State Rail Authority of New South Wales

The State Rail Authority was the government authority responsible for the operation and maintenance of railways in the Australian state of New South Wales between 1980 and 2003.

History

The State Rail Authority (SRA) was established in 1980 after the separation of the Public Transport Commission into the SRA, responsible for trains, and the Urban Transport Authority (UTA), responsible for buses and ferries. Upon formation of the SRA, a red, orange and white livery was progressively applied to all trains, developed by Phil Belbin and known colloquially as the 'candy' livery. A red and orange 'L7' logo was adopted, which was a modification of the earlier black and blue PTC logo.

Booz Allen Hamilton review and restructure

Diesel locomotive 44218 in FreightCorp Blue alongside 7317 in the earlier 'Candy' livery at Broadmeadow Loco roundhouse circa 1990

In 1988, the newly elected Greiner State Government commissioned a report into the SRA by American consultants Booz Allen Hamilton. The report, delivered in 1989 recommended widespread job losses, up to 8000, including the withdrawal of staff from 94 country railway stations, withdrawing services on the Nyngan- Bourke line, Queanbeyan - Cooma line and Glen Innes- Wallangarra line, the axing of several country passenger services (the Canberra XPT, the Silver City Comet to Broken Hill and various diesel locomotive hauled services) and the removal of sleeper trains from services to Brisbane and Melbourne. The report also recommended the removal of all country passenger services and small freight operations, but the government did not consider this to be politically feasible.^[1] The SRA was divided into business units - CityRail, responsible for suburban and Inter-urban railways; CountryLink, responsible for country passenger services; FreightRail, responsible for freight services; and Rail Estate, responsible for rail property. Upon the formation of the business units in 1988, CityRail adopted a black and yellow 'L7' logo (later to become blue and yellow), and Countrylink adopted its present now old blue and white 'Mountains' logo and livery.

1996 restructure

In 1996, the SRA was again restructured under the Transport Administration Act, and a convoluted sequence of re-organisation occurred over the ensuing decade. Rail infrastructure was separated from rail operations in accordance with national competition policy,^[2] with freight services being corporatised into the 'Freight Rail Corporation' (Freight Rail, later FreightCorp) in preparation for eventual privatisation. The 'Railway Services Authority' (RSA) was established with responsibility for track maintenance and construction activities (much of which was contracted out to private companies), and the 'Rail Access Corporation' (RAC) was established with responsibility for managing the rail network and administering access by public and private operators^[3]. The residual SRA was left with the responsibility for the maintenance and operation of passenger trains, stations, the management of signal boxes and all train movements, and production of timetables.

21st Century

In 2001 with the privatisation and sale of FreightCorp, the 'RSA' and the 'RAC' were merged into the 'Rail Infrastructure Corporation' (RIC), responsible for ownership and maintenance of the railways. In 2004, after much criticism and public perceptions of blame shifting between units for operational failings, the functions of the metropolitan sections of the RIC and the passenger train operations (the residual SRA) were effectively merged to form the Rail Corporation New South Wales, with RailCorp assuming maintenance obligations in the urban areas and urban and country train operation, with the Rail Infrastructure Corporation responsible for country lines. Later in 2004, the RIC signed a 60 year lease with the Australian Rail Track Corporation to maintain and operate the trunk interstate and Hunter Valley lines, and to manage train operations over the remainder of the country network.

See also

• Booz Allen Hamilton
• Railways in Sydney
• Rail transport in New South Wales
• Rail rollingstock in New South Wales

References

1. ^ Moore, M Lagan, B. SRA takes axe to 8000 jobs. Sydney Morning Herald, 14 July, 1989.
2. ^ Hoyle, J. CountryLink- a snapshot. Railway Digest November 1996.
3. ^ State Rail Authority Annual Report, 1998. NSW Treasury.

Preceded by New South Wales Public Transport Commission

Railway Commissions in New South Wales 1980-2003

Succeeded by RailCorp