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 and is based in Melbourne, with a staff of 1,200 across Australia and Asia. It operates factories in Broadmeadow (Newcastle, Spotswood and Bassendean. While it used to operate a factory in Taree, the plant was shut down and the equipment sold off.
Founded in Australia in 1899 by Cornish brothers Alfred and Ralph Goninan as an engineering and manufacturing company for the coal industry, A Goninan & Co Limited was incorporated as a public company in 1905. [1]
It entered the rail business in 1917 via Commonwealth Steel Products Company of Waratah, Newcastle, a wheel and axle manufacturer, because those items could no longer be imported from Belgium due to World War I. A Goninan & Co moved to more convenient freehold land at Broadmeadow in 1919 and built a flourishing business in general engineering. [1] It made pitheads, boilers, wagons and a huge, cast 41-ton block for the district's coal trade. [1] In October 1964, A Goninan & Co was purchased by Howard Smith.
In August 1999, A Goninan & Co was sold to United Group and re-branded United Goninan. [2] In 2005, it was renamed United Group Rail, as part of a reorganisation following United Group's purchase of Alstom's Australian subsidiary, Alstom Transport Australia and New Zealand. [3]
While most items were manufactured at Broadmeadow, it did purchase Comeng's Bassendean, Western Australia plant. This plant rebuilt many Pilbara Alco locomotives with General Electric components in the 1990s as well as building 17 Westrail P class and 60 NR class locomotives. [4]
In 1983, a factory was established in Townsville to fulfill a contract for Queensland Railways 2600 class locomotives that required them to be built locally. It later built the 2800 class.
As part of UGL's acquisition of Alstom Australia and New Zealand in 2005, UGL leased Alstom's workshops at Ballarat North from then until 2012. [5] [6]
UGL is a part of Metro Trains Sydney which constructed and now operates the Sydney Metro Northwest [7]
UGL is a member of the RailConnect NSW consortium, a joint venture between UGL, Hyundai Rotem and Mitsubishi Electric, which has designed and will build and maintain more than 500 NSW TrainLink D set train carriages. Delivery commenced in the second half of 2019. Maintenance will be carried out at the Kangy Angy Maintenance Centre. [8]
UGL Rail has been responsible for the maintenance of all of CityRail's EMU fleet at Maintrain, Auburn since March 1994 following the closure of Electric Carriage Workshops and Eveleigh Carriage Workshops. [9] In the early 1990s, A Goninan & Co refurbished S and V sets at Broadmeadow as part of the Citydecker program.
Since December 2011, UGL Unipart, a 70:30 joint venture with Unipart, has maintained most of CityRail and later Sydney Trains and NSW TrainLink's EMU fleet. [10]
Maintenance on H sets was initially carried out at Eveleigh but from 2018 is done at other depots with major work done at Maintrain, Auburn[ clarification needed ] as for other types of Sydney Trains sets. The contract to maintain 1,050 Sydney Trains carriages including H and V sets was extended for two years from 1 July 2019. [11]
UGL Rail has been responsible for maintaining the NSW Country Regional Network since January 2022. [12] [13] It took over from John Holland Group.
UGL Rail owns 20% of Metro Trains Melbourne, the consortium that has run Melbourne's metro railway network since November 2009. [14]
In July 2020, UGL Rail became responsible for maintenance of the Glenelg tram line in Adelaide as part of the Torrens Connect consortium. [15] [16]
A multiple-unit train or simply multiple unit (MU) is a self-propelled train composed of one or more carriages joined, which when coupled to another multiple unit can be controlled by a single driver, with multiple-unit train control.
The T sets, also referred to as the Tangara trains, are a class of electric multiple units that currently operate on the Sydney Trains network. Built by A Goninan & Co, the sets entered service between 1988 and 1995, initially under the State Rail Authority and later on CityRail. The T sets were built as "third-generation" trains for Sydney's rail fleet, coinciding with the final withdrawals of the "Red Rattler" sets from service in the late 1980s and early 1990s. The Tangaras were initially built as two classes; the long-distance G sets and the suburban T sets, before being merged after successive refurbishments.
Metro-Cammell, formally the Metropolitan Cammell Carriage and Wagon Company (MCCW), was an English manufacturer of railway carriages, locomotives and railway wagons, based in Saltley, and subsequently Washwood Heath, in Birmingham. The company was purchased by GEC Alsthom in May 1989; the Washwood Heath factory closed in 2005 and was demolished in early 2019.
