The NSW TrainLink D sets, also referred to as the ''Mariyung'' trains, are a class of
electric multiple unit
An electric multiple unit or EMU is a multiple-unit train consisting of self-propelled carriages using electricity as the motive power. An EMU requires no separate locomotive, as electric traction motors are incorporated within one or a numbe ...
s being built to replace
NSW TrainLink
NSW TrainLink is a train and coach operator in Australia, providing services throughout New South Wales and the Australian Capital Territory, along with limited interstate services into Victoria, Queensland and South Australia. Its primary interc ...
's Intercity
electric multiple unit
An electric multiple unit or EMU is a multiple-unit train consisting of self-propelled carriages using electricity as the motive power. An EMU requires no separate locomotive, as electric traction motors are incorporated within one or a numbe ...
fleet, slated to replace the entire
V set fleet and allow the
H sets to be reallocated to Sydney suburban services. The trains will operate on services from
Sydney
Sydney ( ) is the capital city of the state of New South Wales, and the most populous city in both Australia and Oceania. Located on Australia's east coast, the metropolis surrounds Sydney Harbour and extends about towards the Blue Mountain ...
to
Newcastle Newcastle usually refers to:
*Newcastle upon Tyne, a city and metropolitan borough in Tyne and Wear, England
*Newcastle-under-Lyme, a town in Staffordshire, England
*Newcastle, New South Wales, a metropolitan area in Australia, named after Newcastle ...
,
Lithgow and
Kiama
Kiama () is a coastal town 120 kilometres south of Sydney in the Illawarra. One of the main tourist attractions is the Kiama Blowhole. Kiama features several popular surfing beaches and caravan parks, and numerous alfresco cafes and restaurants ...
.
The first trains were delivered in December 2019, and are expected to enter service by December 2022.
History
In May 2014, the
Government of New South Wales
The Government of New South Wales, also known as the NSW Government, is the Australian state democratic administrative authority of New South Wales. It is currently held by a coalition of the Liberal Party and the National Party. The Governmen ...
announced its intention to purchase new carriages for the
NSW TrainLink
NSW TrainLink is a train and coach operator in Australia, providing services throughout New South Wales and the Australian Capital Territory, along with limited interstate services into Victoria, Queensland and South Australia. Its primary interc ...
Intercity network. The new trains will replace the
V sets and allow the
H sets to be cascaded to
Sydney Trains
Sydney Trains is the operator of the suburban passenger rail network serving the city of Sydney, New South Wales, Australia. The network is a hybrid urban- suburban rail system with a central underground core that covers over of track and 170 ...
services.
In August 2014, expressions of interest from manufacturers were called for. The following parties responded:
*
Alstom
Alstom SA is a French multinational rolling stock manufacturer operating worldwide in rail transport markets, active in the fields of passenger transportation, signalling, and locomotives, with products including the AGV, TGV, Eurostar, Avelia ...
*
Bombardier Transportation
Bombardier Transportation was a Canadian-German rolling stock and rail transport manufacturer, headquartered in Berlin, Germany.
It was one of the world's largest companies in the rail vehicle and equipment manufacturing and servicing industry ...
*
CAF
*
Downer Rail
Downer Rail is a business unit within the Downer Group. As well as manufacturing and maintaining railway rolling stock it holds maintenance contracts to maintain rail infrastructure. The head office is located in North Ryde.
History
The EDI ...
/
CNR Changchun
*
Hyundai Rotem
Hyundai Rotem (founded in 1977) is a South Korean company that manufactures rolling stock, defense products and plant equipment. It is a part of the Hyundai Motor Group. Its name was changed from Rotem to Hyundai Rotem in December 2007 to refl ...
*
Stadler Rail
Stadler Rail is a Swiss manufacturer of railway rolling stock, with an emphasis on regional train multiple units and trams. It is also focused on niche products, such as being one of the last European manufacturers of rack railway rolling stock ...
*
UGL Rail
UGL Rail is an Australian rail company specialising in building, maintaining and refurbishing diesel locomotives, diesel and electric multiple units and freight wagons. It is a subsidiary of UGL Limited and is based in Melbourne, with a staff of ...
