Maintenance operations

Maintenance of the Waratah trains will begin at the purpose-built Auburn facility from 2010, with the following activities to be carried out for the life of the fleet:

· Stabling, presentation cleaning and readiness certification of trains

· Supporting RailCorp field operations

· Maintaining sets

· Washing sets

· Graffiti removal and vandalism repair.

Downer EDI Rail will maintain the new fleet of trains at the Waratah fleet maintenance centre on behalf of Reliance Rail.

Around 150 highly skilled personnel will be employed at the centre for maintenance activities and will be trained to Australian Quality standards covering the train’s technical systems, train maintenance and facility equipment. Around 10 apprentices will be employed progressively over the next three years.

To support the Waratah fleet, Downer EDI Rail will utilise its proven intelligent scheduled maintenance system, which automatically programs service activities as required throughout the life of the train in order to pre-empt issues and ensure maximum fleet reliability.

A team of maintenance support officers will be located alongside RailCorp’s operations staff to provide 24 x 7 helpdesk support for the trains operating on the network. They will analyse a train’s performance data and identify any corrective maintenance before it arrives at the Auburn centre.

They will also be supported by a team of mobile technicians with fully equipped trucks to promptly attend to maintenance incidents across the CityRail network.

For scheduled maintenance at the centre, trains will be maintained in a pit-stop style set-up during off-peak travel periods to cause minimal disruption to passenger service.

The centre features innovative maintenance equipment including a unique wheel conditioning monitoring system, which will monitor the train’s wheels for safety and operational performance as they enter the train wash plant. The wash plant has an advanced design in that it can wash the sides and ends of the train at the same time.