• 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 

• 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

• 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

• 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

• 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

Steward Prins, 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