/
Mitsubishi Electric
, established on 15 January 1921, is a Japanese multinational electronics and electrical equipment manufacturing company headquartered in Tokyo, Japan. It is one of the core companies of Mitsubishi. The products from MELCO include elevators an ...
/
CSR Corporation
CSR Corporation Limited (CSR), formerly known as China South Locomotive & Rolling Stock Corp was a Chinese manufacturer of locomotive and rolling stock.
In 2015, the company merged with China CNR to form CRRC.
History
In 2007 the China South ...
In July 2015, the government announced that Alstom, Downer/Changchun, Stadler, and UGL/Mitsubishi Electric/CSR had been shortlisted to tender.
Following the merger of CSR and the parent company of Changchun Railway Vehicles, Hyundai Rotem replaced CSR as a partner in the UGL/Mitsubishi Electric consortium.
The consortia provided two variants of their designs - a longer train and shorter train.
The Hyundai Rotem/UGL/Mitsubishi Electric consortium was announced as the successful bidder in August 2016. The companies formed a joint venture called RailConnect to manage the project.
The trains are being built by Hyundai Rotem's
Changwon
Changwon () is the capital city of Gyeongsangnam-do, on the southeast coast of South Korea. With a population of 1.07 million , Changwon is South Korea's ninth-most populous city.
A port city, Changwon is bordered by Masan Bay to the south ...
factory in South Korea.
The initial contract covered the supply and maintenance of the 512 carriages which would consist of 77 4-car trains and 34 6-car trains, as well as the construction of the
Kangy Angy Maintenance Centre
The Kangy Angy Maintenance Centre is a railway depot at Kangy Angy on the Central Coast, New South Wales to maintain the NSW TrainLink D sets. The depot was officially opened on 24 February 2021, and is located off Enterprise Drive.
The depot i ...
.
[New intercity trains too wide for rail line to stations in Blue Mountains]
''Sydney Morning Herald
''The Sydney Morning Herald'' (''SMH'') is a daily compact newspaper published in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia, and owned by Nine. Founded in 1831 as the ''Sydney Herald'', the ''Herald'' is the oldest continuously published newspaper i ...
'' 5 October 2016 which was completed in August 2020. The maintenance contract runs for fifteen years from the delivery of the first train with an option for a five-year extension.
[ In February 2019, a further 42 carriages were ordered to extend 21 of the 77 4-car trains into 6-car trains to allow for more 10-car train operations especially on the South Coast line during peak hour.
A contract was let to ]Downer EDI
Downer Group is an integrated services company active in Australia and New Zealand.
Listed on the Australian Securities Exchange and New Zealand Stock Exchange as Downer EDI (DOW), Downer is an ASX 100 company.
Downer Group employs approximat ...
to make modifications and upgrades to existing rail infrastructure across the electrified network to accommodate the new fleet. Platform extensions at multiple stations were also required to accommodate 10-car trains.
The first two 10-carriage trains were delivered in December 2019 and testing started the following month.[
During early ordering stages, the trains were simply referred to as the ''New Intercity Fleet''. In April 2021, the name ''Mariyung'', a ]Darug
The Dharug or Darug people, formerly known as the Broken Bay tribe, are an Aboriginal Australian people, who share strong ties of kinship and, in pre-colonial times, lived as skilled hunters in family groups or clans, scattered throughout much ...
word for emu
The emu () (''Dromaius novaehollandiae'') is the second-tallest living bird after its ratite relative the ostrich. It is endemic to Australia where it is the largest native bird and the only extant member of the genus ''Dromaius''. The emu' ...
, was officially designated for the fleet.
In July 2021, the Mariyung fleet received its final approval to carry passengers from the independent Office of the National Rail Safety Regulator and would enter service "as soon as possible". At the time, 16 trains were being tested on the network and 8 of which were ready to progressively enter passenger service.
In September 2021, 56 additional carriages were ordered, bringing the total number of carriages to 610, meaning that there would be 61 of both the 4 car and 6 car variants.
