• Recent developments and current operations
• Rail’s role in trade and export opportunities
• Assessing Federal and State government policies towards rail
• Evaluating future growth for movement of freight on Australian railways
• Future challenges and opportunities

Simon Ormsby, General Manager Commercial, Australian Rail Track Corporation 

• Separating freight and passenger rail lines 
• Coastal corridor intercity freight projections
• Hume and Pacific Highway competitive factors
• Current rail track condition and alignment
• The cost and benefits of a ‘fit for purpose’ Melbourne-Sydney-Brisbane railway

Dr Philip Laird, Principal Fellow Faculty of Informatics, University of Wollongong

• Understanding the real Issues
• The environmental challenge
• Meeting the challenge
• Challenges present opportunities
• Understanding our impacts
• Taking a more strategic approach

Christopher Collier, General Manager Environment, RailCorp

• Analysis of the rail sector by state, by main activity and by funding source
• The drivers of infrastructure construction and how these will evolve moving forward
• Outlook for construction and investment by state
• Risks to this outlook – both positive and negative

Damon Roast, Group Economist, BIS Shrapnel

• Implementing the Australian Level Crossing Assessment Model (ALCAM) in Victoria
• Defining the stakeholder benefits
• Success or failure depends upon road authorities embracing ALCAM and
• liaison with rail authorities
• Further reducing rail crossing fatalities/accidents
• Addressing suicides on Victoria’s rail network

Terry Spicer, Manager Operations & Emergency Management, Safety and Asset Management Branch, Public Transport Division, Victorian Department of Infrastructure

• The adverse effects of inconsistencies between different State-based railways
• ‘Optimal’ physical and regulatory harmonization
• The primary cost to industry: time lost by railway operators and reduced industry safety management
• inconsistent regulations resulting in lead managers to be reactive to safety rather than proactive
• Learning from overseas models where regulatory structures with clearer regulatory boundaries and fewer regulatory overlaps require less effort in achieving and maintaining regulatory harmonisation
 
Carolyn Walsh, Chief Executive Officer, Independent Transport Safety and Reliability Regulator NSW

• Contextualising grain supply chains from farm to port
• Controlling post-farm transport costs in an increasingly tough agricultural environment
• Assessing current limitations of rail freight supply chains for grain growers
• Identifying  areas for rail infrastructure investment and the importance of preserving country rail links
• AusLink 2: what’s in it for us?
• Crystal balling future freight movement of agricultural produce in Australia

Richard Clark, Senior Vice President, NSW Farmers’ Association

• Life after the O’Donnell report
• Current and proposed coal rail infrastructure upgrades in the North Bowen Basin
• Economic impacts of infrastructure inaction
• Big-picture lessons for other rail supply chains

Michael Gray, General Manager Open-Cut Development & Infrastructure, Macarthur Coal

• Defining demand drivers at intermodal terminals
• Significance of extending scope of traditional revenue generators
• Assessing rail system constraints and impediments
• The role of Government in intermodal terminal developments

Mende Gorgievski, Senior Consultant,  Meyrick and Associates

• The need for infrastructure capacity assessment and thorough stakeholder consultation
• Developing affordable and efficient intermodal access arrangements
• Cost of short haul rail and other service measures crucial for intermodal development
• Creating a checklist for intermodal terminal development

Neil Matthews, Chief Executive Officer, Strategic Design
Richard Clark, Senior Vice President, NSW Farmers’ Association
Michael Gray, General Manager Open-Cut Development & Infrastructure, Macarthur Coal

• Identifying and prioritising factors crucial in QR’s ability to build national freight capability and volume across the five mainland states
• Sharpening commercial and customer focus to and targeting volume increases across the transport sector and in tandem with continuing economic and resource sector growth
• Benefits afforded from integrating east and west coast bulk freight operations
• The importance of maintaining a strong operating cash flow to facilitate a crucial $1.5 billion capital investment program
• Ensuring high fiscal performance to underpin national expansion and rail infrastructure development

Lance Hockridge, Chief Executive Officer, QR Limited

• Defining the private sector’s role in Australian rail infrastructure
• Evaluating current demands for further investment in rail infrastructure
• Factors guiding infrastructure outcomes
• The impact of operational and political risk on investment
• Assessing current and preferred procurement processes
• Challenges and opportunities moving forward

Garry Bowditch, Executive Director, Infrastructure Partnerships Australia

• Australia’s urban rail systems are lightly-patronised by international standards
• Most ‘capacity problems’ stem from poor service planning and design
• How world’s-best urban rail systems arrange their services
• World’s-best service planning requires world’s-best governance and management

Dr Paul Mees, Senior Lecturer in Transport and Land Use Planning, University of Melbourne

• Background, context and rationale of the South East Queensland Infrastructure Program
• Identifying region specific rail infrastructure projects: Western Corridor, Greater Brisbane, Gold and Sunshine Coast rail projects updates
• Southern Infrastructure Corridor – Queensland’s missing rail link?

• Key challenges for metropolitan rail networks
• Policy dilemma – capacity or coverage?
• Priority projects around Australia
• Making existing infrastructure more efficient
• Federal Government – how it can be part of the solution

Liam McKay, National Manger Transport, Tourism and Transport Forum Australia

Roundtable 1: Urban rail’s role in combating climate change and oil dependency
Dr Garry Glazebrook, Senior Lecturer, Faculty of Design, Architecture and Building, University of Technology Sydney

Roundtable 2: Assessing infrastructure investment opportunities
Garry Bowditch, Executive Director, Infrastructure Partnerships Australia

Roundtable 3: Managing complex infrastructure projects
Andy Taylor, Group General Manager Passenger Services, QR Limited

Roundtable 4: Feasibility of route options for delivering the East Coast rail freight corridor
Dr Philip Laird, Research Fellow and Associate Professor, Faculty of Informatics, University of Wollongong

• Why are European rail providers adopting mobility transformation?
• Industry trends towards ‘multi service’ and ‘multi operator’
• Sharing best practice and avoiding mobility pitfalls
• Monetising your assets: how to get telcos to invest in your wireless infrastructure
• Vision: rail providers as the next mobile operators

Pieter Zylstra, Managing Director, Zylstrategy

• The case for change: issues surrounding ballast and rail-track degradation
• Creating a research and real-world testing framework to deliver significantly reduced maintenance costs, improved rail safety transportation and less quarry waste
• Global interest in home-grown rail-track innovation 
• Taking Rail CRC’s technology to a global commercial arena

Buddhima Indraratna, Professor of Civil Engineering, University of Wollongong

• Addressing knowledge and skills gaps as a matter of priority to achieve positive outcomes for the organisation and the individual
• Ensuring QR’s state-wide civil infrastructure workforce is competent, commercially-focused and competitive
• Reflecting the bigger picture: how workforce development is a vital component of the QR culture and essential to its long-term sustainability

Lindy Freeman, Workforce Development Manager, QR Limited