About the Australian Rail Track Corporation (ARTC)

Covering five states and more than eight and a half thousand kilometres of track, ARTC is responsible for managing and maintaining the track. ARTC is a major company benefiting from the Rail Industry Worker system and this client study looks at their recent implementation of RIW and the benefits it is already bringing their business.

About the Rail Industry Worker System

The Rail Industry Worker solution is the national competency management program for Australian rail industry workers and backed by the Australian Rail Association (ARA) – the peak body for the rail industry in Australia and New Zealand.  

Reference Point provides the technology and secure hosting for the RIW solution to Metro Trains Australia, which provides and supports the solution in Australia.

 

Background

One of the challenges ARTC has is that its work goes across states in Australia, so a major benefit that the RIW solution brings is that each worker has one portable record on the system – regardless of whether their work was most recently in New South Wales, Victoria, Western Australia or Queensland for example. This record is easily checked on site for authenticity and validity via either the worker’s physical or virtual smartcard.

 

The Solution

Chris Turner, Senior Safety Advisor commented how powerful it is to swipe in and swipe out. “What's impressed us the most is how easy it is to use. All of our protection officers can literally watch a short training program, pick it straight up and use it. A couple of other powerful tools for us are that it helps manage fatigue when we're working across industries or across networks and we've got a secondary check on contract hours. All of these things put together create a very powerful tool for us.“

Because the technology allows workers to store a fully encrypted virtual card on their smartphone there is no need for any physical contact at all when cards are authenticated, ARTC have also found an extra benefit as a result of Covid-19 social distancing. This has been invaluable not just for swipe in and out but also to deliver the daily briefings to crews on site.

Looking into the next few months, ARTC’s plan moving forward is not just for the interstate network but also for Inland Rail and the Hunter Valley. Commenting further, Chris Turner said “As ARTC alone manages eight and a half thousand kilometres of track, the best way to do this is brief our workers with a simple online training video that MTA have provided so that all rail industry workers can access this so we are then able to roll out successfully across our nation.”