RANBURY PIONEERS PRIVATE SPUR INTEGRATION FOR AURIZON

Ranbury has applied original thinking and expertise in transport and infrastructure project management to integrate two separate rail lines into one system to carry coal from pit to port in Central Queensland.

Called a private spur arrangement, this project was one of the first of its type and size for the Central Queensland coal network and one of only a handful of similar arrangements in Australia.

To complete the project, we managed the integration of private rail lines (called spurs), that were constructed for the Middlemount and Caval Ridge mines, located South-West of Mackay.

Middlemount is owned by Middlemount Coal, which is a joint venture between Peabody Energy and Yancoal, while Caval Ridge is owned by BMA, a joint venture between BHP Billiton and Mitsubishi Corporation of Japan.

Miners often design, construct, operate and manage rail infrastructure under their own rail safety accreditation, but in this case both Middlemount Coal and BMA requested Aurizon to fully integrate the spurs into the Aurizon mainline network.

As a result of our work, both spurs are now operating successfully with more than 9M tonnes of coal being railed to export terminals at Hay Point and Abbott Point. Aurizon operates the private rail lines under its rail manager accreditation.

Through the management of this project, we developed a unique process to accept privately constructed and owned infrastructure and integrate it into another party’s network based on its compliance with Australian railway standards. This process, which has a short turnaround time and low cost, can be applied to future mine developments.

A key issue for Aurizon was to ensure that the rail lines and connecting infrastructure, designed and constructed by the miners, was ‘fit for purpose’ for management by Aurizon.

Aurizon also identified challenges in managing what was an unfamiliar asset and acceptance process that had to be aligned with mine and port developments.

To address these issues we challenged the conventional railway thinking of all stakeholders (including Aurizon) by applying Australian railway standards to this third party constructed infrastructure. This approach allowed Aurizon to accept the management of that infrastructure under its rail safety accreditation after mitigating all risks associated with non-compliance with these standards.

We worked closely with Aurizon to:

• Develop a unique customer service offering including a standard rail connection agreement (approved by the Queensland Competition Authority) covering the interface between spur and mainline
• Develop a rail infrastructure manager contract to ensure safe operation of the spur and connection under Aurizon’s rail manager accreditation
• Address challenges created by the acceptance process ensuring the timely transfer of accountability for the private rail infrastructure to meet all stakeholders contractual arrangements

Together with Aurizon, we established the Network Assets Integration Group to co-ordinate the delivery of the private spurs integration into the mainline network and ongoing operation by Aurizon.

Some of our specific responsibilities on this project included risk assessments and alignment of the design and operating plans of both rail lines with Aurizon’s network standards.

We also integrated all control systems including train control, signalling and safe working systems and managed the process of acceptance of the spur and connection assets for operations and maintenance.