Chief Executive Officer of the Australasian Railway Association (ARA), Caroline Wilkie, has welcomed hundreds of delegates and exhibitors to the Gold Coast.
“I would like to thank everyone for joining us at our largest AusRAIL ever,” she said.
“We have changed the format so we have two days of concurrent sessions with over 100 speakers across the days.
“It was wonderful to see so many people at the women in breakfast event this morning.”
Wilkie noted some of the highlights for the ARA this year which included the Harmonisation of Rail Standards Report which was released last month.
The ARA has worked hard throughout 2024 to improve gender diversity in rail. It includes a partnership with Diversity Australia, released a rport, created the Champions of Change Rail Group and the Women in Rail Mentoring Program.
Wilkie spoke about the organisations support for sustainability with its new strategy, The Critical Path to Decarbonise Australia’s Rail Rolling Stock report.
“I was very proud of this report,” Wilkie said.
“We are working with the governments to bring together the state and Commonwealth governments to support the take up of sustainable rollingstock.”
This year was the biggest year of events the ARA has done. It had 9000 attendees at its events which incuded new conferences – Light Rail, Sustainability, New Zealand, and High Speed Rail.
New ARA Chair Lucio Di Bartolomeo who is attending his first AusRAIL said it was an honour to be chosen for this role.
He spoke about his opportunity in his previous role with Minister Jo Haylen
“What Danny and Caroline have done with the ARA is absolutley amazing,” he said.
“We now have a body that can truly represent the best interests of the rail industry. I am seeing passenger services supported by the governments.
“When I look at freight more generally, I am disappointed. There has been more effort in grabbing the bigger slice of a smaller pie instead of growing our market share of freight.”
After an extensive national recruitment process, the ARA announced the endorsment of Lucio Di Bartolomeo as the new chair of the ARA in late October and was sworn in on the 25th of November.
“I look forward to my role here and I am excited for what is ahead,” he said.
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