Background
Proportions
In 2015 the project reached a $1.1B blowout due to modifications that were required for the design of the train, changing proportions from almost identical to the V sets to the standard suburban double decker proportions. This was criticised by Shadow Transport Minister Ryan Park as "a very expensive mistake".
In October 2016 it was announced that the D sets would be wide, wider than the wide V sets. This required several sections of the Blue Mountains line
The Blue Mountains Line (BMT) is an inter urban commuter rail service operated by NSW TrainLink serving the Blue Mountains region of New South Wales, Australia. The line travels west from Sydney to the major town of Katoomba and on to Mount Vi ...
to be cleared between Springwood, Katoomba and Lithgow, including the heritage listed Ten Tunnels Deviation
The Ten Tunnels Deviation is a heritage-listed section of the Main Western Line between Newnes Junction and Zig Zag stations in Lithgow, New South Wales, Australia. It was designed and built by the New South Wales Government Railways and bui ...
, as well as Linden and Warrimoo stations being too short to accommodate the trains. Labor MP Trish Doyle
Trisha Lee Doyle is an Australian politician who was elected to the New South Wales Legislative Assembly as the member for Electoral district of Blue Mountains, Blue Mountains for the Australian Labor Party (New South Wales Branch), Labor Party ...
accused the Baird government of jumping "head-first into a project without actually running the measuring tape over the narrowest point the trains have to pass through", going on to say that "Instead of buying 'off-the-shelf' designs, they should have brought the project in-house to the experts at Railcorp and designed a new train with our local conditions in mind from the outset, The Minister ndrew Constancehasn't done his homework, and after boasting about getting a cheap deal on new trains, we now discover that the trains won't actually fit down the line. You couldn't make this stuff up."
Work started on clearing the line in 2017, with Labor MP Jodi McKay
Jodi Leyanne McKay (born 16 August 1969) is a former Australian politician who was the Leader of the Opposition in the Parliament of New South Wales from June 2019 until May 2021. She previously served as a member of the New South Wales Legislat ...
saying the amount of work needed to make the line capable of handling the new trains was "astonishing."
Union opposition and safety concerns
In 2018 Gladys Berejiklian
Gladys Berejiklian (born 22 September 1970) is an Australian former politician who served as the 45th premier of New South Wales and the leader of the New South Wales division of the Liberal Party from 2017 to 2021.
Berejiklian became a member ...
would announce that the trains would have a maximum of 2 staff members on board, suggesting that the train guard be either replaced by a customer service role or merged with a customer service role, ruling out Driver Only Operation. Rail Tram and Bus Union
The Australian Rail Tram and Bus Industry Union (RTBU) is an Australian trade union representing rail, tram and bus workers. The RTBU is affiliated with the Australian Council of Trade Unions (ACTU) and the Australian Labor Party (ALP).
Intern ...
(RTBU) state secretary Alex Claassens welcomed any announcement regarding safety and retaining train guards.
However, in 2019 it was announced that Driver Only Operation would be implemented, with the driver viewing the side of the train via several CCTV cameras. The RTBU criticised this move as being "unsafe", due to the lack of microphones on the trai
In February 2020 the RTBU announced that members would refuse to staff the New Intercity Fleet over safety and employment concern
On 27 November 2020 a snap strike in protest of the safety concerns was performed by the RTBU, shutting down all intercity services effective immediately until 7 am.
A confidential 2018 report to the NSW government revealed that the doors could easily fail when opened at speed, which was only announced to the public in 2021. Gladys Berejiklian knew of these issues as of 2020
On 5 February 2021 an incident where a commuter fell between a train and the platform at Hornsby station in January was highlighted as a potentially fatal situation if it had occurred with a D set.
On 2 March 2021 the RTBU claimed "WE WON" after the Customer Service Guard position was cancelled.
In November 2021 an 18-month delay of entry into service was announced due to the union standoff and the COVID-19 pandemic, with Labor transport spokesperson Jo Haylen
Joanna Elizabeth Haylen is an Australian politician who was elected to the New South Wales Legislative Assembly as the member for Summer Hill for the Labor Party at the 2015 New South Wales state election. She is currently the state's Minister ...
saying it was "yet another transport procurement debacleā€¯ from the government.
