Connecting...

Blog Img

Rail Newsletter | April 2022

Back to Blogs

The beginning of April was the budget announcement from the Federal Government, which was great to see such investment into key projects from Brisbane to the Sunshine Coast, including commuter car park upgrades at Woy Woy and Panania in NSW to high capacity signaling in WA. This is also key to having more passengers return to rail as it becomes more accessible and easier to commute via the railways.

April was also a time for networking here in WA with the Heavy Haul event where plans were shared on how to increase productivity, how to have more sustainable Railways in the Pilbara, and to learn more about the new hydro locomotives. It was fantastic to see the focus within the Rail community across Rail R U OK Day on the 28th of April and the dedication of the TrackSAFE Foundation to raise awareness via Railway workers and passengers.

According to Engineers Australia’s Engineering Skills – Supply & Demand discussion paper in March 2022, more than 58% of Australia’s Engineers were born overseas and the occupation project projections to 2025 estimate an average growth across the profession of 12.2%, which is 5% higher than pre COVID-19. Regarding the skills shortage, Titan is pleased to announce the first few appointments to our labour hire services, along with three appointments for our own Titan team through the sponsorship agreement. We are also seeing more flexibility from our Clients to onboard international candidates, those in regional locations and different states to work remotely for their teams, which is a huge step forward to ensuring the delivery of these major projects in a timely manner.

For more information on Titan’s offering of sponsoring international skilled candidates, please click here.

With the additional demand for Engineering professionals due to budget approval on major projects, we are pleased to see a strong industry commitment to progressing gender diversity into these new roles. Infrastructure magazine states that 80% of Rail business’ now have recruitment policies or strategies to improve the diversity within their organisations. The ARA’s now has six key focus points to include more women in rail, which include attraction, retention, networking, industry improvement, recognition, and benchmarking. The ARA’s Gender Diversity Report from March 2022 states that 32% of new appointments made last year in Rail Engineering were to women and 30% of Management hires were made to women too, which is up 4% since 2019. 

KEY PROJECT ANNOUNCEMENTS

Over the last month, there has been some key project announcements.

  • CBH and Rail network manager, ARC Infrastructure have had funding to the following projects;

- 11 Rail Sliding extensions – Moora, Brookton, Cranbrook, Broomehill, Avon, Kellerberrin, Dowerin, Konnongorring, Ballidu, Mingenew, and Perenjori North.

- Midland Line upgrade from Carnamah and Mingenew

-Recommissioning of the Narrogin-Kulin Rail and Narrogin-Wickepin tier 3 line.

  • The Murray Basin Rail Project on the Regional Rail revival in Melbourne awarded to SMEC, Coleman Rail / Acciona.

  • Geelong Fast Rail Project Victoria technical Advisory services awarded to Aecom and GHD.

  • South Geelong to Waurn Ponds duplication in Victoria has been awarded to McConnell Dowell, Downer, Arup and WSP.

If you would like more information in regard to any market information please reach out to Lianne Adlington on 08 6467 0603 or email requesting a call back.

Latest News &
Industry Insights.

​Exclusive to our client edition of the Titan Insight newsletter.