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 North Ryde is a suburb located in the Northern Sydney region of Sydney, New South Wales, Australia. North Ryde is located 15 kilometres north-west of the Sydney central business district, in the local government area of the City of Ryde. One of ...

History

The EDI Rail division was formed in March 2001 following the merger of Evans Deakin Industries and Downer Group to form Downer EDi. In July 2007 the division was renamed Downer Rail and in 2018 it merged with Downer's Infrastructure Services division to form Transport and Infrastructure. The history of Downer Rail began in 1867 when

Walkers Limited Walkers Limited was an Australian engineering and shipbuilding company based in Maryborough, Queensland. It built large vessels and railway locomotives. The Walkers factory still produces locomotives and rolling stock as part of Downer Rail. ...

opened a branch in Maryborough. In 1980 Walkers Limited was sold to Evans Deakin Industries and included in the merger with Downer EDi. Evans Deakin operated the former Clyde Engineering plants at Kelso and Somerton and

, Maryborough plant. It had recently reopened the former Cardiff Locomotive Workshops to build

CityRail CityRail was a passenger railway brand operated by State Rail Authority, the State Rail Authority from 1989 to 2003 and by RailCorp from 2004 to 2013 with services in and around Sydney, Newcastle, New South Wales, Newcastle and Wollongong, the ...

M sets. In 2008 Locomotive Demand Power was established as a subsidiary to lease locomotives. In November 2009 Downer Rail became a tram operator through its 49% shareholding in

Keolis Downer Keolis Downer is a public transport operator that operates bus, train, tram and ferry services in Australia. It is a joint venture between Keolis, the largest private sector French transport group, and Downer Rail, an Australian railway enginee ...

that operates the

Yarra Trams Yarra Trams is the trading name of the operator of the Trams in Melbourne, tram network in Melbourne, Australia, which is owned by VicTrack and leased to Yarra Trams by the Victoria State Government, Victorian Department of Transport and Planni ...

franchise in

Melbourne Melbourne ( , ; Boonwurrung language, Boonwurrung/ or ) is the List of Australian capital cities, capital and List of cities in Australia by population, most populous city of the States and territories of Australia, Australian state of Victori ...

. In July 2014, Keolis Downer commenced operating the G:link light rail line on the Gold Coast. In March 2015, Keolis Downer purchased bus operator

Australian Transit Enterprises Australian Transit Enterprises was an Australian operator of bus services in Queensland, South Australia and Western Australia. History Australian Transit Enterprises (ATE) was founded in 1995 when Hornibrook Bus Lines proprietor Geoff Mountjo ...

which operates the Hornibrook Bus Lines, Link SA, Path Transit and

SouthLink SouthLink is an Australian bus service operator in Adelaide. It operates services as part of the Adelaide Metro network under contract to the Department for Infrastructure & Transport. It is a subsidiary of Keolis Downer. History In April 20 ...

operations with 930 buses.

Products

Downer Rail has manufactured items of rolling stock at its factories in

Cardiff Cardiff (; ) is the capital city, capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of Wales. Cardiff had a population of in and forms a Principal areas of Wales, principal area officially known as the City and County of Ca ...

, Somerton, Maryborough and

Port Augusta Port Augusta (''Goordnada'' in the revived indigenous Barngarla language) is a coastal city in South Australia about by road from the state capital, Adelaide. Most of the city is on the eastern shores of Spencer Gulf, immediately south of the ...

. As the ex-licence holder for

Electro-Motive Diesel Electro-Motive Diesel (abbreviated EMD) is a brand of diesel-electric locomotives, locomotive products and diesel engines for the rail industry. Formerly a division of General Motors, EMD has been owned by Progress Rail since 2010. Electro-Motive ...

products it has also been involved in the procurement and maintenance of over 150 American built EMD SD70 series locomotives for BHP and

Fortescue Metals Group Fortescue is a global metal mining company headquartered in Australia. Fortescue focused on iron ore mining under the name of Fortescue Metals Group (FMG) until July 2023. As of 2017, Fortescue is the fourth-largest iron ore producer in the ...

Pilbara The Pilbara () is a large, dry, sparsely populated regions of Western Australia, region in the north of Western Australia. It is known for its Indigenous Australians, Aboriginal people; wealth disparity; its ancient landscapes; the prevailing r ...

operations.