Over December 2021 the RTBU would carry out a series of industrial actions as follows:
* 1/12/2021 - Station staff and shunters wearing shorts indefinitely
* 6/12/2021 - Drivers sounding horns at all stations during daylight hours
* 7/12/2021 - Ban on operating Public-Private Partnership (PPP) rolling stock (M sets, H sets, A sets, B sets and D sets)
* 8/12/2021 to 13/12/2021 - Ban on cleaning hazardous waste and graffiti
* 14/12/2021 - Ban on operating PPP rolling stock
* 15/12/2021 - 24 hour ban on issuing fines
* 17/12/2021 - Work to rule indefinitely
* 20/12/2021 - Full overnight stoppage network wide
* 21/12/2021 to 23/12/2021 - Ban on performing work where contractors are present
On 22 March 2022 Nine News Australia would bring light to the RTBU regarding the CCTV cameras as unsafe, highlighting the lack of microphones, viewing blackspots, and poor vision quality, especially in the rain.
Approval by the Office of the National Safety Regulator
In July 2021, the independent Office of the National Rail Safety Regulator deemed the fleet to be safe, endorsing the Government's position on the matter. Sue McCarrey, CEO of the ONRSR, outlined that they had worked with the operator since design stage right through to testing, pledging that ongoing safety audits would continue through to their operation. Additionally, McCarrey concluded that there was no greater risk than the current older fleet and in fact the use of technology on the new fleet would make them even safer; "We believe that risk is being managed through the technology on the train. The operating model we have approved for the NIF includes the use of a driver, a guard and the use of CCTV cameras at each door providing both the guard and the driver a view down the entire platform. Both the driver and the guard have access to screens to show them what is actually happening along the entire platform". McCarrey made it clear that as an independent regulator she is not part of the current negotiations between the RTBU and the train operator (NSW Trains) and nor should she be, however if those negotiations resulted in a change to the operating model, then the ONRSR would have to relitigate those proposed changes and once again complete that independent check to ensure that the changes proposed to the train operations continue to effectively manage the risks.
Network disruptions
The NSW government directly shut down the entire passenger rail network in response to the RTBU's protected industrial action on 21 February 2022, with no replacement bus services occurring and zero prior notice. Overcrowding onto buses was widespread at locations such as Chatswood and Parramatta. The RTBU started a protest against the shutdown at Central Grand Concourse, with the RTBU saying "This is not a strike, we are not on strike".
Dominic Perrotet, the premier of NSW stated that it was a "coordinated attack by the Labor party and the union movement". Former Prime Minister Scott Morrison stated that the unions "put on a strike at 2 am this morning, throwing Sydneysiders into complete chaos".
Documents would go on to show that the NSW Government was planning on a two-week-long shutdown.
Fair Work Commission
On 18 February 2022, Sydney Trains and Transport for NSW would lodge an application to the Fair Work Commission seeking to suspend or terminate any further industrial action from the RTBU regarding the D sets, the Transport Asset Holding Entity
Transport Asset Holding Entity of New South Wales (TAHE) is a state-owned corporation of the New South Wales Government in New South Wales, Australia, established under the ''Transport Administration Act 1988''. It was converted and renamed fro ...
, wages and any other cause. After the February shutdown the Fair Work action was suspended.
Maintenance
In September 2017 the Central Coast Express Advocate opposed the Kangy Angy Maintenance Centre
The Kangy Angy Maintenance Centre is a railway depot at Kangy Angy on the Central Coast, New South Wales to maintain the NSW TrainLink D sets. The depot was officially opened on 24 February 2021, and is located off Enterprise Drive.
The depot i ...
citing issues of noise and flooding.
In December 2021 it was announced that only 20 out of 300 jobs would be made from the Kangy Angy Maintenance Centre, which was heavily criticised by several Labor MPs including Chris Minns
Christopher John Minns (born 17 September 1979) is an Australian politician who is the leader of the NSW Labor Party. He was elected to the New South Wales Legislative Assembly as the member for Kogarah for the Labor Party at the 2015 New South ...
