Rail partnership on fast track

It's full steam ahead for Australia's largest maker of locomotives and passenger trains.

With over 100 years of experience in the design, construction and maintenance of freight locomotives and passenger cars, Downer EDI Rail recently secured the contract from the New South Wales government to supply new passenger cars for its fleet in Sydney.

To help manufacture that order for 626 new passenger cars, Dower EDI Rail formed a partnership with Changchun Railway Vehicles Co (CRVC), the biggest maker of passenger cars in China.

"The Changchun Railway Vehicles Company brings a greater certainty of being able to deliver. Once we get into the full delivery cycle, they will be able to deliver an eight-car train every ten days. That is way over the capacity that exists in Australia," said CEO Guy Wannop.

Designed by Downer EDI Rail, the new stainless steel trains will be 80 percent manufactured in China with the latest equipment and technology and then shipped to Australia, where the remainder will be completed with local content.

The partnership with CRVC is clearly bearing fruit, said Wannop, who has led the company over the past four years and headed negotiations with CRVC from the start. "We have a very good relationship," he said.

Wannop also remains highly optimistic about the future of the industry as a whole.

"The rail industry is experiencing a sort of global renaissance. Rail is also much greener than standard trucking. Instead of having 500 different trucks and drivers on our roads, you have one train and one driver," he said.

www.downeredirail.com.au

(China Daily 08/07/2008 page40)