Diesel Locomotives

* GT42CU AC – 62 built at Maryborough for

Pacific National Pacific National is one of Australia's largest rail freight businesses. History In February 2002, National Rail Corporation, National Rail's freight operations and rollingstock, jointly owned by the Government of Australia, Federal, Governm ...

and QR National * GT42CU ACe – 131 built at Maryborough for Genesee & Wyoming Australia, Locomotive Demand Power, Pacific National and QR National * GT46C – 5 built at

and Somerton for Westrail, FreightLink and Freight Australia * GT46C ACe – 76 built at

for Genesee & Wyoming Australia, Pacific National, QR National,

SCT Logistics SCT Logistics is an Australian interstate transport company operating rail and road haulage, with facilities in Brisbane, Sydney, Parkes, Melbourne, Adelaide and Perth. History SCT Logistics was founded in 1974 as Specialised Container T ...

Southern Shorthaul Railroad Southern Shorthaul Railroad is an Australian rail freight services operator in New South Wales and Victoria (Australia), Victoria. The company also provides workshop services, such as rolling stock manufacturing and wagon and locomotive mainte ...

and

Whitehaven Coal Whitehaven Coal is an Australian coal mining company. History Whitehaven Coal was established in February 1999. In September 2000, mining operations commenced at the Canyon open cut mine near Gunnedah. Further mines were established at Werris Cr ...

, now built by EMD

Electric Multiple Units

* Sydney Trains M sets – 141 carriages built at

* Sydney Trains A sets – 626 carriages built at Cardiff * Sydney Trains B sets – 328 carriages originally manufactured by CRRC Changchun Railway Vehicles in China * QR Interurban Multiple Unit 160 series – 84 carriages built at Maryborough * QR Suburban Multiple Unit 260 series – 114 carriages built at Maryborough * Transperth B series – 234 carriages built at Maryborough * High Capacity Metro Trains – 455 carriages assembled by Downer at Newport Workshops. Carriage shell and other selected components are built in Changchun, China by CRRC Changchun Railway Vehicles.

Tilt Trains

* Diesel Tilt Train – 6 power cars and 32 carriages built at Maryborough

Services

Locomotive leasing

*Locomotive Demand Power is a subsidiary offering locomotives for lease. As at January 2014 thirteen standard gauge GT46s and six narrow gauge GT42s had been built at Cardiff and Maryborough respectively with nine of the former leased to

Aurizon Aurizon Holdings Limited ( ) is a freight rail transport company in Australia, formerly named QR National Limited and branded QR National. In 2015, it was the world's largest rail transporter of coal from mine to port. Formerly a Queensland G ...

Light rail

*49% shareholding in

joint venture A joint venture (JV) is a business entity created by two or more parties, generally characterized by shared ownership, shared returns and risks, and shared governance. Companies typically pursue joint ventures for one of four reasons: to acce ...

with

Keolis Keolis is a French transportation company that operates public transport systems all over the world. It manages bus, rapid transit, tram, coach networks, rental bikes, car parks, water taxi, cable car, trolleybus, and funicular services. B ...

, trading as

, that has operated the Melbourne tram network since November 2009 and the G:link light rail network since July 2014.

Infrastructure projects

* Northern Sydney Freight Corridor built two loops north of

Gosford Gosford is a waterfront city at the northern end of Brisbane Water on the Central Coast in the state of New South Wales, Australia. The Gosford Waterfront is known for its boating and scenic views on the shores of Brisbane Water. Gosford is ...

in 2014

Maintenance contracts

* Australian Rail Track Corporation contract to maintain 2,000 kilometres of track in

New South Wales New South Wales (commonly abbreviated as NSW) is a States and territories of Australia, state on the Eastern states of Australia, east coast of :Australia. It borders Queensland to the north, Victoria (state), Victoria to the south, and South ...

and Victoria * Leigh Creek line maintenance contract until 2017 *50% shareholding in a joint venture with

Bombardier Transportation Bombardier Transportation was a Canadian rolling stock and rail transport manufacturer, with headquarters in Toronto and Berlin. It was one of the world's largest companies in the rail vehicle and equipment manufacturing and servicing industry. ...

to maintain the A-series, B-series and Transwa Australind trains for the Public Transport Authority until June 2019 *10-year contract to maintain 300 locomotives for 10 years from February 2015 for

*25-year contract to maintain B sets for

Sydney Trains Sydney Trains is the brand name and operator of Railways in Sydney, suburban and intercity train services in and around Greater Sydney in New South Wales, Australia. The metropolitan part of the network is a hybrid urban rail, urban-suburban r ...

References

{{reflist

External links

Company website
Engineering companies of Australia Locomotive manufacturers of Australia Rolling stock manufacturers of Australia Vehicle manufacturing companies established in 2001 Australian companies established in 2001 Manufacturing companies based in Sydney