The Mott MacDonald and SMEC FutureRail joint venture has been awarded a contract to act as technical adviser for Sydney’s "More Trains, More Services" rail improvement programme by Transport for New South Wales (TfNSW).
Over the next 10 years, the More Trains, More Services programme will roll out technology to upgrade the rail network and increase capacity.
In the past seven years, patronage on the existing heavy rail network has grown by almost a third. Sydney’s train network carries more than half of all public transport customers, Mott MacDonald said.Â
Digital systems technology will increase capacity on each line to as many as 24 trains an hour, so many customers can expect a train every two and a half minutes during peak periods. This, said the company, will bring Sydney’s transport system in line with other major cities around the world.
The FutureRail joint venture will assist with the production of deliverables for programme-wide transport modelling and planning, feasibility studies, strategic business case support, definition design, final business case support, concept/reference design, procurement assistance and delivery support, as well as associated investment assurance and configuration management gate submission.
Craig Burrell, TfNSW key account leader for Mott MacDonald, said the programme "fundamentally changes the way Sydney-siders use the rail network to connect to their jobs, their communities and their way of life".
Photograph: Sydney’s train network carries more than half of all public transport customers (Transport for NSW)
