REGISTER

Norm Grady FIE Aust. Comp IRSE

ALSTOM Melbourne Transport Limited

Melbourne's public transport operations were franchised to the private sector in 999 following a competitive bidding process. The privatisation model adopted differs from the British model in that the franchisees are responsible for all operations, rolling stock and infrastructure.

The paper provides background on how metropolitan heavy rail operates in Melbourne, broad details of the regulatory and performance regimes, the present signalling system, the operator's requirements under the new regime and attempts to define the challenges to the signalling industry to meet those requirements.

The paper argues that many of the operator's needs from a signalling and train control system are the same irrespective of the ownership issue and identifies where we believe different influences apply.

The paper concludes not surprisingly, that safe operation of trains is the primary need, followed by personnel safety, reliability, maintainability and the challenge to the signalling industry is to deliver these in a cost-effective manner.