Rail Corporation New South Wales (RailCorp) was an agency of the

Government of New South Wales The Government of New South Wales, also known as the NSW Government, is the executive state government of New South Wales, Australia. The government comprises 11 portfolios, led by a ministerial department and supported by several agencies. Th ...

, Australia, established in 2004 pursuant to the ''Transport Administration Act 1988''. It was a division under the control of

Transport for NSW Transport for NSW (TfNSW) is a Government of New South Wales, New South Wales Government transport services and roads List of New South Wales government agencies, agency established on 1 November 2011. The agency is a different entity to the NSW ...

, following the latter's establishment in 2011. On 20 June 2020, RailCorp was disbanded with its functions taken over by Transport Asset Holding Entity. RailCorp held rail property assets, rolling stock and rail infrastructure in the Sydney metropolitan area and limited country locations in the state, and made those assets available to Sydney Trains and

NSW TrainLink NSW TrainLink is a regional train and coach operator in Australia, providing services throughout New South Wales and into Australian Capital Territory, the Australian Capital Territory, Victoria (state), Victoria, Queensland and South Australia ...

for their operations. It also managed the government's contract with the Airport Link Company. Until 2013, RailCorp also operated passenger train services 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 ...

under the brand CityRail, and maintained rail infrastructure within the New South Wales Metropolitan Rail Area. From July 2013, operation and maintenance functions were transferred to the newly created Sydney Trains and

agencies, which were also subsidiaries of RailCorp, leaving RailCorp as an asset owner. In July 2017, Sydney Trains and NSW Trains ceased to be subsidiaries of RailCorp and became standalone independent agencies.

History

In January 2004, after much criticism, and public perceptions of blame-shifting between units of the State Rail Authority relating to operational failings, RailCorp was formed, taking over the passenger train operations of CityRail and

CountryLink CountryLink was a passenger rail and road service brand that operated in regional areas of New South Wales, and to and from Canberra, Brisbane and Melbourne. Originally created as a business unit (or sub-brand) of the State Rail Authority of Ne ...

, and assuming responsibility for maintaining the greater metropolitan network from the Rail Infrastructure Corporation. It was established as a non dividend paying statutory corporation. Initially governed by a Board of Directors as a state-owned corporation, changes to the resulted in RailCorp ceasing to be a state-owned corporation and becoming a NSW

statutory authority A statutory body or statutory authority is a body set up by law (statute) that is authorised to implement certain legislation on behalf of the relevant country or state, sometimes by being empowered or delegated to set rules (for example reg ...

on 1 January 2009. Further changes to the resulted in abolition of the Board effective 1 July 2010 and the repositioning of RailCorp as an agency of Transport NSW. This was followed by further structural changes under the Transport Legislation Amendment Act 2011, which saw Transport NSW replaced by

, which was established as a controlled entity of the Department of Transport, with Rail Corporation New South Wales a controlled entity of Transport for NSW. RailCorp reported to the Minister for Transport.

Restructure

In May 2012, the Minister for Transport announced a restructure of RailCorp from July 2013 that would: *establish Sydney Trains to operate services in the Sydney Metropolitan area bounded by Berowra, Richmond, Emu Plains, Macarthur and

Waterfall A waterfall is any point in a river or stream where water flows over a vertical drop or a series of steep drops. Waterfalls also occur where meltwater drops over the edge of a tabular iceberg or ice shelf. Waterfalls can be formed in seve ...

*establish

to operate all other passenger services including those of

*transfer capital projects and planning functions to

*establish Transport Cleaning Services, a specialist division responsible for train cleaning *establish a customer service division *reduce RailCorp's function to asset owner *offer voluntary redundancies to 750 management and support staff The restructure resulted in Sydney Trains and

, which were subsidiaries of RailCorp, operating railway passenger services in New South Wales under the Sydney Trains and NSW TrainLink brands. While being subsidiaries of Railcorp, Sydney Trains and NSW Trains were not controlled entities of RailCorp, but were instead controlled by

.Railcorp Annual Report 2013–14
page 15 Transport for NSW CityRail and

were also abolished. In July 2017, Sydney Trains and NSW Trains ceased to be subsidiaries of RailCorp and became standalone and independent agencies of

.Transport for NSW Annual Report 2017–18 page 49

Cessation

RailCorp was disbanded and succeeded by the Transport Asset Holding Entity (TAHE) on 1 July 2020. The new entity continued to own assets on behalf of Transport for NSW. The Residual Transport Corporation (RTC), which was formed in July 2017, would then own assets not suitable for TAHE ownership.

Corruption investigation

In 2007 and 2008, RailCorp was investigated by the Independent Commission Against Corruption (ICAC). In a series of seven reports released during 2008,ICAC reported that more than $21 million in improper contracts and deals through the procurement of services in just three years. In June 2009, RailCorp terminated the contract of Vicki Coleman, its chief information officer, and it was claimed that she was at the centre of claims of dishonesty and corruption. ICAC recommended charges against 33 people; yet by April 2012, only eight people had faced the courts. Those that received custodial sentences included Allan Michael Blackstock (4½ years) and Renea Hughes (3½ years). Youssef (Joe) Madrajat was directed to undertake

community service Community service is unpaid work performed by a person or group of people for the benefit and betterment of their community contributing to a noble cause. In many cases, people doing community service are compensated in other ways, such as gettin ...

. Further charges are expected to be laid on others, and several are still waiting for the outcome of criminal proceedings.

Emergency response

RailCorp maintained a statewide Emergency Response Unit. The function of this unit was to attend incidents, such as derailments. Formerly known as the State Rail Fire Service, the unit was based in Sydney and responded to emergency incidents involving the rail network including automatic fire alarms within the underground and nearby stations. The unit also undertook cross-training with Fire & Rescue New South Wales. The unit was equipped with a number of vehicles including Mercedes and International pumpers and a specialist rapid rail response unit which was able to travel via the road and rail network for rescue operations. The unit's motto was ''Semper Paratus'', translated from

Latin Latin ( or ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic languages, Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally spoken by the Latins (Italic tribe), Latins in Latium (now known as Lazio), the lower Tiber area aroun ...

to mean Always Ready.

References

External links

Official website
{{Authority control Government agencies of New South Wales Railway companies established in 2004 Railway companies disestablished in 2020 Railway companies of New South Wales Railway infrastructure companies of Australia 2004 establishments in Australia 2020 disestablishments in Australia