Hyundai Rotem Co. 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 reflect the parent company. It is also called Hyundai Railroad Technology Systems.
The Prospector is a rural passenger train service in Western Australia operated by Transwa between East Perth and Kalgoorlie. On this service, two trains depart almost at the same time in opposite directions. One travels between East Perth and Kalgoorlie, the other between Kalgoorlie and East Perth with crew changeover occurring in Merredin. The original vehicles ordered in 1968 for trains providing this service were replaced in 2004 with vehicles capable of reducing journey times to 6 hours 45 minutes.
The Australind is a currently suspended rural passenger train service in Western Australia operated by Transwa on the South Western Railway between Perth and Bunbury.
The NSW Rail Museum is the main railway museum in New South Wales, Australia. A division of Transport Heritage NSW, it was previously known as the New South Wales Rail Transport Museum (NSWRTM), Rail Heritage Centre and Trainworks.
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.
CRRC Changchun Railway Vehicles Co., Ltd. is a Chinese rolling stock manufacturer and a division of the CRRC. While the CRV emerged in 2002, the company's roots date back to the establishment of the Changchun Car Company in 1954. The company became a division of CNR Corporation before its merger with CSR to form the present CRRC. It has produced a variety of rolling stock for customers in China and abroad, including locomotives, passenger cars, multiple units, rapid transit and light rail vehicles. It has established technology transfer partnerships with several foreign railcar manufacturers, including Bombardier Transportation, Alstom, and Siemens Mobility.
The ADL class is a class of diesel multiple units that were last operated by Auckland One Rail on the suburban rail network in Auckland, New Zealand. Originally built in the early 1980s by A Goninan & Co for Westrail of Western Australia, they were sold in 1993 by Westrail's successor, Transperth, to New Zealand Rail. The units are currently owned by Auckland Transport, and were withdrawn from service in August 2022 and transported to Glenbrook Vintage Railway and Pukeoware depot for storage.
The NR class are Australian diesel-electric locomotives built by A Goninan & Co for National Rail between 1996 and 1998. They are currently operated by Pacific National. The C44aci model locomotives built by UGL Rail at Broadmeadow adopted the design from the NR Class.
Commonwealth Engineering was an Australian engineering company that designed and built railway locomotives, rolling stock and trams.
The 43 class were a class of Australian diesel locomotives built by A Goninan & Co, Broadmeadow for the New South Wales Department of Railways in 1956–1957.
The GE Transportation C44aci is a model of Australian heavy duty diesel electric locomotive designed by UGL Rail and built at the Broadmeadow factory. It is operated by a number of rail freight operators. The design is based on the National Rail NR class but with some modifications and upgraded features.
Chullora Railway Workshops were a major workshops for the repair and heavy maintenance of locomotives and rolling stock for the New South Wales Government Railways.
The NSW TrainLink fleet of trains serves the areas outside Sydney, Australia, mainly interurban and interstate lines. The NSW TrainLink fleet consists of both diesel and electric traction, with the oldest of the fleet being the V sets and the youngest being the H sets.
The 2800 class are a class of diesel locomotive built by A Goninan & Co, Townsville for Queensland Rail between 1995 and 1998.
The Transperth C-series trains are a class of electric multiple units part of Alstom's X'Trapolis family of trains for Transperth that are being delivered as part of Metronet. The trains are operating on Perth's suburban rail network and entered service on the Yanchep and Mandurah lines on 8 April 2024.
The Electric Carriage Workshops, often abbreviated to Elcar, was the principal maintenance centre for the New South Wales Government Railways electric multiple unit fleet. Construction commenced in 1922, coinciding with the electrification of the Sydney network. It was located within the Chullora Railway Workshops complex on a 106-hectare (260-acre) site. It was not electrified until 1939 requiring carriages to be hauled to and from the works by steam locomotive.
The Sydney Metro Metropolis Stock is a class of electric multiple units that operate on the Sydney Metro network. Built by Alstom as part of their Metropolis family, the trains are the first fully automated passenger rolling stock in Australia as well as the first single-deck electric trainsets to operate in Sydney since their withdrawal from the suburban rail network in the 1990s.
