Project

NSW Country Regional Network Tender

PROJECT STATUS
Under Delivery
NSW Country Regional Network Tender

The Country Regional Network (CRN) is owned by Transport for NSW, with its operations and maintenance undertaken by John Holland Rail, under a 10-year, circa $1.5 billion contract since 2011.

This contract was opened to market for the operations and maintenance of CRN for the following 10-year period, commencing from January 2022. 

The CRN covers more than 5,000 kilometres and 27,000 hectares of land and rail infrastructure across NSW, including:

  • 2,386 kilometres of operational passenger and freight lines
  • 3,139 kilometres of non-operational lines
  • 1,312 (of which 300 are active) level crossings
  • 1,200 property assets (of which 356 are heritage listed)
  • over 900 bridges (of which 600 are rail under-bridges), and
  • 996 kilometres of branch line track predominately used for grain haulage.

Beyond operations and maintenance, the contract will also include: 

  • the implementation of a new signalling system
  • asset management
  • safety, access, performance, and environmental management, and 
  • a new Network Control Centre. 

UGL Regional Linx, the winning bidder, has indicated that it will implement its proprietary signalling system, Sigview, and will base the Network Control Centre in Orange. UGL is set to begin a 12-month mobilisation period to enable the smooth transition of the services in January 2022.

Key Dates

May 2019 Project Announcement
Dec 2019 RFT Open
May 2020 RFT Close
Feb 2021 Contract Award
Jan 2022 Expected Commencement of Operations

Procurement

Procuring Agency: Transport for NSW
Successful Tenderer: UGL

PROJECT HISTORY

May 2019 Transport for NSW commenced a market sounding process to gather information and inputs regarding a potential new operations and maintenance contract for the CRN.
Dec 2019 Transport for NSW issued a Request for Tender for the operations and maintenance contract, closing in May 2020.
Feb 2021 The New South Wales Government awarded the contract for operations and maintenance of the CRN to UGL, for a 10 year term commencing in January 2022.
Feb 2022 UGL Regional Linx (UGLRL) took over the contract for operations and maintenance of the CRN for a term of 10 years.
Sector
Rail
Procurement approach
Service Contract |
Location
New South Wales |
Resources
Tender notices
2019/12/18
Project pages
Transport for NSW