.
Design
The trains are double deck electric multiple unit
An electric multiple unit or EMU is a multiple-unit train consisting of self-propelled carriages using electricity as the motive power. An EMU requires no separate locomotive, as electric traction motors are incorporated within one or a numbe ...
s measuring for an 8-car set or for a 10 car-set. They will include accessible toilets and dedicated space for luggage, prams, bicycles and wheelchairs. Fixed seats on the upper and lower decks will be in a two by two arrangement. The seating will include cup holders, tray tables and arm rests. Each seat will feature a charging station for mobile devices.[ The trains are being designed to be operated with or without guards, with tender documents stating the trains must support ]one-man operation
One-person operation (OPO), also known as driver-only operation (DOO), one-man operation (OMO), single person train operation (SPTO), or one-person train operation (OPTO), similarly to Driver Controlled Operation, is operation of a train, bus, ...
.
The new trains are wider than the V sets they replace and required modifications to be made to parts of the Blue Mountains line route to create sufficient clearance from adjacent structures.[ A contract was awarded to the Continuum Alliance, an alliance between Transport for NSW, ]CPB Contractors
CIMIC Group Limited (formerly Leighton Holdings) is an Australian construction contractor. It is active in the telecommunications, engineering and infrastructure, building and property, mining and resources, and environmental services industries ...
and Lendlease
Lendlease is a globally integrated real estate company that creates and invests in communities, workplaces, retail, and infrastructure projects, headquartered in Barangaroo, New South Wales, Australia.
History Founding
The company was establ ...
, to make these modifications. Work started in February 2019 and was completed in July 2020. They are scheduled to enter service in 2022.Safety is no joke: Constance must not allow unsafe trains on the network
The Rail, Tram and Bus Union (RTBU) NSW 1 April 2021
Services
The trains are expected to operate on the following services:[
* Blue Mountains: ]Central
Central is an adjective usually referring to being in the center of some place or (mathematical) object.
Central may also refer to:
Directions and generalised locations
* Central Africa, a region in the centre of Africa continent, also known as ...
to Lithgow
* Central Coast & Newcastle: Central
Central is an adjective usually referring to being in the center of some place or (mathematical) object.
Central may also refer to:
Directions and generalised locations
* Central Africa, a region in the centre of Africa continent, also known as ...
to Newcastle Newcastle usually refers to:
*Newcastle upon Tyne, a city and metropolitan borough in Tyne and Wear, England
*Newcastle-under-Lyme, a town in Staffordshire, England
*Newcastle, New South Wales, a metropolitan area in Australia, named after Newcastle ...
*South Coast South Coast is a name often given to coastal areas to the south of a geographical region or major metropolitan area.
Geographical
Australia
*South Coast (New South Wales), the coast of New South Wales, Australia, south of Sydney
* South Coast (Q ...
: Bondi Junction
Bondi Junction is an eastern suburb of Sydney, in the state of New South Wales, Australia. It is 6 kilometres east of the Sydney central business district and is part of the local government area of Waverley.
Bondi Junction is a largely comme ...
/ Central
Central is an adjective usually referring to being in the center of some place or (mathematical) object.
Central may also refer to:
Directions and generalised locations
* Central Africa, a region in the centre of Africa continent, also known as ...
to Port Kembla
A port is a maritime facility comprising one or more wharves or loading areas, where ships load and discharge cargo and passengers. Although usually situated on a sea coast or estuary, ports can also be found far inland, such as Ha ...
& Kiama
Kiama () is a coastal town 120 kilometres south of Sydney in the Illawarra. One of the main tourist attractions is the Kiama Blowhole. Kiama features several popular surfing beaches and caravan parks, and numerous alfresco cafes and restaurants ...
References
External links
D set data sheet
{{NSWLocos, state=collapsed
Double-decker EMUs
Electric multiple units of New South Wales
Hyundai Rotem multiple units
NSW TrainLink
1500 V DC multiple units of New South Wales