About the facility

A new purpose-built facility at Auburn in Sydney’s west will be the maintenance centre for the new Waratah fleet for a minimum 30 years.

Construction of the centre is due for completion later in 2009. The centre will then undergo final preparations, including recruitment and training of maintenance and support staff, and procurement of maintenance spare parts, so it is ready to accept the first carriages into operational service .

The $220 million design and construct project has provided a significant economic boost to the Auburn community in Sydney’s western suburbs, employing approximately 250 people during the peak construction period in 2008.

The centre incorporates world’s best practice in all elements of its design, construction and operation to ensure the highest levels of availability and reliability for Sydney’s next-generation Waratah train fleet.

The centre will support an improved public transport service for Sydney, with around 150 people including approximately 10 apprentices, to be employed at the site to maintain the Waratah fleet for RailCorp for a minimum of 30 years.

The maintenance facility is located on RailCorp land adjacent to the existing MainTrain Facility between Auburn and Clyde Railway Stations.

The site area extends approximately 2km in length and is between 100-300m wide. The maintenance building is approximately 200m long and 80m wide, including 1,600m2 of office and amenities space.

This state-of-the-art centre consists of seven maintenance roads with a maintenance capacity for 1,000 cars, an automatic train wash plant and underfloor wheel profiling lathe.

Reliance Rail has contracted Downer EDI Rail to design, construct and operate the Auburn Service Centre for RailCorp as part of the PPP project.