ready by progressing detailed design, planning and approvals, procurement, delivery planning, and further refinement of the project’s scope, cost, schedule and risks.
