With over 155 years of experience in rail, Downer is now offering dedicated rail engineering consulting services across the globe.

Downer’s Rail & Transit Systems’ Engineering Consulting Services business aims to revolutionise the transportation industry by providing seamless, efficient, and sustainable solutions tailored to meet the needs of both our customer, as well as yours.

Our integrated approach sets us apart, offering clients a one-stop solution for all their transportation needs.

By combining engineering excellence, operational expertise, data-driven insights, and project management proficiency, we deliver holistic solutions. With experience across design, manufacturing and through life support our team of engineers will benefit your next transportation project.

Our team of over 200 engineers and designers have engineering capability across the following areas.

Including concept designs, maintenance strategies and whole-of life costings.

Capability to perform various levels of feasibility analysis and concept studies which can support business case development for projects. By combining technical and commercial acumen the capabilities in this area include:

  • Power at the rail of 2300 kW in all modes of operation including overhead connection and with energy storage / diesel mode.
  • Full locomotive electric regenerative braking capability.
  • Fully appointed vibration isolated Driver’s Cab with AAR crashworthiness.

Whole life-cycle capability across passenger, freight and light rail.

Capability in all areas of rolling stock engineering and design for heavy rail and light rail across both passenger and freight. Our teams’ skills can be employed across the whole lifecycle of any project:

  • Design—design engineering, design management, CAD, drawings, electrical schematics.
  • Systems engineering—requirements management, Specification development, interface management, design package management, verification management, contract compliance.
  • Specialist engineering—RAM, Safety, HF.
  • Integration of complex systems as the head contractor.
  • Testing and commissioning.
  • Stakeholder engagement—DSAPT.
  • Decarbonisation solutions.
  • Onboard signalling, ETCS and CBTC.
  • Risk assessments.
  • Design safety assurance.
  • Finite Element Analysis.
  • Decommissioning and retirement.

Through Life Support for rolling stock fleets.

With long term Through-Life-Support contracts across flagship projects throughout Australia, this is a core area of expertise for our team with the ability to support your business with:

  • Fleet engineering support (reliability analysis, FMECA).
  • Rollingstock modernisation, overhaul, and repair.
  • Maintenance strategy and optimisation (condition monitoring, maintenance procedures, maintenance management).
  • Obsolescence management.
  • Decommissioning.
  • Configuration management.
  • Technology refresh.

End-to-end project management, delivery and support.

Capability to provide end-to-end solutions from feasibility through to design, manufacturing and maintenance:

  • Production—check sheets, defect/quality appraisals, manufacture, assembly.
  • Concept designs and business cases.
  • Rolling stock procurement for turnkey solutions.
  • Operational readiness.
  • Revenue service operations.

Engineering design and delivery of decarbonisation projects.

Our team is proud to partner with our customers to achieve their Net Zero goals. We have capability across rollingstock design, manufacture and and rail operations for passenger and freight to assist with decarbonisation, with some proven outcomes including:

  • Onboard energy storage.
  • Decarbonisation options and simulations for energy use.
  • Modifications to reduce energy consumption.
  • Energy Saving Certificate projects.

Digital consulting, software and services including maintenance, asset intelligence, sustainability and robotics.

To support our customers, we offer multiple areas of digital and data expertise, including:

  • RTS Digital, our digital consulting, software and services business, leveraging over 15 years of experience in technology innovation. Powered by Downer’s TrainDNA platform, RTS Digital takes a product-based approach. Our offering packages capabilities and tools into modules addressing specific customer needs across Digital Maintenance, Operational and Asset Intelligence, Robotics and Sustainability.
  • xDNA accelerates digital transformation for critical industries like transport, defence, and manufacturing. Our diverse team of experts leverages groundbreaking technologies to create data-driven solutions and integrated work experiences that transform operations and drive substantial client outcomes.
  • Our National Integrated Operations Centre which is armed with Downer’s industry-leading ICT capability and expert knowledge in rail network operations. Our team facilitates maintenance planning, engineering support and data analytics to provide benefits for our customers.
  • Our expert pool of technical SME’s delivering effective identification of failure modes and expedited containment of solution actions for our customers across digital and data for the rail industry.

For more information on Rail & Transit Systems Engineering Consulting Services, download our brochure.