New rail command centre unveiled by Andrew Constance
A GIANT television screen bigger than the NASA mission control centre will help cut crippling delays as part of a new “nerve centre” which will soon be controlling Sydney’s vast train network.
NSW
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A GIANT television screen bigger than the NASA mission control centre will help cut crippling delays as part of a new “nerve centre” which will soon be controlling Sydney’s vast train network.
Unveiling the new operational command centre at Alexandria today, NSW Transport Minister Andrew Constance vowed the purpose-built building will “revolutionise” rail operations in Australia.
The first 160 staff began today, ahead of a total of 720 staff who will operate around the clock to control every single train on the network and monitor 10,500 real time CCTV cameras.
The new centre, which replaces “a room the size of a tea room and a white board” at the old centre, will be up and running by the start of next year.
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“This is the best rail operation centre in the world,” Mr Constance said. “We have just outsmarted London, I believe Tokyo as well and we are the best on the planet.
“We have the largest television screen in the Southern Hemisphere, at 33 metres long and four metres high.”
“The control centre will be able to track every train moving on the network,” Mr Constance said.
The screen can stream live footage, including weather radars or footage from bodycam helmets worn by staff during incidents, to 97 workstations on the control room floor. More than 100 staff at any one time will work on 24/7 shifts to control trains minute by minute. It will also control country trains and buses.
Asked if delays would now been eliminated, Mr Constance defended delays on the trains over the past few months, saying the rail network had been given “an unfair name”.
“A hundred million extra passenger trips inside a five-year period — that’s a 30 per cent increase in patronage,” Mr Constance said. “We’ve had to introduce an extra 1500 extra services into Western Sydney.”
“So yes, while we have had a lot of unplanned incidents, that’s no different from any other year, but look at what we are achieving as against the growth we are achieving.”
He said no other rail network around the world had achieved the growth Sydney had.
The Rail Operation Centre was budgeted to cost $276 million, but due to “unexpected mediation” including asbestos removal, the cost went up to $296 million. “That’s not a massive big problem for us,” Mr Constance said.
“We will have this going by year’s end.”
Chief executive Howard Collins said the giant control screen was longer than a Waratah carriage and it would bring people and technology together on one floor.
“It allows us to … deal with the incidents in a way that gives us eyes on the ground, good communication with staff, … (be able to) get good information to customers like we’ve never seen before,” Mr Collins said. “It allows us to quickly manage incidents that change every day.
“It may be a storm brewing, or a lightning strike — we have to deal with those. It’s easier when we are all on the one floor doing it together.”
“This technology is coming our way … this will be essential to keeping Sydney and NSW moving.”
“Yes we have had some incidents … but this gets us in a better place.”